Heater Blend door broken on my 1998 Lincoln town car

Autoa odotellessa pieni välipala lämmönsäätimen korjauksesta 1998 Town Cariin. Systeemihän on sama myös Victoriassa. Lakkasi käyttöautoon lämmäötulo, niin oli pakko alkaa remonttipuuhiin.

Kyseessä on yleinen vika, siksi englanniksi tästä eteenpäin koska hyödyntää näin isompaa yleisöä.


I have also 1998 Town Car. While waiting my Crown Vic to arrive I had time to do this story.

It doesn´t give me heat to cabin and I read it is a common problem.
Heater blend door next to heater core breaks down and will stuck in one position.

There is only one way to do it neat; take the whole frikkin Dash off. If you don´t want to do it (who does?) then follow these instructions. Also google it, do some research you own.

On my car somebody had already tried to fix it, so the big box under the dash where everything is, was already cut to pieces (i also had bad air blow, becourse the air was escaping from hole they made).  Pictures are taken in reverse order, so they might look a bit funny.

1. Remove battery cable

2. Remove glow box. Easy task, 3 screws and it gomes straight off.

3. Remove passenger air bag.

airbag bolts

 From glow box hole you can see two airbag bolts. Take those off and airbag can be removed.

4. Remove airbag

remove airbag

5. Remove air vent. One bolt.

remove air vent (one bolt)

6. Remove big black air tube. We had to cut it,becourse thought it doesn´t come off, but there was third screw hidden... So take all three screws away... It is a bit tricky but there is enough room it to come off

remove black air tube

7. Now you can see blend door actutor. It has three screw, the one in back is realy bitch. Be patient.

location of blend door actuator

8. To remove the blend door, you need to cut bottom. It is pain in the ass job, but unless you want to take whole dash off... just do it. ( Do not cut shaft bottom!!)

blend door can be removed that hole

Shaft is on left side, when heat is on it moves to that heater core and blocking it. When cold, it moves other way.

heater coor

That blue is what thet blend doort looks like inside. I had a huge part removed from the heater core other side too. It helps, then you can put your hand all the way in, but i would make only the smaller hole first. They do have to be fixed too at the end... All air has to stay inside that box.

heater core and blend door

9. Take Blend door from the hole you just made. It will propably look something like mine did.
 Mine had already been fixed once, looks like it was broken a bit, but now it was totaly in pieces.

broken shaft

Mine was broken bad. Depending how bad it is, that determinates the fix.

10. We used metal tube and welded 11mm socket to it.
I put epoxy putty to it when i placed actuator shaft in it. When it dried, it is shape of actuator motor part that moves the door.

Here is our fix. Cut the medal pipe and welded a socket on top (size that fits thrue the hole). Not prettu but it works.

Found this from junkyard. Looks like you still can find good ones.  It is still available at Ford, but you have to get whole assembly and it is 350 USD..

If you fix you part, you have tomake sure the motor hole is exact at the right place! Use epxosy putty, put motor axle on it place ( use it as stamp). Let dry and you have right place for it.

The hole has to be correct!!!!!

Found this website that sells those for Fords, made one like that our self.
Link to that page:
http://www.conceptualedge.com/blend-door/

11. Now door back inside and assembly motor. We used our fixed door, but I later found good part from junkyard so it was replaced after this pic.

Our 11mm socket and epoxy putty can be seen in this pic.

12. Now when you have it all back, test that it moves the way it should.

The big job after that is to fix those holes you made. They have to be air tight, or blow will be bad. No air can be let to escape.

13. Put all you took off, back. If everything works, you are lucky. If you are not, you have to take whole dash off, steering column etc and I dont think nobody wants to do it voluntarely!!

Because you have made a big hole bottom of your box, you will have to fix the hole. You can use good tape first and then fiberglass it tight. Remember, no air can be let out from there! Your blend door might not keep all air flow cold/heat as it should, thats because you cant fix the bottom original. But I rather take some heat leaking (when it should be all cold) then take whole dash off.


14. Comment here you made it, or if there is something i forgot to say. Thank You!