I have an 06 f150 XLT with a few problems that need to be fixed.I am just curious if anyone knows how simply these can be fixed and if i can do it at my house or need to take it to the dealer. Also, how much (roughly) the cost for the fixes. For starters, the drivers window switch isnt working to raise the window back up hardly at all (unless I jam my thumb down on it), it doesnt "click" like the other switches. Secondly, the horn is going out and it just started last night all of the sudden, it sounds like an import car now. Finally, my A/C no longer has a 1 setting, the only way to get the fan on is to set it on 2. Thanks for all your input and advice.

 

all of them are easy.

your window switch will cost about 80 bucks because its all of them in one. pop up the arm rest and its a simple plug

your fan motor switch is about 25 bucks and its a simple plug just have to remover a small part of the dash.

as for your horn todays drivers cant even hear your measly 80 db horn

i say get yourself a train horn for a motorcycle. its about the same size and will give you a 135db bast that will put that teenager into a coma or cure grandma of her Alzheimers. just wire it into your factory horn.

your local auto parts store has everthing but the train horn.

and im dead serious about the motorcycle horn its amazing how affective it is.

 

Motorcycle Air Horns

 

How do you take the arm rest and the dash off? Lead me in the right direction and I won't have a problem with it.

 

both are just snapped in.

on the arm wrest where the switches are you can tell its another part. just pops off takes some ***.

as for your dash they are all different i have a center console shift so its cake.

if your having doubts id go to a local small shop and ask them for help. slip the tech 10 bucks it wont take but 5 minutes.

 

It is not the switch that is causing your blower motor to act up. It is your blower motor resistor. It is located about where your feet go when you are sitting in the passenger seat. Has 2 or 3 screws and a wiring plug going to it. Easy to replace.

There is a thread here somewhere about cleaning your power window switches as well. I looked for a while and couldnt find it. The one I found has no pictures. But anyway you can remove your switch take it apart, and clean the contacts of the switch. However you stated that it no longer clicks which could mean there is some sort of mechanical damage to the actual switch where you may be best off just getting a new switch.

 

I tried cleaning the switch on my 06. It lasted for a very short time, so I replaced it. It cost under $50 at the dealer with my discount. Now I have to do the same with my passenger side switch. As Peter94 said, it's probably the blower motor resister. It's not that expensive and is easy to change. I like the idea of a motorcycle horn or something comparable for more noise. I helped my neighbor install one on his 06 F150. It took us 1/2 hour to do once we found the hot wire. On his 06 the hot wire was the white with green stripe wire.

 

Man, I wouldnt want a louder horn on my truck. Mine is so loud. If you park near anything solid, or are near the front of the truck when you get out an lock it, the lock confirmation beep is so loud it will almost make you deaf.

 

Yup....tried it too. Got about 7-8 activations out of it before it was all carboned up and not working again. I must have taken that thing apart about a dozen times. Finally, I gave up and bought it at my local dealer for $65. By that time, it was well worth the money.

 

These guys make very nice horns: Stebel Air Horn | Horn Cover | Air Horn Accessories | Nautilus

hint: try the Nautilus Compact Truck horn - its 300hz, much lower sounding than a normal horn.

I plan on buying one and hooking it up in series with my wimpy stock horns...

 

Buying a new switch for the window is definitely the easiest way, but....if you want to spend a little time instead of money it can be fixed. Once you pop the arm rest top off and pull out the switch module you will see that it is actually made of 3 layers.

Can't tell you now which to take apart, but its no big deal to take it all apart and figure out which layer exposes the switch contacts Once it reaches the stage where you don't get the click, cleaning the contacts does no good as they are not the problem. The problem is the mechanism that moves the contacts.

Once apart figure out which set of contacts you need to repair and you will see the rocker assembly can be pulled out by spreading two arms apart that are holding it in place. Once you get the rocker thing out you will see 2-3 spring loaded pegs that actually move the contacts. One of those pegs on mine was wore to about half the length it needed to be and therefore no longer was long enough to move the contact over as you rocked the switch.

Be careful removing the pegs as they have springs attached to them, but remove a good one for length comparison purposes. In my case I fabricated a new peg from an old radiator flush kit hose adapter I had laying around with a dremel and grinder. It was kind of crude, but I got it rounded, smooth, and lengthed enough to fashion a peg to slide back up in the rocker thingy with the spring pushed in first.

Put it all back together and you should have a working switch. I guess friction of moving the peg back and forth via the switch wears out the peg. Mine has now been working for several months and I still get the satisfying click when a use the switch.

The important part would be to find a suitable material from which to fashion the peg from. It will have to be from a fairly heavy type plastic to maintain rigidity and not wear too quickly. I know it sounds pretty involved, but it really didn't take to long to do this fix and I don't have any special skills (or powers). I just hate spending money, in this case evidently 60-80 $$$$, on stuff I can do myself with a little time and effort.

Good Luck to those who try this! Oh yeah, one caveat about this fix. I did lose the one touch down function. Not sure why, but it hasn't concerned me too much. If anyone knows how that works let me know and I may take the switch apart again.

 

The problem with the switches isn't normally the pegs that rock the switch back and forth (though if you have a broken one, I could see the mechanics of the switch being thrown out of whack and causing a malfunction), but the corrosion on the contacts themselves. You can sand them off and clean them up and lather them up with dielectric grease, but at that point the coating that they're covered with originally from the factory (probably zinc by the looks of it) has also been burned and/or sanded off. Like I said above, they'll make good contact for a few activations, but after that, they carbon up again (because the switches arc when contact is made) and you've got to clean them up all over again after a few uses.

Trust me. I screwed around with mine for about 3-weeks before I'd finally had enough, broke down and bought the new switch.

I too am a "do it yourselfer" but in this case, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

 

I had to take my 07 in for the same problem with the drivers side window. The dealer told me it was a "known issue" and I got it fixed under warrenty. I know of at least 2 other people with 07's that had this issue. I guess its in the 06's as well.

 

gearbanger, I guess as usual YMMV. But I don't think you should dismiss my fix out of hand as it may give someone a little time to come up with a spare $80. I noted during my inspection of the mechanism that more than one of the pegs had worn. One(the one that gets the most use), was worn down to a nub. The others had some noticeable wear, but were still operational.

Just sayin', it is an option/possibility as in my case mine is still working after several months.

 

I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be dismissive at all.....just commenting on the most likely issue that the majority of us who've needed to replace/repair our switch controls have faced. I didn't mean for it to look like I was trying to take the fire out of your point.

If it helps, the outer peg in my drivers rocker switch was broken as well. I just swapped it for the center one and I was back in business. So the rocker was addressed, but it was the contact points that proved to be the real issue in the end….which seems to be the usual scenario with owners having this problem.

Let me ask you…did you address the contacts as well, or just the spring loaded rocker pegs? You may have been one of the lucky ones that may not have been struck with the issue? Or perhaps your vehicles previous owner was (assuming you’re the second owner) and has dealt with it by putting a new switch in already?

BTW, what does YMMV stand for?