No GD Heat Again In My 99 Windstar!

This is unfrigginbelievable.

60 days ago and to the tune of 900.00 we had the blend door assembly unit replaced.

I get in the van yesterday, slide the control from cold to hot and all I start hearing is a clicking noise.

I still have heat in the rear, but once again do defrost. I am so pissed because it sounds like that actuator broke.

Now we are in a pissing contest with the dealership because they refuse to fix the problem for free. My wife told them we are not going to pay 900.00 every two months to get heat in the van.

I said the first one worked for 6 years until it broke and now a brand new one lasts 60 days? C'mon!!!! Something aint right here.

Its not like we broke it or anything. I mean the stupid thing is concealed behind the radio and dash, we sure as hell didnt damage it.

I think the part had a flaw or defect when it was installed.

I will never buy a Ford product again as long as I live. They were rude and talking down to my wife, and I am ready to go off on someone.

What the hell ever happened to good service and standing behind your product?

Well, I'm not paying to have it replaced and I will fight them to the end.

I'm mad along with you. It seems that Ford has this great plan of losing as many customers as possible ... so it can rush into bancruptcy.

Probably the first repair you had done involved replacing the plenum assembly. This thing costs about $300 and it is labor intensive ... the ac and the coolant have to be removed and refilled. The plenum goes the full width (well, almost) of the dash panel. This is the "Ford solution" when the blend door itself breaks. The blend door is not replaceable as a single part because there is not access provided ... it's built-in the sealed plenum assembly.

Now it sounds as though you have an actuator failure. It probably was not replaced the first-go-round. The actuator is a $35 part that is outside the plenum.

Of course, it would have made good business sense if they had replaced the actuator when everything was wide open. Or replace it for you now, since you already paid out the big bucks.

But they don't think this way.

Companies that intend to stay in business think this way ... those don't include the blue oval folks.

.Now it sounds as though you have an actuator failure. It probably was not replaced the first-go-round. The actuator is a $35 part that is outside the plenum.

Of course, it would have made good business sense if they had replaced the actuator when everything was wide open. Or replace it for you now, since you already paid out the big bucks.


Well my friend you are correct. However the service manager said something to my wife when she picked up the van that does not make sense to me.

Wife: Why didnt you replace the actuator when you had everything apart?

SM: Well you dont really see the actuator when you are replacing the plenum.

Something to that effect. I am either really the densest human being on the planet, or this guy is off his rocker.

Somebody please tell me when they did the 900.00 repair that they could not have inspected the actuator at that time and would have had access at that time as well.

Somebody? Anyone?

BTW, it was another 185.00.

They actually had to remove the actuator from the old plenum and reinstall on new.

Of course, I am assuming it is the plenum-mounted actuator that has now failed.