Hey guys,
I've been lurking around searching my issues but due to thinking some of these might be related I thought I would start a thread for the experts. There's a lot to this but I'll try to make it less painful to read.

Problem #1: Door actuator. I've been having this problem for awhile. I've replaced it myself twice (once with OEM) to no avail. I have spoken to a few hvac guys and have told me they are notorious for being bad out of the box. Anyway, I've also had the hardest time getting it in with someone. The issue of getting it in seems to be fixed now as I'm dropping it off before we go out of town in February for a guy to work on it.

Problem #2: Since I am dropping it off, I wanted to address problem #2. This has been posted in the forums before, but problem #2 is no heat at idle. The guy who is going to work on it said it is possibly my thermostat and is going to address that as well.

Problem #3: For the last few days in north Alabama it has been in the low teens and single digits in the morning. The first problems I started experiencing were the doors not closing. I mean every door over the course of a few days last week would not close. I seem to have addressed that issue with cleaning and some fresh grease. Anyway, the reason I mention the weather is as of a few days ago I have started leaking coolant from the primary tank behind the battery (it's the only one that is low). I haven't traced the source of the leak but plan to do so today.

Here is where I thought there could be some relation in the no heat at idle and the new leak. I was going to lean toward it possibly being the water pump is shot, but the fact that it's intermittent and just started on really cold days makes me wonder. To my knowledge (experts correct me if I'm wrong), it is leaking backwards from how it should be if it's the water pump: the water pump should leak more as the truck warms with a properly working thermostat? Any and all of the leaks I've had have been sitting from around 4 pm to overnight and to 6:30ish a.m. in very cold weather. It stops after it is cranked and I am driving/parked at work.

I wanted to see what the experts think. All this information tells me my scenario 1 is it might indeed be the thermostat getting worse and stuck and causing the leak. However, the no heat at idle has been a problem that has occurred much longer than the few days it has been leaking. My scenario 2 tells me the thermostat is probably still bad (and the reason for no heat at idle) and the intermittent nature of the leak might lead to a hose that has simply lost its seal and is contracting in the cold. Scenario 3 is thermostat and/or water pump. It has been giving me a loud whining noise inside the cab at startup but doesn't last more than 30 seconds to a minute and stops. I know that can be a symptom of the pump, but it isn't continuing more than a minute. The sudden extreme cold spell is what is throwing me off in all this. Assuming the thermostat has been the problem with the heat at idle for the last few months, all of the other stuff like the doors and the leak and noise seem more related to the extreme cold and scenario 2.

Sorry for the book guys, just wanted to adequately describe the issue. I'm going to attempt to trace the problem this afternoon, but wanted to see what you thought.

 

I'm no expert but I'm here to learn and add what I can. I'm in SE PA and we've got temps below 10 F. At warmer temps, when I started my 2019 with the remote starter, after 15 minutes, it still wasn't warm but when I started it with the key yesterday, the idle bumped up and it was warm enough to melt the ice off the windshield in 15 minutes. Warm up when driving in these temps is the slowest of any vehicle I ever owned.

Do you see coolant dripping? I don't know about this MY yet but my '99 always settled below the line in the degas bottle, as did everyone else's. We don't know where it went and we just accepted it. On my heavy truck, every winter when the cold first set in, I had to tighten my radiator hose clamps when the AL fittings shrunk because of the cold.

 

Yes I can see it dripping. I actually went out last night at around 8:30-9 and no dripping. Came out this morning to a fresh puddle so it's lining up with the coldest temps. It's a fairly slow drip from somewhere that is dripping on the bar and running over to near the passenger side tire (parked on a slight hill). Yes, they're slow to warm up and it's annoying.

 

In my experience the 6.7 is very cold blooded and needs to be worked to warm up. Idling alone won't do it.

 

It is cold blooded and doesn’t high idle. But this isn’t that. The heater/supposed thermostat issue is after the truck is warmed up. Heat will only blow if driving. After a min or so of being parked it blows cold air.

 

I'm definitely not an expert on the 6.7 either, but in general automotive terms lack of heat at idle when you have good heat at higher RPMs can mean either an air pocket in the cooling system or a heater core that is partially clogged. An air pocket in the cooling system could result from a leak, or maybe from a failed degas bottle cap.

 

There was a recall on the door mechanism. Apparently the internals freeze up in cold weather.

 

LOL that was a wild ride. I was taking my daughter to school that morning and when I closed her door (back right passenger) my amp steps went up and I had nothing telling me the door was open. I want to say it was 23 degrees that morning. Anyway, I pulled out taking a left on a US highway where people are going 70 mph and her door flew open. Fortunately my wife was still home so I turned around so she could drop her off. I didn't know there was a recall at the time but over the next few days we were in the low teens and every other door did it. They were different in that when I shut them they just opened back up. I cleaned and greased they haven't given me another problem.

 

Update is that very little doubt the leak is coming from the bottom T-fitting. I checked it last night at 10 pm when it was 21 degrees and no drip. Then overnight it dipped down to 14 degrees and a small drip was visible this morning. I was able to put a paper towel above the fitting this morning to see if it was catching a runoff of fluid from somewhere above the fitting, but all I came away with was grime on the towel.

Oddly enough, it dripped more the night before when lows got down in the single digits. Now, I don't know if the cheap plastic cracked due to extreme cold and then suddenly heating up or whether it's the o-ring, but the fitting I've found is $16 bucks so I'll just drain it and replace the fitting. I'm the second owner and I don't know if the coolant has ever been drained so it would be good to do it anyway. My question is why does Ford skimp on this stuff so much?