Outside cold air thru glove compartment

[mercmount04]

First let me tell you all about my fix for the door that diverts air to the defrosters. After removing the glove box entirely, I saw that ear that the actuator connected to was broken off. With a, rather large 18 volt cordless drill, I drilled a 1/8'' pilot hole in the center of where the broken knob/ear was. I then ran a 1/4'' long sheet metal screw into the pilot hole, backed it out and positioned the hole in the rod over my drilled hole and ran the screw back in just snug enough to stay secure but loose enough for the rod to be able to pivot. When drilling be patient, use a sharp bit and let the bit do the drilling as the plastic is quite hard and brittle.

Two months later my fresh air door broke. Ford has some serious issues with their climate control systems and needs to step up and take responsibility for these and other shortfalls or they will loose their loyal base to the imports. OK, the fix, I removed the glove box door completely. It's cold now here in Western, NY and while contorting myself to access the fresh air door, I pinched my sciatic nerve. Two days later I returned to the task and decided, after reading this thread, that with the weather like it is, I would wait to replace the door/box assembly till spring. For now, I cut 4"-5" strips of duct tape and fed them up in overlapping vertical rows completely sealing off the grate that draws in the cabin air when the system in recirculate mode. I then secured them with 2 longer horizontal strips of duct tape, wrapping them around the sides of the box an inch or two.

No more cold air infusion! Heater is hot and functions well. No fogging because outside air is allowed to enter cabin. The only thing you may lose is MAX AC but where I live, normal AC is more than sufficient.

Maybe I'll replace the door this spring... maybe I won't.

Hope this helps

 

[chadical]

Cold air, and All heat

Just drove over to Lexington KY over Christmas and the wife said " I am freezing over here there is cold air pouring in" I was driving and it was a crisp 90 degrees on the drivers side. So it looks as if I also have this problem and just found out since it was the first long trip in cold weather we have taken. BTW it was 5 degrees out. LOL she was covered up with a blanket freezing and I was sweating it was so hot. My blend door is broken as I have either ALL hot or all Max A/C and no in between but I have yet to install my Rockauto replacement door yet.

I have that same exact problem! Have you figured anything out on how to fix this? My wife is tired of freezing, and I'm tired of sweating.

I have All Hot with no adjustments. My Max A/C doesn't work too well, I think the clutch on the pump is shot. I unplugged my A/C pump because it would seize my engine if I clicked on A/C. And I have cold air pouring in on the passengers feet.:thumbdwn:

 

[jakedrew]

I hope this isnt a problem on my 04. i remember it being cold when i rode in it sitting on the passenger side. I dont ride in it much.

I will have to take a spin and see.

I dont remember a cold air "rushing in" though.

we will see.... ahhhhhh

 

[LowSpeedChase]

I've got the same problems on my 05 XLT. Last week i replaced the blend door actuator which was a small task and now i find out that i think i need to replace the blend door as well? I don't have anything but air coming out the defrost on all different settings and a little out of the floor. Can't get anything to come out the dash vents.

I also have the other half complaining about the cold air coming in behind the glove box and looks like I'll be replacing the fresh air door as well. As soon as I can figure out the parts I need.....The stealership told me the blend door assy was 400 bucks today.

 

[TonyinFL]

Cheap Fix

Guys,

I just posted a new thread with a cheap fix I came up with to fix the broken/fallen door deal. Ended up costing me around $3.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274510

Hope this helps.
Tony

 

[gshep12]

Been there! There's a black insulated pad that falls down inside the inner part of both fenders allowing the air from outside to be introduced through glove box or under dash on driver side. If you open doors and try to peep into the inside of fender you may see that the insulator is no longer lined up with the entire fender, more than likely it is sitting at the bottom of the fender. I know a Mister Dent guy, he used his nifty tools to go into my fender wells to reposition this insulator. Good luck getting to it, I hope this helped.

 

[Ford E]

OK, this is my first post to the forum, but first of all let me say that the information and links that I found about the "fallen door" has been a lifesaver. Just today I dropped the dash in my 2005 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer edition and began the task of replacing the "fallen door". The DenLors tools link that I found earlier in this post was excellent and right on target. I did waver from it just a bit and thought that I would share with you guys in hopes that it would help someone else. I just could not stand the thoughts of ripping the box out without removing the two screws in the back, I was afraid that I would damage the blower fan motor housing or something else. I came up with the following solution. Instead of breaking the housing loose, I cut out the grates on the front and back and then passed a 1/4" rachet and two short extensions through the housing to reach the screws on the back side, without having to break anything loose. Here are some pics. I am not sure if I will try to reinstall the screws or not, I will let you guys know when I get it finished. Again, thanks to all who posted information, it really helped!

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

I had the same problem with cold air coming in under the passenger glove box and I was able to fix the problem.

Here is your problem: located under the dash, right behind the glove box is where the out side air enters into the HVAC system under the dash. Right behind the glove box is a air recirculation door that switches back and forth to either bring in outside air or recirculate inside air. When you recirculate the inside air, the door suppose to completely block off the outside air coming in, this door can get jammed in the middle which allows outside air to come in through the recirculation suction vent.

You will most likely have to pull out the front dash to get to this door, I had to. I was able to do all the work myself.

 

[xplorercrazy]

Hmm wonder if my 02 will have this problem soon. Of all the dashes I have ever pulled/installed I have yet to do one on an Explorer. Should be fun since I enjoy those jobs as they pay well. All these tips will come in handy should I ever have to do one.

 

[jakedrew]

Anyone have a "HOW TO" on this repair? I used a good step by step when I did the blend door actuator. Would be nice to see one for this.

(not that I need it /knock on wood. but for other people)

 

[HVAC Pro]

Did not have this problem on my 02. The 05 is freezing my wife out of the front seat. Hope some one finds a solution and soon.

 

[Hawkeye61]

I just did this fix on my ‘02 Explorer XLT without draining any coolant or refrigerant. Took me about 5 hours because I was freezing and kept running in to get warm. Before doing the fix I also modified the new part going in so it would not break again. Part number I used was 1L2Z-18B259-AC.

Ford did a poor design on the fresh air inlet in these explorers. Even the new unit still has the problem. The problem with the fresh air inlet door is a combination of a weak door arm and the vacuum actuator that moves the door. With vacuum applied the stem of the actuator only needs to move about 1 ¼ inches to move the fresh air inlet door from the open to closed (recirculation) position. However the design of the actuator allows the stem of the actuator to move nearly 2 inches with nothing attached to it. Therefore once the actuator as moved the 1 ¼ inches to close the door, the actuator is still pulling (trying to move another ¾ inch) on the plastic arm of the door and over time breaks the arm off.
See pic at http://postimage.org/image/10gqisbr8/

I modified the stem of the new actuator by making a ‘stop’ for it out of a 3/16 inch screw. Now the door closes at the same time the stop makes contact. This way the plastic arm doesn’t have any excessive force being pulled on it to break it off. I also added a large washer to the top of the actuator for the stop screw to hit against.
See pics at http://postimage.org/image/1g2aswe84/

Now with the mod done to the actuator it was time to take on getting the old unit out of the vehicle.

1.) remove the console. (helpful info here http://bhcomputersupport.com/Documents/4.PDF)

2) disconnect the battery and swing the dash back. Follow the instruction here for swinging the dash out.: http://www.denlorstools.com/autoblog/2008/08/2003-ford-explorer-ac-not-cold-enough/

There are also two brackets you will need to take loose from the bottom of the dash that connect to the floorboard that were not mentioned in the article above.

3) Remove the brace from the fresh air box and then remove the fresh air inlet box. This can be done a couple of ways. I removed the front screw and then used a large screwdriver and broke mine loose from the rear screws. But you can also cut the mesh grill out of the front and back of the box to gain access to the rear screws.

4) make sure the blower fan is clear of any debris.

5) Time to place in the new box. http://postimage.org/image/10s7z537o/
I did not want to use a gluing method to replace the box. So I took the new box apart and mounted only the bottom portion of the box to the top of the blower motor housing. This way I was able to get to all three screws and mounted the bottom firmly in place. http://postimage.org/image/10rktm8as/
I then modified the top portion of the box by removing the tabs where the rear screws would go through. http://postimage.org/image/10nhmscck/
Placed the top portion of the box onto the bottom and screwed them back together with the six screws.

6) Replaced the brace.

7) reinstall the dash

8) reinstall the console

Note: After having the battery disconnected for a period of time you may notice the gauges all peg when you first start the vehicle. This is normal after the computer as drained of power. Just start the vehicle and after a second or two the gauges should return to normal.

 

[rrgone]

Sweet post there Hawkeye.
Love your stop mechanism.

Ya gotta promise to leave those pictures up forever though!

Welcome to Explorerforum too BTW.

 

[fordman44]

I just did this repair on my 2003 XLT. My wife has been telling me how cold it was on the passenger side for a couple of years now, but I just couldn't believe a vehicle with less than 60k miles on it could have such a problem. Oh well. It took a little over 3 hours to do the job with my 12 year old son helping me. I think he learned a little bit about shade tree mechanics and had some fun, too. It was a good father-son bonding project. I recommend following the excellent write-up that Hawkeye did including the acuator modification(you don't want to have to do this job again next winter!). If you do, you will have no trouble at all. The worst part it getting the old box out. Those back two bolts are tough, I had trouble with the break it out method used on the Denslor website, and when I cut out the two grates I still couldn't reach the bolts, so I kept cutting the old box until I could access them. Hawkeye's tip to install the new box in two pieces is ingenious and works great.

 

[ctoppir]

Hawkeye61,

Well done. I just bought a used 04' and found the damper door problem. After reading thru many posts, I found yours. It details, with pictures and links, how to get this fixed the right way. I appreciate you taking the extra time to post this after you resolved it for yourself. I particularly like the actuator stop. The pneumatic torque may not be much, but over time(with the temp changes) the plastic is going to give. Just waiting for spring.

Just joined the forum today, I will pay it forward. Thanks, RT

 

[ctoppir]

Didn't want to wait. Went out in the cold and fixed it. On mine. the lever arm for the damper door just came out, so the damper door fell to the bottom. Following your instructions, I was able to put it all back together. I had to make a little bracket to keep the lever arm in place but it works great now.
There are two little plastic barbs on the end of the damper door lever arm that are supposed to snap into the damper door when assembled. One of the barbs had broken off so it couldn't hold together.
Thanks agian for your instructions. RT

 

[Hawkeye61]

Didn't want to wait. Went out in the cold and fixed it. On mine. the lever arm for the damper door just came out, so the damper door fell to the bottom. Following your instructions, I was able to put it all back together. I had to make a little bracket to keep the lever arm in place but it works great now.
There are two little plastic barbs on the end of the damper door lever arm that are supposed to snap into the damper door when assembled. One of the barbs had broken off so it couldn't hold together.
Thanks agian for your instructions. RT

I'm glad to have helped. Hopefully it will help others as well.

 

[angler3]

this forum has saved me a dozen times. I now have the cold air entering the glove box problem. ( actually for some time ) I will be attempting to repair it soon. My co-pilot has reminded me how cold it was last winter in the hudson valley. She also said the basement gets pretty cold too. ( so i bought a pellet stove just in case!) Also, the actuator is clicking. But i can live with that. Ill attempt that repair next spring.