We've suddenly had the A/C on our Expedition start blowing not much better than tepid air and that's only on the highway. In town the air is almost warm. I've looked at the compressor under the hood and it's not short-cycling at all. What I think may have happened is my wife hit the warm air adjustment button on the dash instead of the cold temp adjustment button one dark morning going to work and ran the hot air damper all the way up before she knew what she was doing. She said she thought she heard something rolling around inside the dash but when I tried it and ran the temperature up all the way you could hear what sounded like the air damper motor gears slipping when the indicated temperature got to the highest extreme. I demonstrated it to her and she said that's what she heard.


Can the damper motor or arm become hyper extended and get the damper stuck in a partially open position? I have the Ford shop manuals coming and hope they'll be in soon. Will I need the special tools to get the pieces and parts of the dash out to get to the dampers and their motors to fix this if it's not a Freon issue?


Thanks in advance!