For the last 1.5 yrs or so our 04' Explorer, has had a issue with,,,Mice in it,,yes inside the Explorer,,,I have caught 5 or so in a trap,,,then last winter It was some cold riding in it,,,with the heat on, #3 it was livable,,,,but cold air coming in behind glove box,,,this summer,,,AC on high,,,blowing like on #2,,,WTF,,,OK time to fix this thing !

Take it to the garage,,,knowing approx where the problem is,,"Behind the Glovebox",,, cleanout glovebox,,,hold in tabs,,,open all the way,,,unscrew the hinge,,,off it comes,,Hardly any AC blowing through vents,,,pull the center console,,,Hmmm find a small mouse nest,,,all else looks clean,,,,,so now I focus on the "Fresh Air door" which I can kinda see with G-box off,,,there are like 7 screws, holding the fresh air cage to the blower (fan) motor,,some of these screws are nasty to get too,,,but I got them out,,,so the cage is kinda loose now,,,slide my hand between cage and blower motor( getting scraped and about bleeding),,,feel fluff on top of screen,,,oh and something else,,,loose blocking the fan area,,,I had to slit the side of the cage with a sharp Utility knife in the corners,,,(for mentioned screws hold this shut now) Now I can reach in,,and get the stuff,,,,,,,,,,

The fluff stuff I could feel is chewed up Firewall Insulation,,from the engine compartment,,,,,fricken Mice,,,,but the loose pc I feel is the Fresh Air door,,,completly fallen off from where it pivots,,laying on top of the fan housing, screen, blocking off 3/4 of the air flow that the Blower puts out !

With the Fresh Air door missing(this is the most useless invention ever,,,just open the window ),,,the mice could climb inside the cowling on driverside where wiper motor is,,,walk along cowling to fresh air door area,,, and climb down inside the interior,,,they had the whole truck to themselves,,when parked.

I tried and tried to connect the FADoor to its pivot point and actuator but it would not stay,,,Finaly I said screw it,,,I screwd it in place with 4 screws,,never to open again,,,felt around up in there,,my arm all scraped up,,,ahhh no mouse openings,,,put all the screws back in that were removed,,,cant even tell where it is slit now,,,,Blower now blows like it should,,,AC works great,,,front and rear,,,all done,,mouse free,,,about a 3.5-4 hr job,,,what a pain in the *** !!!!!,and wrist, and forearm,,and back,,trying to work there with the pass seat in your way. Did'nt mean to right a Book,,,Im Done .

 

never thought about eliminating the door. good idea. some of the newer 06-08 trucks have the doors that dont fit well and leak cold air inside. elimination sounds like a good idea.

 

Thanks steve,,,,what are these engineers thinking ???,,,,OHHH we should put a fresh air door in these cars now,,,Incase people forget to open the window.. IDIOTS !!!,,,When I drive past a DEAD SKUNK on the road I close the windows to NOT SMELL IT !!! Stupid fresh air door open,,,,Lets all that Mother Nature Goodness right in !!!

Just following some trucks/vehicles,,can be bad enough,,,,Close the Door !

 

sorry, wrong post--------

 

Thank you for this thread M350. I recently purchased an 04 XLT Explorer with the 4.6. I test drove at least ten Explorers locally and all of them had heater issues. The cold air coming from the open glove box was the first sign of trouble. Your exploration of the problem made the fix easy. With your help I managed the "repair" in under 2 hrs. Although I did have to remove the blower motor to access mine. Thanks a million.

 

it does seem to be a very common problem, i just ducttaped mine for time time being till warmer weather..i dunno what the ford engineers were thinking

 

As far as I know, most vehicles draw some or all of the air going through the heater and air conditioner from a cowl vent. When you select MAX AC the vent closes to re-circulate the air in the cabin. Some systems have re-circulate buttons that work even with the heater, like my 07' Mustang. It just sucks that the vent door has such a cheesy hinge mechanism in the truck unit. It seems that a plastic tab shears off and renders the door useless except to block all air flow to the fan. And with no cabin air filter leaves get into the unit and collect on the screen above the fan anyway. I think the only drawback to closing the door permanently is the windows may fog up under certain conditions, but I am not 100% sure. Only time will tell.

 

I have this problem on my 2002 Explorer too.. I have managed to REMOVE the broken door, so it's not sitting on the fan anymore, but I did it by squeezing it out of the 0.5" slot I was able to pry in between the halves of the air box. There's NO WAY I'm going to get back in there to block the outside input from the inside.

What I'm hoping, is that there's a place under the screen between the hood and the windshield, where the fresh air goes in, and I can just block it with some duct tape for now.. I pulled the black screen up a bit and looked under there. There's a lot of small holes, but nothing that is definitely the air input. I'm hoping someone can tell me where to cover, and perhaps more importantly, if there's something under there that I should NOT cover up for some reason??

Thanks!
Steve

 

my door did not break, but was hanging from the arm . I took the glove box out and look inside setting in the passenger seat. You will see a grill that lets in inside air recirc into the heater. Forward of that grill is the air inlet from the outside. I pushed the door forward to block off the outside air and used a popsickle stick to hold it in that position. Maybe you could cut out the grill from inside the glove box area, and screw / tape the door back over the hole . You really dont need it at all. Mine has been closed for 5 years.