HVAC problems
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5 Year Member
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 87
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From: North Charleston, SC
HVAC problems
I've got a 2012 Platinum and have started experiencing the dreaded clicking noise from under the dash. It starts as soon as I start the truck and sometimes takes a while to stop. While it's clicking I get no air flow from the front vents and get hot air from the defrost and the vent on the door. It's really hot here in South Carolina and A/C is a necessity. I've searched for answers but it seems as if no one has had the same issue as me. Some people get air flow through one side of the front vents but I don't get any at all. Once the clicking stops I get cool air from the front vents. I hate the thought of having to take it to the shop, both for the price and inconvenience. I have the dual climate control so I know there's a few actuators. What I haven't found is if there's one blend door actuator that controls the air flow through both sides of the front vents. I've heard people say there's two actuators, one for passenger side and one for driver side but I can't imagine them both acting up and then working at the same instant. Help please. It's hot down here.
I read through 20 pages related to blend door actuators. Not one person has had the same problem as me. I don't get air through my front vents.......not one side works, the other doesn't or one side blows hot, the other side cool. I get NO air through my front vents. Am I the only person to have this problem? Is there an actuator that controls air flow through BOTH sides? I'm ready to light a match tyo this POS. I had a 2012 Mustang GT with 7K miles that clicked every time I started it for about 30 seconds.
I read through 20 pages related to blend door actuators. Not one person has had the same problem as me. I don't get air through my front vents.......not one side works, the other doesn't or one side blows hot, the other side cool. I get NO air through my front vents. Am I the only person to have this problem? Is there an actuator that controls air flow through BOTH sides? I'm ready to light a match tyo this POS. I had a 2012 Mustang GT with 7K miles that clicked every time I started it for about 30 seconds.
Last edited by zeke7142003; Jun 1, 2019 at 08:09 PM.
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Joined: Jul 2015
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From: Minneapolis
Noesis
Joined: Nov 2018
Posts: 74
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When the lower actuator fails like yours did, it's the gear inside the housing that likely has a missing tooth (at least it was in my case) and this causes it to spin for a preset amount of time before it stops audibly clicking; changing temperature settings with climate controls can sometimes keep it at bay long enough to diagnose further.
The *clicking* you're hearing isn't coming from just the actuator but from the HVAC blend door that the actuator is connected to below the dash (not behind the radio) where the binding is happening within the actuator gear set, causes it to jump *click* back in/out of gear position as it cannot turn past the point of the internal HVAC door position. As the gear turns with the users climate setting inputs, there are voltage readings occurring that will be stored to the current Ford prestates of the blend door positioning within the HVAC module. When a tooth breaks off on the main gear (before revised actuators were shipped to dealers with new gears), it does not know last positioning of the HVAC settings, so it keeps 'hunting' which is why when changing temperature via the climate controls, it can stop it from *clicking* for a short amount of time; startup CAN bus HVAC module sequence will cause the audible clicking every time with a broken actuator gear until a climate control setting has been changed from last known position or timeout.
Now, to answer your question about why it's so hard to find an answer regarding having no air flow with this kind of actuator problem, I would say stems from where in the gear set the broken teeth have failed at. As this would determine based on previous CAN bus stored data, where the HVAC doors were at depending on current climate control settings used by the user.
Visualize this: Picture the actuator gear losing position with the HVAC door due to broken gear teeth in the actuator. The gears are now turning past a point where it can either A.) take the positioning of the HVAC door and either move it beyond where it can't move it back (stuck) Or B.) the actuator gear is binding because it's going beyond gear travel > data signal to last set positioning in the HVAC system. There are in fact 2 known actuators that fail. Driver side is below the dash and passenger side is behind the radio. In other words, loss of calibration.
It is a PITA to fix because it's like a $40 part and hours to accomplish it. I've done it. Just set a day to do it, put some tunes on and grab a couple cold ones and take your time. There are a couple known ways to go about fixing it depending if you want to remove the seats, center console, etc or go just going through from the pedal assembly side (not how I approached it as I was following multiple YT videos at the time).
Take care
The *clicking* you're hearing isn't coming from just the actuator but from the HVAC blend door that the actuator is connected to below the dash (not behind the radio) where the binding is happening within the actuator gear set, causes it to jump *click* back in/out of gear position as it cannot turn past the point of the internal HVAC door position. As the gear turns with the users climate setting inputs, there are voltage readings occurring that will be stored to the current Ford prestates of the blend door positioning within the HVAC module. When a tooth breaks off on the main gear (before revised actuators were shipped to dealers with new gears), it does not know last positioning of the HVAC settings, so it keeps 'hunting' which is why when changing temperature via the climate controls, it can stop it from *clicking* for a short amount of time; startup CAN bus HVAC module sequence will cause the audible clicking every time with a broken actuator gear until a climate control setting has been changed from last known position or timeout.
Now, to answer your question about why it's so hard to find an answer regarding having no air flow with this kind of actuator problem, I would say stems from where in the gear set the broken teeth have failed at. As this would determine based on previous CAN bus stored data, where the HVAC doors were at depending on current climate control settings used by the user.
Visualize this: Picture the actuator gear losing position with the HVAC door due to broken gear teeth in the actuator. The gears are now turning past a point where it can either A.) take the positioning of the HVAC door and either move it beyond where it can't move it back (stuck) Or B.) the actuator gear is binding because it's going beyond gear travel > data signal to last set positioning in the HVAC system. There are in fact 2 known actuators that fail. Driver side is below the dash and passenger side is behind the radio. In other words, loss of calibration.
It is a PITA to fix because it's like a $40 part and hours to accomplish it. I've done it. Just set a day to do it, put some tunes on and grab a couple cold ones and take your time. There are a couple known ways to go about fixing it depending if you want to remove the seats, center console, etc or go just going through from the pedal assembly side (not how I approached it as I was following multiple YT videos at the time).
Take care
Last edited by JaCeD_X; Jun 1, 2019 at 10:07 PM. Reason: Clarified