Hi, All!

My a/c is not blowing as well as I think it should. The vents appear to be clear of debris.

I thought I may have a cabin filter that might be clogged somewhere -- but after much research I guess I don't even have one.

I also have rear air and just recently replaced the blower motor as that was working intermittently. It doesn't work that great either.

Does anyone have a parts breakdown of the climate control/air so I can follow the lines to see if there might be debris that I can't see via the vents?

Also, any info would be very appreciated as to the lack of blowing or suggestions as to fix the thing.

Wifes F250 freezes the sweat on your head instantly. Sure would like that in my van.

I am in Florida and it's hot and humid!

 

If it's front and rear, check refrigerant level. If the air is not cold enough, it will feel like its low flow.

 

Thank you for the reply.

I recently had the "refrigerant" checked and it was okay.

For what it's worth and for others who may have this problem, I think I may have fixed the problem by cleaning the "Fins" on the evaporator.

Today it was rainy, however...It was 10 times stronger and appeared to be cooler.

Yesterday I called my local Ford parts dept and had them fax me a parts diagram of the blower assy. It was actually for an E350, didn't matter, it was still the same breakdown.

All in all, it took about 6 hours off and on to remove the blower assy to get to the evaporator (part #19860).

Super dirty. 10 years of debris, hair, mud, you name it...how did it get in there?

I used purple power, sprayed the fins, used a bottle brush to lightly scrub the fins so as not to bend them and rinsed off with water.

The blower looked okay, however, I went to Napa, picked one up for $40.00 total and put everything back together

Wow, what a huge difference. I had it on low and it was freezing and blowing 10 times stronger than before.

Like I said it's been raining all day, so we''ll see how it does next week. I will post back.

Oh, it now seems to blow as good and as cold as the wife's F250.

I was gonna upload the pdf of the assy, I can't figure it out. If anyone can tell me, thanks. I will email if anyone wants it.

I know it took me days looking for the breakdown, so, hopefully it'll save hours for someone else.

 

Were you able to remove the evaporator outer plastic shell without discharging the ac refrigerant?
I wonder if just the blower resister banks could just be removed and some cleaner sprayed up in the opening along with water to clean the fins?

 

I did not remove the outer plastic shell. I did blow spray cleaner as you described.

I did remove the blower motor assy which exposed a good portion of the evaporator fins.

Of course to get to all of that I had to remove the battery.

In the exposed area where I removed the blower assy, the cleaning was accomplished through a series of spraying the fins, brushing the fins, and then blowing the plastic enclosure out each time.

I used a mirror to look up into the enclosure and could see all the clogging.

I'm sure someone else may have a simpler or faster way to do this.

However, after spending a little over 600 dollars on my 98 Jeep a couple of months ago, I decided to tackle it myself. The a/c guy had mentioned the evaporator was clogged on it to the point where there was only a 1/2 inch area exposed.

So that conversation made me think my van could have the same problem.

 

Oh, I did use a vacuum cleaner to remove the debris that fell out from brushing and blowing.

Tedious work, but well worth it.

 

Thanks for the reply. I've got a feeling that this van is suffering from the same conditon: dirty evaporator core surface.
I posted last night on a new thread, the problem I was seeing with outlet air in the front: below normal airflow and about 10F higher temps than expected with a fully and properly charged AC system on a 98 E350 Clubwagon.
Too bad there is no cabin air filter on these to trap all the outside debris that comes into the inlet air vents.

Karl

 

I was surprised that there was no cabin air filter myself. I searched for 2 days trying to find out if there was one on my van. Ford couldn't tell me if I had one or not. I know a lot of the mini suv's have them so why not ours?

I had the same problems as you posted as well...couldn't believe there was so little air flow on max.

Let me tell, last night we had to finally turn it off it got so cold. The air flow is a 1000 percent better. What was happening is the rear blower seemed like it was not working and we started researching to see if something was clogged along the flow. Our passengers, the dogs, couldn't sit in the back because it was so hot. Last night I noticed it was icy cold back there and realized I couldn't remember it ever being cold. So this is a big change.

You will probably be surprised as to how much accumulation of dirt and debris is clogging that evaporator surface.

We had refrigerant put in twice in the last 4 or 5 months and no change.

Anyway, a lot of other people out there are having the same problem and I haven't heard anyone talking about the evaporator fins clogging.

I bet you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy the fix is.

Carl

 

Hey Gotsand,

Attempted to remove the blower but was unable to remove it because it hits against the accumultor. I even unbolted the accumulator mounting but still did not get enough room. I even rotated it so the cut off edge of the blower was towards the accumulator, but still could not get it out of the opening. Mine is a 98 E350 Clubwagon, and yours is a 2001, so I am assuming the set up is the same location. But looking at where the blower hole is located, I don't see how removing the blower allowed you to access the evaporate because it sits kind of far from the evaporator and towards the rear???.

Anyway, I removed the resistor bank which left an opening next to the outer edge of the evaporator. I inserted a small mirror and looked up up into the evaporator. It had a few leaves and appeared somewhat dirty, but no hair, mud, etc. I got a jug of ac coil cleaner in a jug and put it in a pump up sprayer and was able to spray up into the evaporator a little , but the nozzle on the sprayer did not permit it to be moved around freely.
I then flushed the inside of the evaporator with a garden hose and washed out all the cleaner. I looked at it afterwards, and it appeared cleaner, but there is still a lot of black crud around the edges I was not able to removed because of the sprayer set up. I plan to modify the sprayer nozzle by removing a section and installed a section of rubber hose which will permit a better cleaning in all areas.

Question: You would only able to clean one side of the evaporator, so I am assuming washing and cleaning one side without the other will permit better air flow. Did you flush out evaporator coil area with water?

Looks like I will need to get some type of bristle brush that can be inserted into the resistor bank hole to clean it out better.

I put everything back together and tested the ac. It seems like better airflow but still only about 67F from the vents. It was very hot and humid here today, 100F.
I need to put my manifold gages on again and check pressures. When I charged it the other week, I only installed 59.5 oz of R134a and spec says it can be as high as 64oz. I am suspecting I'm a little undercharged and 4oz will make a difference.

One other thing I notice today that might be affecting cooling by permitting extra heat into the ducts. Under the hood, above the evaporator case, is about a one inch gap between the housing and upper cowl/firewall. There was originally foam in this gap, but about hald of it has fallen out. I've got some new foam I plan to seal this area with.

Sorry for the long writeup. Could you email me the pdf you got from the dealership?

Thanks,

Karl

 

If you email me...I will reply back with the pdf. gotsand@tampabay.rr.com

I did use water to flush out the evaporator and yes, I could only get to one side, however I did use a bottle brush to constantly clean the fins.

And yes, I only removed the blower motor assy to access an opening.

Send me your email and hopefully this will help.

I am going to relook at the area above the evaporator case to see I have space as well.

Thanks again, Carl White