My AC/Heater is stuck on heat only except when in MAX AC. My understanding, after $70 diagnosis at dealer, is that the bend door actuator is broken and stuck in the heat position. They say the heater box must be replaced at $977. An independent shop said only the actuator needs to be replaced - much cheaper since dash doesn't have to be removed. Any idea who is right? Anyone know if Ford is looking at a potential recall? Thanks in adv. for help!

 

I've never heard of replacing an entire heater box due to actuator problems. These are generally small vacuum motors that are easily replaced at minimal cost. Sources are aftermarket suppliers as well as salvage yards. You could just as easily have a loose vacuum line that would cause this. Another common problem is loose coins, pencils, etc that fall down behind the defroster vents and wind up jamming the mechanism for the blend door. Just my 0.02 worth.

 

Thanks. I'll look into these options.

 

I had the very same problem 1 month ago. I took my 1997 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer to the dealer for a diagnosis ($60.00). They told me that the Bend Door actuator was stuck in the close position which would not allow heat to escape. They wanted $1010.00 to fix. I said
"no thanks".I then took it to a recomended mechanic who replaced the entire heat box unit. He told me that it would be cheaper to replace the entire unit rather than just the bend door itself. He charged $720.00. It works good but I still don't get the right tempurature all the time. If I have it set to 82 degrees, it will heat the truck up for a little while then the air turns cold. I then have to turn the temp. to 90 degrees to get heat out. I wish I had the same heat as my Ranger, that works awsome.
A freind of mine has a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the electronic heating system and it works great. I still like Ford though!


Good Luck!

 

Hi, as far as I know Ford is not thinking about a recall for the blend door breaking on the Explorers. Being that I am a Ford tech an a dealer. I have seen this concern. And I can see why the cost seems high. The last one I put in was a complete box. The blend door does not come seperately. So depending on where you live and the labor rates there has to do alot of what the final cost is.

 

I have the same heater problem. Heat is on constantly if the temp control system is on. Max AC is just overpowering the heat that is always on since the mixer door is not closing. Same diagnosis. The explanation I got was that the heat mixer box / plenum chamber is cracked and this causes the blend door actuator to jam and break or get bent. It is a motor driven door that rotates open and closed. I am trying to get Ford to cover it since it sounds like a common, and expensive repair. I was quoted $1500 (12.5 hrs labor to remove the dash to get to the stupid thing!) I am going to have to wait to see if Ford will fess up to the design problem. I was also notified that my driver side exhaust manifold is cracked/leaking and my EGR tube is also cracked. (also common) It is that flexible metal tube that is vertically attached to the passenger side exhaust manifold. Might want to check yours since it sounds like it is common. If they don't fix it, I will just have to drive around telling everyone about my crappy broken Ford AC system.
Good luck.
KV

 

I also have a '97 Ford Explorer XLT with a heater that won't turn off. Unfortunately, my A/C isn't strong enough to overpower the heat, so unless I come up with a fix, it's going to be a warm summer. I don't have $1k to drop on a dealer repair, so I've come up with another idea: simply disconnect the heater core from the cooling system during the summer and reconnect it in the winter. Ideally, I'd like to install a valve in the hose connecting to the heater core, but I don't know if they exist for this kind of application - so, I plan on simply plugging the end of the hose.

My question: will this adversely effect the cooling system? Will the blocked hose cause the motor to overheat?

thanks!

 

Hey I have this problem on my AC unit... (eddie Bauer 1995 Atomatic climate control)

When I press the Max~AC button (and after 5 seconds of no air at all) I start to get cold air (display at 60 deg) but when I want less cold air I press the red button on the display and the degrees increase (65-66-67-68 and so on) but I get no difference on the actual temperature for the air that's coming out of the vents. Still dead cold. I only get hot air when the display reaches 90 degrees and its too hot now. in short, I get no cold-hot mixture... 85 on the display is the same as 60.

Now, what am I doing wrong? Should I press the "Automatic" button instead of the Max AC? if this is so, why while in Max AC I am allowed to increase the temp. Or do I suffer from the ol' actuator problem... Please help. Totally newbie here!

 

When setting the heater to auto the temp will keep the cabin at the tempurature determened by you. When auto is off the air should blow out at the temp you desire and stay the same temp know matter how warm the cabin gets. Understand the difference?

The automatic climate control really is a bad set up that Ford can not get a grasp on. I can never get this damb thing to ever put out the temp of air that I want. Lets say that I have the temp set at 72 degrees, it will blow out warm air for a short while then change to cold air(even when not on auto). My blend went out and cost 750 bucks,My explorer only has 42,000 miles on it, that's crap! Ford should take a lesson from Jeeps automatic climate control setup, my friend has a 97 Jeep Grand cheroke, They have a choice set up and it works awsome.

I have had more problems and dumped more cash in my explorer than my 90 Ranger with 90k on it. My explorer is 97 Eddie Bauer with the 5.0 V-8 and the motor will probably last forever, It's the other stuff that will nichel and dime you to death. I went to recline my seat last month and the reclining lever busted off, the piece that broke is metal,to replace the lever requires the metal bar going up the side of the seat to be replaced, taking the whole seat apart to replace one small part, cmon now!

Fords quality is taking a nose dive. I love Ford but I will not be buying a new one anytime soon or until they start backing up there quality more(better parts and longer a warrenty).

Discrunted Explorer owner.

 

I have the exact same problem woth my 97 explorer with the actuator door being stuck in the cold position, not being able to get any heat and I was told that I have to have the entire heater box replaced because of a small plastic blend door! I also have the problem with the seat recliner handle breaking off! As for the heat, it's getting cold out and the heat is a necessity here in Wisconsin but because it will cost $582 to repair, which I don't have at this time, I'm going to wind up freezing my butt off this year because ford has built these explorers in order to continue collecting money for them even after you've paid all this money to purchase the vehicle! What is with Ford? They make this heater box thing so that the only way to repair it is to remove the entire dash board. Ford needs to put in a recall on this heater thing if it values their customers. I've heard so many people talk about having the exact same problem with this heater box and the actuator door and it is ridiculous. I'm going to make it my duty to inform people about this apparently common problem with Ford. I think I'll start with letting the local news aware of this problem and see where it goes from there. This is just shabby workmanship with Ford. Now I see why they're known as Found On the Road Dead!!!

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 30-Oct-02 AT 00:45 AM (EST)]I think I posted this in another section several months ago, but I had the same problem with my Motorhome based on a Ford 350 Chassis. In my case I did not have to take the dash out, but did have to remove the blend door motor and the heater box cover to get to the blend door. It was labor intensive and several of the about 10 screws were almost impossible to get to. I finally managed. What happend in my case was, the temp control **** on the dash controls an electric motore that fits thru a hole in the heater housing and mates with the blend door. The blend door is plastic and the female molded portion of the door that accepts the motor shaft splits and the motor is able to turn freely without engaging the door. I collected all the pieces of the broken door and epoxied them back together. Then I drilled several small holes in the blend door and wraped stainless steel safety wire thru the holes and around the area female molded portion of the blend door and epoxied over all that. It is much stronger than before and works perfectly. You might want to give that a try. I was unable to buy the blend door separetly and was told by several dealers I had to buy the entire heater assembly. Total cost of repair $3.00. I was quoted several hundred dollars by the dealership. Good luck. I had the dealer print me out the page from the parts catalog to give me an idea of what I was looking for.

 

 

I have 97 ford explorer which came from new with a lot of defective issues, too much for describing.
Now a have a Bend Door Actuator problem stuck in a cold position and now is winter my butt is freezing.
Please there is someone with ideas or intructions on how to do it yourself because I read in forum that ford dealer quotes around $1,000 to fix this problem.
After all this, this will be the last ford that I buy.

Need help!!! manueljijon@hotmail.com

 

Hello manueljijon and welcome to FTE!

The link below will give you the how to on fixing your blend door. Just holler if you need anything else.



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