So I’ve been a tech w/ an independent shop for about 3 years, and every now and then I get the “wild hair” to take apart some of the components I replace.

These pictures are of an actuator I replaced on a 2013 F150 - it was for the passenger side temp blend door. This one was factory but they all pretty much look the same inside - I just thought if anyone was curious what the internals of these looked like, this was a good chance to share.

I replaced this actuator due to a failure of the motor or gear train - it was making the familiar “thumping” noise. I’m not sure which failed because it looks like there may have been a misalignment of the gears, but if that was the cause, I can’t reason why it would operate properly for 6 years before failing. I didn’t get a picture of the other side of the circuit board but there weren’t any wear spots on the sweep circuit, so I suspect the motor developed a dead spot (didn’t have time to investigate further).

 

how about a little discussion of the labor involved in removing and replace the passenger side...... and the drivers side ?

 

You can see where a tooth is missing in the big gear. It would be nice if there better built.

 

Hahaha - sometimes the most obvious things escape us. I did notice that gap on the wheel, but I’ve seen other actuators that have gaps in them before so I didn’t think much of it. It didn’t occur to me that those also have stops or that a one tooth gap doesn’t make sense.

Removing it wasn’t too bad (not sure on driver side - I wasn’t even looking for it). It’s located on top of the HVAC housing, just to the right of the radio and media/navigation panel and almost directly behind one of the carrier supports for the dash. You can see it with the glove box removed but to access the rear screw you have to remove the radio and media screen from the dash.

The procedure in service info stated to completely remove the floor console (had to be done to access trim screws for the dash), but I found that once the 4 main mounting bolts (2 on front accessed by removing trim panels on either side and 2 in rear accessed by sliding seats all the way forward) were removed, the console could be slid back a few inches to access the screws without unhooking anything else.

The passenger air bag also has to be removed. There’s 3 bolts holding it that can be removed with the glove box out.

With the passenger air bag and radio and media screen removed, the actuator can be unplugged and the screws removed. I was able to work them out most of the way with a 1/4” ratchet, then switched to a combination wrench to get them the rest of the way. A ratcheting wrench might have worked but I didn’t have one that small (I can’t remember if it was a 7 or 8 mm head).

All said and done it was 1-1.5 hours. Don’t know for sure because when my boss isn’t there, I’m helping the customers that walk in or signing for deliveries, or helping one of the other techs, etc - we were especially busy that day (and my boss was on a parts run) so I was getting interrupted quite a bit.