Ok my buddy has '10 ranger and went to stealership for some warranty work. One of the things they told him was wrong with the a/c is that the air box is plugged with "stuff" and needs to be cleaned and wanted to charge him almost $400 to do it. I was a hoping someone on here could help a brother out. I drive a slightly bigger truck as you see and don't know a thing about his truck. Pics, diagrams, or anything of the such would be greatly appreciated.

 

Air box? Do you mean the evaporator case? plugged with what?

 

Ford said it is behind the glove box, also behind the evaporator box. I am really not sure here. GRRR

 

I don't know 2010 layout, but in most cases if you remove the blower motor along with the squirrel cage you will have enough access to clean out anything that has made its way in there. If you can see the motor under the hood, there should be 3 or 4 bolts, actually similar to large sheet metal screws, that hold the blower assembly in place. There will usually be a layer of sealant between the blower and the plenum that sticks, making the blower a little hard to break free from the plenum. It usually breaks when you remove the blower.
tom

 

Sounds like the stealership is trying to drum up a way to generate some income to balance out the warranty repair or they aren't properly diagnosing the problem to begin with. That is way too new to be clogged up with any debris. Sounds like it doesn't have a full charge for whatever reason possibly a slow leak due or not being properly charged at factory or a defective part within the system. I would get another opinion at another dealer. He shouldn't be paying anything if it's still covered under the terms of the warranty covering the a/c system. They should have hooked it up to gauges to see if the pressures high/low were in spec for a proper charge ,done a leak test and checked the blend doors to see if they were operating correctly.

 

yeah well if a rodent got in there and built a nest thats not covered under warranty, seems to me that what the 'stuff' is. If it was just a recharge that was due to a factory defect or something it stands to reason they would benefit monetarily to fix it under warranty. If it's not caused by a defect they can't cover it because Ford won't pay them. So before jumping to a conclusion that the dealer is trying to rip the guy off he should have asked to see what was causing the problem, if a tech could see it he could certainly show it to the customer. Me personally wouldn't make something up like that because A. it's just wrong and B. I do have customers come to their car and I will show them what I'm talking about and back up my claim, but that's me.

 

[quote=Phinxter;10449784]yeah well if a rodent got in there and built a nest thats not covered under warranty, seems to me that what the 'stuff' is. If it was just a recharge that was due to a factory defect or something it stands to reason they would benefit monetarily to fix it under warranty. If it's not caused by a defect they can't cover it because Ford won't pay them. So before jumping to a conclusion that the dealer is trying to rip the guy off he should have asked to see what was causing the problem, if a tech could see it he could certainly show it to the customer. Me personally wouldn't make something up like that because A. it's just wrong and B. I do have customers come to their car and I will show them what I'm talking about and back up my claim, but that's me.

If the mechanic can and would show the customer where the clog is that would justify the expense but he would have had to tear it apart to find it in the first place. I would want to know and see how the mechanic came to that conclusion. The clog also could be an internal one in the system which would hinder the r134 flow through the system which would be indicated by hooking it to the gauges. We don't know if this was done but it should have been performed. If I remember correctly the warranty coverage for the a/c is considerably shorter than coverage for the rest of the truck ( 12months) at least in regards to recharging it not sure about actual defective parts within the system. I am not making a blanket statement that all mechanics are out to get you. Unfortunately I have seen seen both competent an incompetent ones in my dealings over the years.

 

Well maybe it doesn't require alot of tear down to see whats going on. maybe just removing the blower was enough to see. Your right I would want to see too, the point I was trying to make is he should be able to prove what he says it needs if it can be seen by eye. 12 months? I would think all new cars came with a 3/36 bumper to bumper as a minimum. The guy who started this has probably already fixed this and left us bickering.

 

Pretty sure that the time frame is shorter on the a/c portion of warranty. The recharge anyway. Parts involved not so sure. The warranty could have changed since mine was new in 2003. You brought up good points on the rodent clogging which I didn't think of. Your're right about him leaving us bickering. The individual is probably already chillin by now.

 

ok fellas here's what's up. I looked at the truck. If you look between the siruis radio box the frame of the dash there is a flapper thing. By the way this is all behind the glovebox. When it is in the MAX a/c setting it closes the outside air. I'm sure some of ya'll know this for those that don't pay attention. Take a flash light and look inside there and see if you can see your fan. If not the screen the fan is probably covered in shtuff. Maybe your like me and would not have bought the truck with the siruis radio (hint) because that box is a PITA to get out! I could not because of the bolt on the top. The nuts for it are on the back side of the box which face towards the front of the truck. So I got creative and got a long screwdriver and loosened some of the shtuff on the screen and then made me a tube to fit my shopvac and stuck it in the largest hole of the vent thingy and went to town vacuuming the stuff off. I got most of it off. It sure beat the heck out of him paying almost $400 to the stealership. Now we just got to work out MY price.

 

Here are some pictures. They aren't that good but you can see a little bit in the second picture the screen. Does anyone know what this is or how this happens so that I can avoid this in the future?

http://i52.tinypic.com/sltvec.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/3496zkj.jpg

 

I'm trying to figure out wtf the screen is for? I can see if it had a cabin air filter but if it's not replaceable then whats the point?

 

that screen "protects" the shtuff from getting on the fan. Jhckstp and I are just trying to figure out where that stuff came from and to keep it from coming BACK!

 

The general purpose is to keep kleenex, napkins, and all the other things that end up on the floor from getting sucked into the blower when the A/C is on Max. The little I saw in the second pic was just an accumulation of dust and dirt. If the screen wasn't there, it would have gone on into the blower, and started to coat the impeller blades. Easier to clean? I don't know.
I added A/C to my truck, and cut out the plastic from the inlet that allowed for 'recirc' operation. I now have an access hole behind the glove box through which I can feel the blower impeller. I also get leaves and maple(?) tree seeds [the helicopter seeds] and anything else on the floor sucked up into the blower. The tree went wild this year, and I think I have a bazillion seeds in the plenum right in front of the windshield. I have to clean them out before they take root. I think they have covered the airflow to the evaporator. Removing the blower under the hood is my best bet, I think.
tom

 

let me know how much "fun" that is removing the blower motor. I may have to do that for jhckstp to clean the screen better next time. It just looked like a PITA to do.