Hi all,

Recently my 05 EX started making noises which seem to eminate from the passenger side dash around the glove box area. It only happens when the heat or A/C is turned on. I'm not sure if all Excursions and Super Duty have the same controls. Mine is is a push button on/off and then push buttons for the air location (upper vent. Upper and lower, defrost. Defrost floor, A/C and the one that recycles on air in the vehicle instead of fresh). When i first turn on i hear a sound thst sounds not like a click but a flapping sound if that makes sense. Like something is trying to do something and eventually stops making the noise. When it first started getting real warm out and I switched over to A/C it would make those noises a few times and then stop and A/C would work fine. Now going back to using heat a few weeks ago it did the same thing and it would settle down and heat would work. Now tonight it would make those noises and alternate between blowing hot air and A/C whether it was on defroster or vents. Has anyone else experienced this? Does it sound like a blend door actuator? If what I've seen from some Super Duty videos it appears I could change it through the glove box opening.
Thanks for any guidance you can provide. I looked at the tech folder but i only see a link to replacing the rear blend door actuator.

 

Yep sounds like the blend door actuator. Mine just went out yesterday while I was installing a park brake bypass on my head unit. It was just blowing hot in front but rear ac still blew cold. Before it would blow warm at first when I had the AC on then finally would start blowing cold so I think it was on the way out. I thought I had knocked a vacuum line loose or something working behind the dash but finally figured out the actuator was not working and was stuck by looking at the arm that goes down to move the blend door and it wasnt rotating when i changed the temperature. Pulled it out and stuck my finger down the hole to manually turn it and voila it closed and blew cold ac again. If you are able to switch between vent, defrost, floor but the temp is only blowing hot or cold and the temp isnt changing thats probably the problem. It is an easy fix. Unplug the connector and use a flat head to pry up the front then the rear and it pops out. Here is a youtube video of how to replace.

 

Thanks e11even. Glad to hear you were successful. I'm not having so much luck. I've see the video you attached and others. Removal was straight forward, prying up with a flat blade screwdriver. Ordered a new one from NAPA, went to pick up yesterday and the one they had was a used one in the box. Ordered again and went back today and tried to install. Made sure the shaft was aligned in the exact same orientation as the old one and have been trying for the longest time to no avail. It seems to go into the hole about 1/4" or so and that's it. I can try rotating the unit slightly one way and the other while pushing down and nothing. Not sure how you got a finger down in the hole to manually turn the door piece that mates with that white plastic shaft, maybe my fingers are too fat. The only thing I can think of at this point is to try and take off the black plastic panel which I believe covers the box where I should be able to see the actual door and maybe I can determine if something is misaligned. First pic is looking up at the actuator I'm trying to install. Second pic is the black plastic panel that I think if removed would give me access to the actual blend door.

If anyone else has encountered this before during re-install of the actuator I would really appreciate knowing how you resolved it.
Thanks!

 

Well issue solved. I put a 2" long 1/4" socket extension into the hole for the blend door and it was able to be moved back and forth with no issue. So I decided to try and re-install the old actuator and within s couple of minutes it popped hack in to place. So I removed the old actuator and compared the shaft to the new one and although they looked close, the new one seemed to be slightly larger. I used a caliper and it measured about 0.02" wider than the old one. So I took a file to the flat side of the shaft and after a few filings it snapped right into position. If anyone else encounters this do a quick check on the dimensions of the shaft before spending hours trying to force the actuator shaft in.