Wow. I wonder if you would feel the same way if it was your problem that you could not find a solution to. I bet not.

And just for the record. No one forced you to read it, or post any reply either.

 

That is what I thought it meant.


Good thing I didnt add the word phantosmia.
As you say others have smelled it, though one didnt.

I am curious as to what it may be myself.
Please, do tell if you find it.

 

Everyone smelled it. The one that "didn't" was after I drove it around for awhile - which was after the smell goes away. But she did indeed smell it when first powered on.

 

Okay - just a follow-up for anyone who cares. For those who don't care, please just ignore.

This problem has finally been resolved. A shout out to @Big Ed 1 for putting us on the right track with his actuator suggestion. It was indeed an actuator, just not the one shown in that video - and that is a VERY GOOD thing.

I took the truck to a local shop that did some troubleshooting - down to two possible actuators. These actuators flip various parts of the ductwork between heat and AC, and when they get stuck, can overheat, melting the plastics and foam seals - thus the smell.

Sadly, the most likely culprit appeared to be the primary actuator/controller, was located way in the back of the dash, was a $450 part and required ripping out nearly the entire dash at 7+ hours labor - according to their Mitchel guide.

Since the HVAC system still worked, and the smell was tolerable and only lasted for 5 or so minutes, the tech recommended I "live with it" - until I couldn't. He said I will know when it is time to get it fixed - the system will be stuck on either heat or AC.

Well, a couple weeks later, it hit single-digits here in Nebraska and of course, the system got stuck on AC.

So I bit the bullet and took it back in.

After more thorough troubleshooting, it turns out it was the other actuator, one accessible from under the dash on the driver's side, was a $50 part, and only took 1 hour labor to replace. The bad news there was the replacement part was nowhere to be found in the U.S. (at least not according to their suppliers) and had to come via slow boat from China (I assume China). The good news is, while troubleshooting and isolating the problem to the bad actuator, the tech was able to manually flip the system to heat. So at least I didn't freeze and could keep the windshield clear over the next 2 weeks until the part came in.

So I wasted about $150 on a new blower motor resistor and blower motor. But the total repair, including that wasted $150) was still more than $1100 less than it could have been had the problem been the other actuator.

Thanks.

 

Good to hear, I replaced that one in our 2002 Explorer. Didnt smell but would not open the door it just clicked till I gave it a fist bang down there. Eventually it stopped working all together. Cheap plastic crap they use!
The other blend door? Instead of taking the dash apart there may be another fix if you ever need to fix the other door.
My 99 is the same way. You need to remove the whole dash, or at least try to get the passenger side to come out some to work.
First video I found to show you, does not look that hard to do.
Now mine is a 99, yours is a 2010 so yours may be different?
But keep this in mind if the need comes up.
Dorman makes a door (for mine) with a metal part instead of a plastic part.
You drop the glove box and cut thru the plastic inside to get at the door.
Check it out if you want. Beats tearing the whole dash apart.

 

Thats great news Bill. And it makes total sense- in my case I hear the actuator slightly noisy the SECOND that I turn on the power. I mean much faster than it would take a resistor or circuit board to heat up. I replaced the $50 actuator last year, so it means that it’s either the $400 one or my new one has gone bad. And you could be right about your mechanics supplier. Try Rock Auto!

 

Thanks all.

Yeah, I got the blower motor from Rock Auto.

Carparts.com is also good. With the money I saved (or didn't have to spend on the more costly actuator), I bought new exterior mirrors from them as both of mine were pretty beat up. The passenger side would not fold in and the driver's side had a cracked housing. I thought $190 (shipping included) for both was pretty good - for folding, heated, powered glass with built in turn signals.

 

That's great Bill. I'm going to remember this one.