heater problems

[Bizmark32]

WOW!!! Am I ever glad I foud this site.

My wife came home from work at 8pm last night, wiht freezing cold hands, to tell me there was no heat in our 2000 Ford Windstar. I did a search on Yahoo for "Ford-Windstar-Heater-thump-" and found this site. I went to an auto parts store and got the Ford stereo removel kit (the two U shaped things). I pulled out the stereo. I could see the white box everyone is talking about, but couldn't quite get to it. I took off the front black part of the dash(not that hard, just a few hex nuts). I had to go to walmart to get a long hex nut socket screwdriver, and then I removed the blend door motor (fords words, not mine). I took it apart and saw the missing teeth on one of the gears. That was it. I wen in to Ford with the little white box, and they gave me a new one for $60. I installed the new one, low and behold--HEAT!!!!!!!! I put everything back together, and voila!!!!! Good to go. It was actually warm today, but supposed to be much colder tommorrow. Glad I did it. No telling how much money I saved doing this myself. THANK YOU guys so very much.
~Brian

[PopI]

Bizmark32/Brian...
Thanks for posting. I have a 2000 windstar doing the same thing (been doing it for quite some time). I'm going to stop by AutoZone on the way home to get the stereo removal tool and hopefully it will go as easy as your message makes it sound.

[PopI]

Originally Posted by timechief

I found this thread to be helpful in solving my heater problem. I used it as aguide, but still fumbled around quite a bit before getting to the root of the problem. I would like to share details of what I discovered during my repair.

I replaced the actuator. While it was off I moved the internal mixing door in the "D" slot with a screw driver.

Ultimately, the problem with the acuator is because teeth have been stripped from the smallest gear on a compound gear wheel (a gear with a littler gear aroung the shaft), smaller than a dime, and probably worth less than a quarter. You see stuff like this in kids' toys. I paid $56 for a new actuator and tore into the old one to discover stripped teeth. Had I brought the vehicle to the dealership, they probably would have replaced the whole heater system for $1500.

The rhythmic thumping is the result of the mixing door, which lays on the heater core in cold mode, being lifted slightly and then dropping back when the missing gear teeth go by. The clicking is the sound of the actuator itself when the gear teeth are missed and the circuitry doesn't know to stop the turning.

I would advise anyone who experiences these characteristic sounds coming from behind the fully electronic heater control panel, to not freak out about something being wrong with the internal and seemingly inaccessible mixer door, and simply replace the actuator.

Thanks 12ounce, Windywoes and Timechief! All your posts, advice, photos and details are helping me to work my way through the same situation.

-PopI (that's Popeye, not Poppy!)

[mafafu]

I have this same problem with my 2000 Windstar. Hopefully it is just the actuator. That will be much cheaper to replace since I have to fix the dreaded front wheel squeak as well.

[Daddio99]

Does anyone have a schematic of the heating assembly as my blend door has fallen to the bottom of the plenum. I would like to simply jerry-rig something to get heat without spending another dime trying to properly fix my Windstar (engine/tranny/electrical/now this) due to the problems I've had in the past six months costing me thousands. The actuator's fine but when I peer into the hole, I see nothing but the back of the assembly about a foot back (I believe). I did play around inside gently with a wooden dowl to see if anything moves and got partial heat for a bit but I don't want to do any damage poking around in uncharted territories. A 12 volts ceramic heater will hardly make a dent when it gets cold here (Canada). Would taking the number three fuse from the engine compartment stop the A/C from blowing colder air when I try to use the defrost?

[FordBoss88]

Originally Posted by bobzinger

Man I'm so glad I found this thread. My 99 Windstar has the exact same problem. Thumping and clicking. The heat even worked for a while...if you could put up with the thumping. Now nothing works but the thumping is still there.

Does anyone know if this is caused by a shutoff switch not actuating in the actuator...or if the blend door is trashed? It seems to me that something has to tell the blend door when it's at the end of it's travel, and maybe that something is outta whack.

Anyway...I hate my 99 Windstar, and can't wait till we can afford another vehicle. To date we've spend $1000's on intakes, power steering, rack and pinons, etc.

Bob

I hate FORDS! But they are affordable and I can work on them. I wish that I could afford Nissans.

[12Ounce]

You folks who have the broken blend doors (not just broken actuator/motors) may want to get on the following thread:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...light=Phordguy

[sgilmore]

My wife experienced similar symptoms today with our 2001 Windstar. She reported hearing a knocking sound coming from inside the dashboard area for a little while, every 1-2 seconds, there was a "bad smell", then the heat started blowing cool. She was able to repeat the knocking sound later in the day by turning the heater back on, but I haven't been able to replicate the sound since then. When I turn it on now, it sounds normal but blows cold air.

I've taken everything apart, and have determined that the problem is not the actuator. I've disconnected the screws holding the actuator in place, and left the wiring cable hooked up to it, and pulled the actuator rod out of the D-shaped hole. I then attempt to work the heat on and off using the temperature control, and can see that the actuator rod does not turn at all - whether I have the old actuator hooked up, or the new one. I can manually engage the blend door (using the rod from the old actuator, after removing it from the actuator) and turn it to the position that allows heat to flow to the car.

Does anyone know what fuse # controls the actuator on the 2001 Windstar? Aside from changing fuses, does anyone have any other ideas why the actuator won't do its thing?

Thanks in advance. I know this is a really old thread, hope someone is still watching.

Steve

[Selectron]

I'm not familiar with your vehicle but the wiring diagram for the 2001 shows the actuator as being fed via fuse #10 (15A, located in the Central Junction Box).

If you have access to a multimeter, the voltage conditions at the actuator are quite straightforward, and you should be able to check them relatively easily.

• Pin 7 receives 12V on the red/black wire when the ignition switch is in the Run position.
• Pin 3 receives a variable-voltage control signal on the grey/yellow wire, from the driver's temperature control.
• Pin 8 connects to ground via a black wire, which can be confirmed by a continuity check using the meter's resistance range.

I think you'll find the fuse will be good, because it feeds a whole host of other circuits besides the actuator, and you'd be reporting multiple faults if it had blown. If the fuse does indeed prove to be ok then a multimeter would pretty much be a necessity to proceed further, because the next step would depend on which of those three elements is missing - the pin 7 supply voltage, pin 3 control voltage, or the pin 8 ground.

[Andrew1941]

The acutator is quick and easy to access and once you have it out, it does open up and you can visually inspect the crappy plastic gears. This is a common failure item. The problem of the air coming out the defrost only is an idicator that there is a vacuum leak or no conenction tot he vacuum accumulator box under the hood. On my 2001 the accumulator box is on the passenger side, under the cowel. It is a black box on the side of the air intake plenun. The vacuum hose is a small 1/8" red plasti line that passes through the firewall and heads to the centre console. If the box is not connected, each time the van is off, the gate will fall by gravity to the defrost position. Once the engine starts, if the hose is not leaking, the gat will move back to the position where the dash controls indicate. Basically the box just holds the gat in position while the engine is off. If you have leak it will also flall the defrost position because no vacuum can be held in the acumulator.

[Just_a_chick]

Thank you to all who posted ideas on this problem. I had the clicking and thumping in my windstar since April and noticed that it stopped when set to a specific temperature. Since it was set on cool and needed AC, didn't give it much thought. Now that it has dropped below freezing, I needed to do something, so when I explained the problem to a friend, he said it was probably my "actuator". Not knowing what that was I entered "Windstar heat actuator" and found this thread. After reading it, I was able to locate the actuator by removing the very bottom section of the center dash console and looked up to find the "white box". I found that if I moved the heat selector to the hottest position (where it clunked the loudest) I could see that the shaft was trying to turn unsuccesfully. Then, using a pair of pliers, I was able to turn the shaft counter-clockwise until it stopped making any noise. I now have heat. I did not have to tear the whole dash apart or use any special tools, and I did not have to remove the radio. Granted, the space was small and depite my smaller hands, it was difficult to reach, I found it easier than tearing everything apart. I will likely have to remove more in order to actually replace the actuator, but since I had already called all over town to find that no one had one in stock and in fact could not even order one because the manufactuers are out of stock, I realized that this temporary fix will have to do.

[Bluetick7]

Timechief and the others above have it right. I am no mechanical wiz, and with the instructions , and a nice YouTUBE video I was able to change out the actuator motor in a couple of hours. Out with the Radio, Remove the heater control panel and lay it to the side, disconnect the actuator, remove and note the location of the D shaped shaft, plug in the new one, turn on the key and use the heater control seclector to get the new one positioned into the same location as the old one. Put ever thing back together. Took some extensions and 7MM & 8MM sockets. Worked like a charm - Thanks to all who saved me between 600 - 1300 at the dealer!!

[truckbro]

Guys! I found a kit that repairs the broken blend door problem with no dash removal and takes about an hour. The kit is called the HeaterTreater and they have installation videos on youtube. check it out: www.heatertreater.net