Unable to regulate temp in the cabin via heat/cold control

[davem]

My 2001 XLT V-6 sits outside every day and is exposed to harsh MN weather constantly.

After sitting in an airport parking lot for a week, which I believe included a couple inches of wet, slushy snow, I was not able to regulate the cabin temperature - it always remained hot inside, even when I rotated the temp control to the coldest setting. (BTW, it was about 25 F outside at the time)

About 45 minutes into the drive home from the airport, I was able to get a cooler temp in the cabin and its been fine ever since.

Did the slush/snow block the outside air intake ........... and eventually melted to the point where I could get cool air flowing in ? Seems to make sense, but surprised I had never experienced this before in 13 years of ownership.

Maybe some other cause ? Anyone else had this happen ?

 

[koda2000]

the TEMP adjustment on the manual control system (and the EATC system) regulates a door that increases/decreases the about of air that passes through the heater core. i suspect the ice/snow blocked the operation of the door until it melted. unless you're on the recirculate setting this could happen. recirculate (usually only an A/C setting, sometimes called A/C MAX) closes the path of outside air into the heater box, so nothing would be able to get into it.

 

[davem]

That must have been it ........... just seems odd it never happened before.

Of course, its driven daily (except for this time it sat at the airport for a week), so maybe the fact it was not driven contributed.