Air Blend Door

[12ringer74]

Does anyone have replacement parts #(S) for the air blend/mix door for a 2000 Windstar??? tried to repair before and it's broken again...
If I'm going to cut out the duct to get to it I would like to replace not repair....AGAIN!!!!

[bdahl385]

You might want to research this companies product as listed on eBay. I don't have a dog in this hunt but it looks like they make the exact item you need and it's probably better than what Ford originally designed too...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-...item41431b55fd

[12Ounce]

Originally Posted by 12ringer74

.....If I'm going to cut out the duct to get to it .....

Did you repair the door before without cutting the plenum duct?? That must have been quite a task.

I went thru the whole procedure ... cutting the duct and all ... and used two-part epoxy on the door repair. May have used some fiber glass to reinforce ... don't remember. But the repair has been working for years now.

[jakethebt]

I am making the same repair this weekend. However, my AC evaporator is leaking so I am replacing the entire evaporator case which has the blend door in it. I used car-part.com it is a junk yard search engine. I looked in the midwest and found the lowest price page and started calling around. I ended up finding it for $45 plus $15 shipping. Also I made sure it was from a 2001 and up as i heard there was a change made then. Not sure on that, but figured it could not hurt. So I am pulling the dash this weekend and installing the new case. The good news is the junkyard did not pull all the stuff off the junk yard part. It has the heater core, blower motor and all control stuff still on it. The dash removal does not look that bad from the Ford service manual. I guess we will see.

[12Ounce]

... be sure to clean and inspect the ac coil, especially the insulation/barrier that surrounds the coil. If the barrier is damaged/missing sections ... you can use "Mor-tite" from HomeDepot to replace/repair.

[jakethebt]

Sorry for the thread jack... do you mean the foam around the evaporator core where it goes through the fire wall? If so, why is it so important to replace if slightly damaged?

[12Ounce]

No, not where the refrigerant tubes go thru the walls ... but where the coil is supported in the plenum duct ... by a preformed foam cushion that the coil nests in. If this foam cushion is fragmented, air can freely flow around the coil instead of through the coil.

My '99's ac performance seem to worsen over the years ... no matter how well I serviced everything. When I finally got to inspecting the coil itself, I found about 30% of perimeter of the coil had no seal/barrier to prevent free air flow. Once I corrected this, the ac has been super.

[jakethebt]

Well I replaced the duct work on the hvac by removing the dash this past weekend. I had the Ford book so it was pretty easy. I had a leaky AC evaporator which meant i had to replace the entire thing. I had fixed the blend door back in 2001 when we bought the van. I thought my fix had broken, but i think now that it was the blend door motor. So i have both of my problems fixed.

Also... when i fixed the blend door the first time, i did it in the van with out any cutting or new parts. My blend door was originally broken at the hinge. The actuator would turn but the door never moved. I pulled the heater core and could see this. I was able to force the blend door out of the heater core hole. This was difficult because the hole is smaller than the door, but since the hinge was broken it worked. I then cut the two pivot points of the old door off. Acutally I cut one, the other was broken. I then found a suitable piece of "donor" plastic. In this case it was a $.50 portable high chair from a garage sale (thanks mom!). I heated tested it with a blow dryer to make sure it was not going to melt. I traced out the old blend door and cut it with a jig saw. Then i bolted the hinges to it. While ugly, and flat, it deflected the air. The key to this was that the new door was somewhat flexible and could be manipulated into place through the heater core access. This door worked from '01 until '09. That is 8 years and it was still working when i removed it! I am keeping it for any possible future repairs. I will remove it from the old duct work and take pictures for others to copy.

[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