I have tried searching and I think I've found the root cause of my issue. First though, the issue is that my heat works on the driver's side, the back, and the center console. The far right face and footwell vents will not blow hot air. Changing the temperature on the dial does cause the temperature coming out of the functional vents to change. i.e. two vents stuck on one temperature, the rest work fine.


I found a thread that says the issue is the blend door, but in my mind, a broken blend door would cause all vents in the vehicle to blow the same temperature. Can anybody confirm that a bad blend door would cause some of the vents to be stuck on a certain temperature while others change from hot to cold as they should?


Any help is greatly appreciated. My wife doesn't like taking the Explorer any more since she usually rides shotgun and she is tired of freezing her feet. Thanks!

 

Assuming this is on your 2004 Explorer from your signature, does your Explorer have the electronic dual zone climate control (buttons and display) or the manual (*****) climate control?

Assuming it's electronic, the issue could be one of the temperature sensors or the blend door motor servo (pretty common issue on several FoMoCo models).

-Rod

 

on my 2002 EXO I had the fresh air vent door arm break. It is behind the glove box on the passenger side. Dumped cool air onto the floor all the time. I had to remove the cardboard glove box for access....... took a 1/4 inch dowel about 6 inches long with a hole in the end... poked it thru the vent screen and pushed the door fully closed, then tie wire thru the stick hole to hold it.... still that way 8 years later.

 

my test was to set the controls at DEFROST .......... and still had cold air on the floor when driving.

 

shorod - It is the manual ****, and it is not dual zone. Am I correct in thinking there is only one blend door for the whole system? If so, that is what I don't understand - that two vents blow cold and the rest blow hot. To reiterate, the two vents that are not working are a foot vent and a console vent, both on the far right.


During my google search, I found that it is common for Dodge Ram heater cores to partially clog and cause symptoms similar to mine. Obviously a dodge is completely different but I wonder if something similar could happen to a Ford?


Steve, thanks for the insight. I am guessing by your avatar you are a fellow farmer. While I appreciate creative solutions and have found myself in the field with nothing but zip-ties to fix my tractor, I'd prefer to fix the root cause of my problem and have a fully functioning system. I may try your fix for now, but would like something that leaves all vents functional.

 

Have you pulled the cover to see if the vent plenum is still in place?

 

DRZoom... im not trying to short cut the system. Your question was about the BLEND DOOR... I just want to post that it is possibly the FRESH AIR DOOR that is the problem. Look at the drawing below. The door is open unless you go to MAX AIR and then it is closed for recirc inside the cab. Closing it completely 100% of the time is not a big deal.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...-please-2.html

 

Thanks for the picture. I haven't pulled anything apart to look at the issue yet, just wanted to get some input before I start tearing into it without a plan. I'll try closing the fresh air door. Could you please explain how the fresh air door being open would give me cold air out of two vents but hot air out of the rest? Are there multiple doors that feed different vents? The thing that I'm stuck on is that it's not all floor vents or all defrost vents (that would make sense to me). It's one floor vent and one console vent.


Poking around behind the dash will definitely help me figure things out, so I'll take a look and see if anything obvious stands out. Again, thanks for all the feedback.

 

the blower gets air from two sources, outside fresh air, or inside recirc air.. The "fresh air door" in the drawing above shows that.. The door is 100% open or 100% closed... if the controller is broken, then picture the door being 50% open.......... cold air from outside dumps thru the recirc door onto the passengers foot... some of the air is also sucked thru the blower and then heater and put to the drivers side floor vent and defrost....... if the cold air is ONLY on the pasengers feet, that is a good bet.

 

picture the outside air going from #8 to #10 positions ( passengers feet) --- if door #7 is broke / not closed