Where is the blend door located on a 2004 Ford Explorer XLT? I'm having trouble with the heat not working and read somewhere that moving the blend door would be a quick/cheap fix. I am a not so mechanically inclined, broke mother of two and would love to be able to fix this problem myself, so any help is greatly appreciated!!! If someone could post a picture of where it's located it would be greatly appreciated too!

 

Do you have manual controls or the electronic controls?

 

manual controls

 

There's more info here than I could ever transfer to you here. Read these:
Ford Explorer Ranger Enthusiasts "Serious Explorations"® - Search Results
and watch this video:
2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, Ford explorer blend door fix, replacement, Auto AC fix, blend door auto AC heat replacement part

 

This didn't exactly help, I'm looking for a quick fix to just turn the blend door either to hot or cold, but can't find it. If I pull down the glove box, there are 2 black boxes, one big circular and a square one on top of that...is the blend door in either of those? Or is it behind those to the left in the other black square box?

 

I am going to work on the Explorer 97 Limited heater blend door motor that is clicking and failed just like shown in the webapge
Free Ford Blend Door Fix as mentioned above. Maybe the small nail will fix the blend door without my having to pull the dash out. Other fixes shown on other threads show a heater configuration that does not match mine. The link above is exactly mine. More iinfo later on my success. Now, for the urgent request above. I "fixed" my blend door clicking/failed problem temporarily by doing this:
1. I unplugged the white electrical connector on the blend motor. That stopped the infernal clicking noise.
2. <<<< NO! On edit, this is NOT the thing to do, although I did it. When I removed the actuator I found that there is a 1/4" sq hole on the top of the motor thagt could be used as a manual override if you can wiggle a 1/4" tool into it.>>>>>>>><<<So, you probably do not have to cut this piece off. See pics below.)
I laid on the passenger seat with my belly in the air and my head under the heater. I used a hacksaw and cut off a mere 1/16th of an inch, maybe 3/32nds, and exposed the lower end of the damper rod. (It is under the big black plastic heater box and is about the same size as a US quarter and proturdes down about 5/8s of an inch.) With the A/C/Heater in the off position, I used needle nosed small pliers and rotated the damper blend rod counter clockwise (looking up at it from the floor) and that gave me full heat position. Then I turned the A/C/Heater on and had heat for the first time in 3 years. Yah!!! Just for a test, I tried to turn the blend damper rod back to cooliing position (CCW from below) and I could not budge it. That goes to show you how much force is required to move the blend damper door and why the blend motor gear fails so often. I shut it down and put it in the full cool postion (CCW) and started the heater and then tried to move the damper by the pliers-method and it SLAMMED to the heat position. Anyway, by shutting off the heater and moving the damper to the heat position, I had heat. The heat can not be modulated as before, so to control the heat you have to control the fan speed just like a normal car...hahaha..... And when you go to full cooling (60 degrees setpoint) the heater water valve iin the engine closes to stop the heat. You have to go to 60 degrees setpoint to do that because normally the brainy Explorer will use the heat even in A/C mode to modulate the temperature to high accuracy.
So, dear person above with no heat, I hope you or someone can do the small trick I mention above so you do not freeze this winter. But the best thing is to fix it like I will try to do with the above link. This is because in some rainy-foggy conditions, you have to have A/C and heat on at the same time to control fog on the inside of the windshield. Without this type of dehumidifying control, you could be in severe danger of not seeing the road unless you wipe the windshield like crazy with a napkin as you are driving. Later....

 

There are differences with model years. THe older pre 2000 trucks are as listed above-- behind the glove box. My 2002 is under the radio as listed below.. someone posted a copule years ago. I dont know about the 2009, but would assume close to the 2002 model.


2002 explorer blend door--- feb 5, 2007 post---- look at 2003 on page 2.

#1 pulled trim piece around radio and heater/Ac control ( unplugged heater/ac control)
#2 pulled center console out ( dont forget to remove to screws from back corner of console, you will have to pop off the corner plastic pieces to see these screws)
#3 removed the bottom part of dash under steering wheel ( 2 screws)
#4 removed metal dash support ( piece that goes from floor to dash behind the consloe, two nuts from floor and two bolts from dash)
#5 pulled the floor vent duck work from driving side ( 2 screws )
#6 removed several screws form dash in middle so it would move a little ( you may not have to do this but I did just trying to make it easier to get to the actuator)
#7 pulled the actuator ( 3 screws) and unplugged)
the top screw on top back corner is rough to get to .

you will need a 1/4 inch ratchet with a 7 and 8 MM socket, I also used a three inch extension on some of the screws.
you will also have to have a 8mm wrench to remove the actuator.

 

https://sites.google.com/site/blenddoorford/

Here is my picture collection.
I need a new blend door actuator. How can I get one? Go to Autozone?