Heater Blend Door Actuator Failed AGAIN

[sousa632]

So this is really getting me annoyed. The original one in the car broke and the previous owner removed it. I got a JY replacement and that one broke. I then got a Dorman unit from Advance and about 3 weeks ago it started making that lovely popping noise. I took it out today, took at apart and whaddya know........ broken teeth as well. There is no binding in the door and everything else works as it should.

Now my question is this....... is there ANYONE who makes one of these with metal or better internal gears than that plastic ****? The Motorcraft one I had (took that one apart too) had the same garbage plastic teeth. I have a LL warranty on this but I really dont want to keep having to squeeze under my dash to replace these things. This one lasted 10 months.

[behlinla]

Heater treater blend door:

Ford Taurus '96-'07 - '96 - '07 - Taurus - Ford

The blend door may have moved easily, but perhaps it is getting stuck intermittently and putting extra stress on your actuators.

[sheila]

John, someone on here spent considerable time matching up and sourcing metal gears from some place like Hobby Lobby. Only time I experienced consecutive bda gear failures was on 1 of the in-law's winnies with the slide bar lever temp control. When lever was repeatedly slid max hot or cold, the excessive stress took out the plastic gear(s). The easy solution was a dab of clear silicone at the ends of the slot to prevent max travel (throw). Been fine for 5-6 yrs. now.

[sousa632]

I never put it on max heat, but I do put it on full cold (60*) in the summer. I have auto climate control and I thought that I read somewhere here that when you turn the car on it goes through a full range cycle(cold to hot, then to your temp setting). When I turned the car on, even with the climate control off, it would make the popping noise from skipping teeth on the gears. It's not on the main input gear but the reduced gear that rides on that(small one). The next time I take it out I will take a pic of which gear broke. I believe it's the same teeth that failed on the JY one. It's really a stupid design if you ask me........ input gear, and 2 other gears to the motor.

[sheila]

^+1. Iirc, when I've opened up failed bda(s), the broken teeth are always on one of the smaller (lesser) gears.

[hellojohn99]

I'm having a similar issue, anyone found a better Actuator yet?

[mjhpadi]

I think it is an on-going issue with Ford, we have had them fail in both our Explorer and in the SHO....it's still a fairly common problem on even the newest generation of the Taurus. Mine on the SHO was replaced under warranty. I also am aware that some people have had the same problem on the Lincoln's too.