Vent door itself is broken

[p. rex]

Hello all,

I have a 2015 Fiesta ST with a little over 60,000 miles. A few weeks ago, I started to hear the dreaded clicking from under the dash. Having had the blend door actuator go out on me a couple years back, I know that's bad news. Before long, my HVAC was stuck on the defrost vents. I could not switch to the dash vents or floor vents. This suggested to me a vent door actuator failure.

Well, I took the car to the dealer to have them look at it. They got back to me and said that the vent door actuator had not failed. Rather, the vent door itself had broken. They said that this was part of a large air box module that contained the evaporator and much of the air routing hardware. They told me that the parts are not available to replace the door on its own and that the entire evaporator box has to be replaced. As you might expect, this is a punishingly expensive dashboard-out job. I am not thrilled at this huge repair bill I am looking at, and was hoping that you guys could tell me whether the dealer's explanation is plausible.

If I have to have the dash pulled to replace an $1,100 evaporator module, I won't love it, but I'll do it. But as I'm sure y'all understand, I want to sure it's necessary before I authorize the work.

If I do have to do this, I am praying that the good will authorities at FoMoCo will take pity on me. Not too optimistic on that front, but we'll see.

Thanks, everyone --

Jordan

 

[SteveS]

On Tascaparts the whole assembly with all its parts is 700 something dollars.

 

[p. rex]

OK, good to know -- that's a pretty rough dealer markup. I am in contact with an indy shop that seems to really know their stuff. They looked up the parts and concluded that what the dealer saying was plausible, but that to even get deep enough to conclusively say that the vent door is broken would be a couple hours' labor on its own. They said they'd never heard of this particular failure, and that they were a little skeptical that the dealership actually knew that this was the problem.

So, unless the phone rings and the guy at the dealership tells me that the whole repair is going to be comped through goodwill, I think I'm gonna take my car to the indy mechanic for a second opinion. Sounds like even if the dealer is right that the vent flap is broken, the indy can probably beat them on price by a lot.

Thanks, Steve!

--Jordan

 

[SrsBsns]

I'm curious too because I'm having a problem where my vents only blow out of the face vents, despite what the HVAC controls say.

I'm not getting the dreaded clicking sound after replacing the actuators, but I do get this squealing kind of sound pretty regularly now. Someone recommended disconnecting the battery and I haven't tried that yet but I'm hoping that's all it is.

Please let us know what you find.

 

[p. rex]

Hmm, guess it can’t hurt to unhook and reconnect the battery. I am going to get a second opinion, I think.

 

[cjpasch]

Hmm, guess it can’t hurt to unhook and reconnect the battery. I am going to get a second opinion, I think.

What ended up happening with this? I just did the drive and passenger side Blend Door Actuators. Air only coming from defrost vents regardless of selections. I fear I have the same issue.

 

[SrsBsns]

What ended up happening with this? I just did the drive and passenger side Blend Door Actuators. Air only coming from defrost vents regardless of selections. I fear I have the same issue.

I'm still trying to figure mine out. I'm not in a huge rush because the air is set to blow through the face vents, which is where I want to have them 90+% of the time, but they won't switch to floor or defrost when I need it.
I've reset my battery and it does nothing.
I don't have any clicking sound or anything like that. No creaking, no clicking, nothing. But the vents don't move.

There was another thread that was started about this and the OP got his vents working by replacing the driver's side blend door actuator.

I'm tempted to order new blend door actuators and see if they help, but I don't want to just throw $ at this without knowing a solution.

 

[cjpasch]

I'm still trying to figure mine out. I'm not in a huge rush because the air is set to blow through the face vents, which is where I want to have them 90+% of the time, but they won't switch to floor or defrost when I need it.
I've reset my battery and it does nothing.
I don't have any clicking sound or anything like that. No creaking, no clicking, nothing. But the vents don't move.

There was another thread that was started about this and the OP got his vents working by replacing the driver's side blend door actuator.

I'm tempted to order new blend door actuators and see if they help, but I don't want to just throw $ at this without knowing a solution.

I can hear the air flow rate changing when I toggle between floor, front, and defrost. Which makes me think something is happening... I wonder if the vent doors are for some reason not facing the direction they were in before I replaced them? I read somewhere that the actuators are supposed to sense door location, so that aligning them shouldn't be a problem. I do not want to take it to Ford if I can, and I definitely do not plan to buy the hole evaporator assembly.

 

[HardBoiledEgg]

100% PLAUSIBLE

 

[p. rex]

Hello all,

So here’s how this shook out. I went and got that second opinion. The guy told me (in so many words) that the stealership was taking me for a ride and that my evap box and flaps were fine. This was several months ago now, but my recollection is that we had to replace the flap behind the center console to resolve the problem. I believe it was the vent door flap — not the blend door flap, which I did a few years ago. It was a pretty heavy labor charge, but if you don’t mind handling the dash disassembly, you can probably save quite a bit of money. We also did the flap behind the glove box (I believe it’s the recirc flap) at the same time, because why the hell not? Problem solved, and no issues since.

So anyway, I have seen no indication that these vent doors ever break, and if anybody tells you that yours is broken, you should go get a second opinion from an independent mechanic.

I didn’t think it was possible for me to have a lower opinion of dealership service writers than I already did. Color me surprised. I am not going back to the dealer for anything other than recalls now.