Ha, 3 months left on warranty, need to know:

My '01 E350 15-pass. van climate control in the front of the van works like I'd expect in any vehicle, mixture control (hot/cold) keeps air at the temp I want. The rear vents, however, work like this:

When the selector switch on the dash is on "floor", I get max heat to the rear floor vents. The mixture control on the dash doesn't change the rear floor temp: full heat.

On any other setting except A/C (vent, etc.) I get air out the ceiling vents with outside air temp. Again, mixture control will change dash vents but not ceiling vent air temp.

So: is the mixture control _designed_ to only affect the front vents, and not the rear of the van, or is my rear climate control broken?

My lincoln dealer, from whom I purchased the van, says this behavior is per factory, but maybe he doesn't feel like taking it apart and fixing it.

Can anyone with a similar van confirm this is how it works?

 

Just to clarify, the dial that sets hot/cold only works for the front vents, never the rear, which either gives me hot (floor), ambient outside from the ceiling vents, or A/C from the ceiling when A/C is on. No other choices.

Thanks if you can help clarify how this is supposed to work!

 

I have a 1997 E-350 and only get hot air out of the rear floor vent too. The temperature control only works for the front heater.

I was thinking something must be broken. Or did Ford really design it this way? The only way to conrol the rear heat now is too turn it off and on off and on....

 

I've done some more reading, and it looks like we're stuck with a rear heating/cooling system that was just designed poorly - I guess the "Better idea" was somewhere else that day :-)

I'm gonna figure out how to either put an inline valve in the heater hose back to that rear heater so I can turn off the heat or maybe moderate it, or figure out how to get just interior air recirculated via the top vents.

Anyone know where the top vent air comes from originally and how it's channeled back to the ceiling vents?