After checking everything that effects the heat in a car, I believe my problem is my blend door not moving the way it should to give me 100% heat. Everything else I checked out is what it is suppose to be and yet I have luke warm air coming out. Is there some “easy” way to move the blend door so that instead of getting luke warm, I get full heat? Tearing apart the dash isn’t a real option, I just wondered if there was a way via going behind the glove compartment I can manually move the blend door to get the heat hotter?
Do you have manual or automatic climate control? If you have automatic, then you can run a diagnostic self check that will move the blend door all the way open and closed. If it fails to go all the way in each direction, then a fault code will be displayed.
I don’t know how hard it is to get to the blend-air door motor in your Taurus. You would have to remove the motor assembly to be able to manually move the blend-air door.
How do I tell? I have two dials. Dial one is for selecting vent, AC or heat. The second dial is to switch from cold to heat. I know the blend door is moving some, because I can tell a difference in temp from the cold side to the heat side, it’s just not full heat coming out.
That’s probably a manual system-- an automatic one will just have one knob that you dial in a temperature and it adjusts the fan/temp/ac settings to maintain that temperature.
You’ll need to consult a service manual here (there are free ones online at www.autozone.com or at your local library’s website, but for stuff like this they might be a bit too vague), to see whether the blend doors are vacuum, cable or electric operated and how much of a PITA it is to get to them.
Also, I sincerely hope “everything checks out” included a new thermostat-- might as well try the easy fix before you start tearing the dash apart.
If it has knobs, it is electric. Before that, they were cables and levers.
I can’t speak for other makes, but Ford has never used vacuum for blend-air doors. They have always been either electric or cable. Everything from at least 1990 and up has been electric. (The air direction control doors in many Fords are vacuum.)
You have the manual system. The automatic system has a digital temperature display, and you just set the temperature you want and forget it.
I wish it was with cables and levers, it might be easier to move it.
You need to consider another possibility, you have mentioned in a previous thread that there is a head gasket issue. There is a chance that the head gasket is causing the low heat issue. A small amount of air is being introduced into the cooling system from the leaking head gasket, that air will get trapped in the highest part of the cooling system… the heater core. One of the symptoms of a head gasket problem is lack of heat.
The blend air door is operated by a electric motor, this is the procedure to replace it from ALLDATA.
Disconnect battery ground cable.
Disengage console panel from instrument panel reinforcement and remove from instrument panel.
Disengage console panel from RH side of center console finish panel if equipped.
Working from under the passenger side of the instrument panel, remove A/C electronic blend door actuator electrical connector from A/C electronic blend door actuator.
Remove four screws retaining A/C electronic blend door actuator to the A/C evaporator housing and remove A/C electronic blend door actuator from A/C air temperature control door.
INSTALLATION
Insert actuator shaft into A/C air temperature control door and secure A/C electronic blend door actuator to A/C evaporator housing with four retaining screws.
Install electrical connector to bracket on A/C electronic blend door actuator.
Install instrument panel insulator and console panel if equipped.
Connect battery ground cable.
Thanks for instruction. I wished car makers would make things like this a little easier to get to. I am getting some heat, and when I turn the knob to cold it gets real cold and when I go over to heat, there is a difference in temp, so I believe the blend door just isn’t securing like it should.
If you can remove the blend air door motor you might be able to manually close it.
Moving it will probably be easy, getting to it may involve some foul language being said and some grunting and moaning.
1 Like
In my 2003 Windstar, my daughter pulls the radio , with a pair of “radio pullers” bought on eBay for about a buck, and is able to reach in and ,by feel, manually open the doors using the broken actuator to open the doors every fall to get full heat, then does it every spring for ac