99 windstar no heat in front...help!

[mywindstar]

Originally Posted by phordguy

Here's a pic of the blend door which is in the pic on the heater box in the center. The silver tubing is for the A/C evaporator and is just to the left of the blend door. The door is hinged on the right side of the square hole in middle of the heater box. In the pic in this post you can see the square with the one rounded side where the shaft of the electric actuator fits into. This rounded square is one of the two points that makes up the hinge. The rounded square is on the side of the heater box facing the radio, the side of the hinge on the blend door that faces the firewall is just a point. Both pieces of the hinge protrude each through their own holes in the heaterbox to allow the blend door to go up or down. When the blend door is air is forced through the heater core, the velocity of air will hold it up until the van is turned off and the airflow stops, then no heat again. The default position if the actuator fails or if the blend door hinge breaks is to go down thus preventing any air through the heater core and thus cold air though the vents.

The pic below is of the door but its upside down from the way its installed in the view of the heater box.

This pic below and the two above are from 12ounce. The one below shows the reinforced section on a repaired '99 Windstar blend door, aka the "12ounce" method.

Is there any way to temporarily fix the door without removing the whole dash? I can't afford to spend that kinda money but need to get the heater working. If I can get to the door I hope can rig it.

[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

[Guitartec]

Help, Nubie here.

My wife's 99 Windstar has decided to have heating problems. I've been reading about the actuator for the blend door, but her problem seems wierder than just that. It's cold here in New England now. She drives for 10 minutes with no heat available. Fan works fine. All of a sudden she gets decent heat for about 10 minutes, then the heat simply goes away. Fan continues to run. She says eng temp is fine, but she's, well... a mom, so she's prolly looking at a half a tank of gas.

I have not had time to look at it, so this info is all from her. Like usual, my Haynes manual talks about everything but this. I'm not in the mood to backflush the cooling system in the freezing cold, so someone please tell me it's not a t-stat issue.

Isn't there something I can whack with a hammer to fix this?

[scubacat]

That's almost always (like 99.9% of the time) air in the cooling system. Did you get the coolant flushed recently or have any other service done that may have necessitated draining the coolant from the radiator and refilling afterward?

Either that the coolant is low (which may be a symptom of a leak.) When it's parked and cold, is the coolant about 1/3 to 1/2 way full in the overflow bottle?

[Guitartec]

Well, my wife works at a big Tech college here in RI and they have a huge automotive department. They do all the work on her van when they have time, which is only now and then. The last thing they did was the front-end (struts, CV axles, control arms, etc.). The problem started several days after that, so who knows if someone drained some coolant. I'll check that for sure. Do you think the blend actuator is okay?

[scubacat]

Just turn the key to the ON position (without starting the engine), wait for it to get quiet (beeping to stop, etc.) and slide the temperature selector with your ear up to the console. You should be able to hear the motor. If the motor were bad, it would be stuck in a position. I highly doubt it would flip from hot to cold just randomly after 10 minutes.

Check the coolant bottle. If it just seems a little low, the system level could be a lot lower than that. Fill that bottle up to the 1/2 way mark with 50/50 mix, drive a bit, and see if it goes back down again. I'm still pretty sure you have low coolant or air in the system somewhere. Low coolant could leave enough to circulate through the block but not enough to go through the heater cores.

[Guitartec]

Thanks Scubacat, my wife just told me they did a coolant flush not too long ago. That's where I'll check first and also listen for the door and motor movement. I know teeth can break on the gears, so I'll listen closely for that.

Thanks, I'll keep ya posted.

[scubacat]

Nothing wrong with verifying the actuator, but, it's the coolant. They probably didn't fully pressure bleed it and thus were tricked into thinking it was full. She gets the van back, starts driving, the air self-purges, and the low coolant level is obvious and you have this symptom. Basically it heats up and starts to flow through the heater core until the thermostat opens and the coolant starts going through the block only. Get a gallon or two of 50/50 coolant and pour some into the overflow bottle before each drive. You'll see that its low when you do that. (Or have whoever flushed it fill it back up properly for you!)