Blend door actuator
#1
06-22-2013, 02:20 PM
Blend door actuator
I have a 2008 Grand Marquis
So, I went to the dealer because I was getting nothing but hot air out of my Air conditioner all of a sudden, and my blend door actuator has failed. They told me it is under the dashboard so replacing it requires total removal of the dashboard which is going to cost between $700 and $1100 almost all of which is the labor.
I did some reading, and found you can "get your hand" on this part up inside the glove box, but certainly not remove it.
In the picture below, see the little white **** in the upper left? The goes through the part and connects to the little bar that actually moves the blend door from the hot duct to the cold duct. I can put my hand on that and I very carefully even got a wrench onto it. i was hoping I could crank it manually to cold for the summer and back again in the winter. The problem I seem to be having is that plastic **** is made of what seems like very cheap plastic that has almost a waxy consistency. As a consequence when I turn the wrench the plastic just seems to deform and a little bit of it even chipped off. Imagine using a wrench to try and loosen a nut/bolt made of wax. It wouldn't turn, it would just strip or compress.
Has anyone ever tried to do this before? Does that little white **** on top even turn when the blend door moves, or is it just more of a cap? If it doesn't turn when the gears inside the actuator are driving then this is a moot point anyway.
Is there any other way to get to the actual blend door itself to move it manually? Either under the hood or in the glove box. In the glove box the duct assembly just looks like a plastic housing. Is there any way into it? I'd rather make a hole and duct tape over it than pay $1100 for a new part!!!
And who's bright idea was it to even put this part where it is? Why isn't it mounted on the side of the duct assembly instead of the top, so you can reach it through the glove box or from under the hood?
Oh and 1 other question... if you can turn that ****, which way is which? When moving from heat to A/C does it turn clockwise or counterclockwise? How far does it actually turn? I watched a video on youtube that seams to indicate that little bar attached to the blend door only rotates about 1/4 of a full revolution.
This is what the part looks like:
So, I went to the dealer because I was getting nothing but hot air out of my Air conditioner all of a sudden, and my blend door actuator has failed. They told me it is under the dashboard so replacing it requires total removal of the dashboard which is going to cost between $700 and $1100 almost all of which is the labor.
I did some reading, and found you can "get your hand" on this part up inside the glove box, but certainly not remove it.
In the picture below, see the little white **** in the upper left? The goes through the part and connects to the little bar that actually moves the blend door from the hot duct to the cold duct. I can put my hand on that and I very carefully even got a wrench onto it. i was hoping I could crank it manually to cold for the summer and back again in the winter. The problem I seem to be having is that plastic **** is made of what seems like very cheap plastic that has almost a waxy consistency. As a consequence when I turn the wrench the plastic just seems to deform and a little bit of it even chipped off. Imagine using a wrench to try and loosen a nut/bolt made of wax. It wouldn't turn, it would just strip or compress.
Has anyone ever tried to do this before? Does that little white **** on top even turn when the blend door moves, or is it just more of a cap? If it doesn't turn when the gears inside the actuator are driving then this is a moot point anyway.
Is there any other way to get to the actual blend door itself to move it manually? Either under the hood or in the glove box. In the glove box the duct assembly just looks like a plastic housing. Is there any way into it? I'd rather make a hole and duct tape over it than pay $1100 for a new part!!!
And who's bright idea was it to even put this part where it is? Why isn't it mounted on the side of the duct assembly instead of the top, so you can reach it through the glove box or from under the hood?
Oh and 1 other question... if you can turn that ****, which way is which? When moving from heat to A/C does it turn clockwise or counterclockwise? How far does it actually turn? I watched a video on youtube that seams to indicate that little bar attached to the blend door only rotates about 1/4 of a full revolution.
This is what the part looks like:
Last edited by Takket; 06-22-2013 at 02:33 PM.
#2
07-06-2013, 03:20 AM
If your woking throgh the glove box you can get a screwdriver on the acuator arm it is on the opposit side of white nut between acuator and plenum, If you push spring wire arm away from you ( clockwise) you get cold air, pull it towards you and get hot. Just did this but installed a pull cable to reblace the blend door. This works very well however I apparantly negatively impacted my power steering while prying on the dash. So I have nice cool air and no power sseeri
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
