Hi all,

A few days ago air would only blow out of my vents and a little out of the floor on my 2006 F150. To me it's either the control unit in the dash, the mode door actuator, or something jammed up in there.

The temperature blend door, blower, and everything else works so I'm leaning against it being the control unit in the dash.

So I went ahead and found the mode door actuator and took it off. The actuator moves three levers. One is on the floor connected by a rod, and 2 are underneath the actuator itself(can't see those 2 unless you take off the actuator).

Here's a pic of the mode door actuator I'm talking about, I found it from another post:




Two of the levers moved freely, one is jammed. It is the highest one, I'm not sure which one it does. I'm assuming I should be able to move all three levers freely correct??

Now what do I do, do I have to take apart the entire dash now??? THIS SUCKS. If I have to take apart the entire dash to get to the actual door, I'm thinking dealer time......

 

well, I know what the problem is now.

I borrowed a bore scope from work (fiber optic camera with LED light on the end) and snaked it thru the vents in my truck.

Apprantly on my upper door, there is foam that is lodging the door and jamming it up....

Dash removal here I come!

 

after a good day of work I took the whole dash out of the truck, pretty tricky and time consuming. I'm glad to say I took it all out wihtout breaking one thing!

There was a piece of foam backing on one of the mode doors that fell off and jammed up the door. Apparantly the glue melted from the heat and the foam fell off. I went to the store and got some adhesive thats supposed to stand up to 250 degree F so that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Tomorrow is puting it back together. Yay.

 

At least i'll know what my problem is if I ever roll across this problem. Theres foam in a lot of hidden places. Only problem i've ever had with removing dash pieces was getting the foam to stay in place after I took it apart.

 

After 3 days of work it's all done.

It's 100% solid though, no squeeks or anything.

For anyone who is doing a dash removal, I would recommend using blue locktite on all the dash to frame bolts. I locktited all those bolts and I must have cranked them down the hardest I could with a standard 3/8 rachet, must be around 80 ft-lbs per bolt. This thing is more solid then when it rolled off the assembly line!

 

Man can you get some detailed pics?

 

sorry man it's already 100% assembled! I was in a rush and didn't take pictures, I had to take 2 days off work to finish it.

But, taking off the whole dash is not hard, but just time consumng. The hardest part is taking off the plastic panels without snapping anything, just be careful and use a plastic tool to pry them off (I used a spackel tool). All I used was the Haynes manual, it was enough for me to get the dash out.

Also, you do need two people when you take the dash out. I just put blankets down on my seats, and flipped the dash upside down on the seats with some help. Worked fine and nothing happened to my leather seats.

Brian

 

How is it working now.

 

works great it's 100%. I had to get the piece of foam out and I used the felt side of velcro to make a new seal. Put a new mode door actuator in and I'm good

 

Do you have the part number to the mode door actuator, mine quit working.

 

Hey HawkZ28.. THANKS for sharing your trials and tribulations! I think I have the same problem on my 2005 FX4.... I change the vent selector, and it takes about 5 minutes for it to change... but it does change. I wonder if it is just the actuator dying. If I take it off, and all 3 levers move easily, I guess that is the answer. Fingers crossed!!

Any chance you can circle the actuator in the picture you posted?

thanks bro!

Dave

 

Mine makes a deep growling noise comming out of the defroster vents when I go in and out of those settings only (last 3 seconds)...I just picked the truck up (05 stx 4.6) so Im going to bring it back to look at it, but im sure it wont be covered

 

I don't normally bump old threads, but I may have to look into this in the spring and I know Hawk is still an active member.

Mine works intermittently. Always blows out of the vents, but you can get it to blow out of the floor and defrost when changing to that setting when you first start the truck. Makes kind of a clicking type sound when you first change a setting.

Hoping it's just the door mode actuator.

is this the correct part?

 

It's been a while since I did this. That looks like the right part, but if I remember correctly I went to the dealer and got it, it wasn't crazy expensive.

I would go to fordparts.com and check to see if it's correct.

Also, from your description, you may be lucky and it's just the actuator, if you take the old actuator off and the lever moves freely, it's an easy fix. If it's hanging or partially stuck, you have a partial jam.

From reading the forums, there are other ways to get to the jammed felt from other members. The official way is what I did. Other's have found a way to access behind the radio by either cutting or I read someone who found some kind of access way without cutting? I would do that now knowing what I know.

The only good think about pulling the dash is you get to really know the interior of the truck, and when you put it all back together with lock tight it's SOLID.

 

Thank you! I'll double check the part and get this taken care of when the weather warms up. Still seems to work, but I can tell it's not working as it once did.

Hope this cures it. Otherwise, I'll look into those other options you mentioned, as I really don't want to take out the dash.