Ford Vehicles: Frequent Blend Door Actuator Failures and Why?

You can get the Motorcraft actuators much cheaper than the Ford Dealer here on Amazon-(check fitment guide)
One bit of advice I can give here is to use the latest Blend Door Actuators from MOTORCRAFT ONLY. Dorman units and others alike are causing more issues than the Ford units and are just not worth the limited savings.
BSG Automotive offers Auto Repair services in the greater Chicagoland area.
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[mindpilot]

Good informative video..thanks! I am amused at all the comments that today's cars are such junk. I remember back when I was doing this kind of work in the 60's & 70's, you were guaranteed to need to need a new heater core by 50k and many of the duct-work components were literally made of cardboard. And those bowden cables everyone likes so much...they always got rusty and seized. The vacuum systems would occasionally have a control head or an actuator leak, but for the most part they were pretty reliable. Best part about the vacuum systems is they were fail-safe; if they lost vacuum, they defaulted to hot defrost.

[rixille]

It would be cool to find aluminum versions of these gears and swap the plastic ones out with those and see how long the blend door actuator lasts (on the older unit)

[garycalcote]

This explains a lot about my current situation, I purchased a new actuator but couldn't find anything wrong with the one I removed.
Thank you for sharing this video post.

[BlisterBang]

How I wish other YouTube videos had such detailed, useful information. Thank you so much!

[TheTech]

I feel like the future of owning my F150 will be way better because of this channel. Just stellar content and awesome consistency.

[keithbjelland]

Ford needs to do a recall, and reimburse there customer's.

[lynheydt]

Didn’t have this problem with a cable operated blend door. Oh and all these companies want to make self driving cars let that sink in a few minutes

[DaleKluth]

I replaced two of my blend door motors on my 2013 F150 King Ranch about a month ago. One was behind the radio and the other was on the bottom of the heater assembly on the passenger site. About a month later and in the middle of the Colorado Blizzard of 2021, the clicking was back and my blower motor started to make a warbling sound too. I pulled the lower passenger side blend door motor, turned on the truck, put in the fuse and the blend door motor continuously turns clockwise (which is evidently bad for plastic gear teeth and blend door shafts). When I replaced the blend door motors the first time, I did this same test and saw the motor go back and forth and then stop. I got another new blend door motor and it continuously turns clockwise too. As for the blower motor noise, I pulled the blower motor and part of the blend door shaft was in the squirrel cage. Put my hand up where the motor was mounted and the vent door easily moves back and forth, so imagine that is the shaft that broke and ended up in the fan. My question is what controls these motors because my blend door motors are new and I still have the clicking, now with the added feature of breaking blend door shafts.

[twobeer]

I guess a cable operated by a lever, is just too darn simple...

[TheSpazModic]

It's going to be VERY hard to restore today's cars 50 years from now

[glasser]

love your analysis presentation about design failures... it's all about details plus lack of quality and cost savings = perfect ownership chaos!
👍

[deankay]

After 40+ years of working on vehicles, engineers for GM says 5, 000hrs of life. But silkscreen resistance material and contacts & small gear teeth fail. They use a separate "Pot" gear driven, but use a 2 wire software that counts high-low current flow to figure positions! Then if block, it backs off and try's 3 times to clear obstruction then stop, set code. You find straws, toy parts & short pencils blocking the door. The one guy told me he was forced to retire said new college kids make mistakes we learned 30 years ago. A high number of failures trigger a flag to have dealers save and send back in w/info. If redesigned and not a class 1 safety issues like seat belt anchor comes out, then a new parts is made, TBS created and becomes a "Second Design" with new P/N. Except for old cable type, HVAC defaults to defrost. This is a DOT rule! But in the early 90's, 15 minute headlamp was a rule. That is gone on some Fords that require the front bumper gets removed and 3 hrs later, ready to go! Wow! DK, ASE Master Tech since 78, retired.

[mercoid]

I believe my 2015 Fiesta has the larger old style actuator. It’s been clicking periodically for over a year now, and it’s the second unit in the car. The first one I had replaced under warranty by the dealership. The paperwork listed parts and labor for it at $500 at the time!! A few months ago I found I could buy the unit for about $25 and that under dash access to the component is very easy… like a 30 m in minute job.

[joshrobinson]

Just started hearing clicking when turning heat up (manual temp control) in my 09 F150 yesterday. Thanks to your videos I should be able to replace this actuator myself.

[Coalsmoke]

Oh for the good old days when you would move a lever on the dash and it would in turn move a cable that operated the door. Never broke down and was always reliable. I look at the newer cars out there and see all the electronic goodies, but all I can think of is the $$$'s in repairs.

[glenmclendon]

Other than that thing knocking on the on the back of my glovebox door, my 2009 Taurus is the best car I've ever had . Been flawless .
It's an easy fix .

[francis]

Thanks for another great video. But remember, that's how they keep the public broke. Engineered failures.

[handsomejack]

Can relate. Have to replace mine every 6-9 months. Thanks Ford.

[jeffbryan]

My friend Gerry used to tell people "Yeah you think Fords are so great...JUST TRY AND FIX ONE!"

[tonyrhodes]

Those little things you're calling tracking bars are made to regulate voltage needed or not needed in operating the doors direction of closing or opening depending on its place during the cycle.