athensdawgs81
Active Member
I've seen lots of blend door tutorials but not a mode door tutorial so I thought I would write one. It's a very easy process that took about 20 minutes to complete.
Symptoms - Clicking coming from drivers dash, in conjunction with erratic or wrong air flow direction from Floor/Dash/Defrost vents. Front HVAC stuck in one mode Floor/Dash/Defrost. Sometimes they fail without the clicking. Mine was my wife noticed it was stuck in defrost. I performed a HVAC calibration and got it to work in other modes but there was loud clicking at seemingly random times after starting and while driving down the road. After I replaced it I took the old one apart and found missing teeth on one of the gears.
Part - Motorcraft YH1881
Highly recommend you use OEM part for this one. My original lasted 11 years for what it's worth. You can get it here at Amazon. Motorcraft YH1881
Tools needed:
1/4 ratchet w/ 8mm socket
3/8 ratchet w/ 13MM socket
4 - 6" 3/8 extension
Step by step:
1 - slide your drivers seat all the way back and move the steering wheel all the way up.
2 - Disconnect the battery. You can also pull the HVAC module fuse, but disconnecting the battery is accomplished with the same 8mm socket used to replace the actuator. So to me it was easier then looking up the fuse and messing with the fuse box on the passenger side.
3 - With a 13mm socket, remove the three bolts holding the gas pedal and set the gas pedal to the side against the brake pedal out of the way. (removing the gas pedal is stupidly easy, and makes this job a lot easier)
4 - With 8mm socket, rewove the two bolts holding the mode door actuator. The actuator is just above where the gas pedal was.
5 - Disconnect the wiring harness going to the actuator. I found doing this after removing the actuator was easier as it will hang down into better view to see what you're doing.
6 - Take the glob of white grease off the old actuator white "rotator" and put it on the new actuator white "rotator". The grease on my old actuator looked brand new. You can certainly use new grease if you want, but it does not take much so I reused the old grease.
7 -With the new actuator, partially insert the white "rotator" back into the hole the old one came out of. The white "rotator" is keyed so it will only go into the hole a certain way and that way might not be lined up at all with the actuator bolt holes. This is because where your old actuator failed may not be where the new actuator "rotator" is lined up from the factory. Once the "rotator" is partially inserted, gently rotate the actuator in either direction until it will fully seat into position with the two bolt holes lined up. While rotating keep in mind that you are actually moving the mode door. If you run into resistance STOP! Do not force it! One of two things is happening. The likely scenario is that you have reached the limit of travel for the mode door, and you need to rotate the other way. The unlikely scenario is your mode door is jammed and you have bigger problems then this tutorial, or a new actuator can help.
8 - Install the two 8mm bolts into the new actuator.
9 - Reconnect the actuator wiring harness.
10 - Reattached the gas pedal with the three 13MM bolts. Their torque spec is 18ft-lbs if interested, but it would be hard to get a torque wrench in there IMO. I just tightened them "oil drain plug tight" as that's how they felt coming out.
11 - Reconnect the battery.
12 - Wait 30 seconds.
13 - Turn the key to the on position, but do not start the car.
14 - Turn on the HVAC, but do not do anything else like change temp or mode. I simply hit the auto button on mine to turn it on.
15 - Wait 30 seconds. (Not sure if the HVAC calibration happens at battery reconnect, or when first turning the HVAC back on. So I just waited 30 seconds for both.
16 - All done! Your new mode door actuator should be calibrated and the quiet as a mouse.
Symptoms - Clicking coming from drivers dash, in conjunction with erratic or wrong air flow direction from Floor/Dash/Defrost vents. Front HVAC stuck in one mode Floor/Dash/Defrost. Sometimes they fail without the clicking. Mine was my wife noticed it was stuck in defrost. I performed a HVAC calibration and got it to work in other modes but there was loud clicking at seemingly random times after starting and while driving down the road. After I replaced it I took the old one apart and found missing teeth on one of the gears.
Part - Motorcraft YH1881
Highly recommend you use OEM part for this one. My original lasted 11 years for what it's worth. You can get it here at Amazon. Motorcraft YH1881
Tools needed:
1/4 ratchet w/ 8mm socket
3/8 ratchet w/ 13MM socket
4 - 6" 3/8 extension
Step by step:
1 - slide your drivers seat all the way back and move the steering wheel all the way up.
2 - Disconnect the battery. You can also pull the HVAC module fuse, but disconnecting the battery is accomplished with the same 8mm socket used to replace the actuator. So to me it was easier then looking up the fuse and messing with the fuse box on the passenger side.
3 - With a 13mm socket, remove the three bolts holding the gas pedal and set the gas pedal to the side against the brake pedal out of the way. (removing the gas pedal is stupidly easy, and makes this job a lot easier)
4 - With 8mm socket, rewove the two bolts holding the mode door actuator. The actuator is just above where the gas pedal was.
5 - Disconnect the wiring harness going to the actuator. I found doing this after removing the actuator was easier as it will hang down into better view to see what you're doing.
6 - Take the glob of white grease off the old actuator white "rotator" and put it on the new actuator white "rotator". The grease on my old actuator looked brand new. You can certainly use new grease if you want, but it does not take much so I reused the old grease.
7 -With the new actuator, partially insert the white "rotator" back into the hole the old one came out of. The white "rotator" is keyed so it will only go into the hole a certain way and that way might not be lined up at all with the actuator bolt holes. This is because where your old actuator failed may not be where the new actuator "rotator" is lined up from the factory. Once the "rotator" is partially inserted, gently rotate the actuator in either direction until it will fully seat into position with the two bolt holes lined up. While rotating keep in mind that you are actually moving the mode door. If you run into resistance STOP! Do not force it! One of two things is happening. The likely scenario is that you have reached the limit of travel for the mode door, and you need to rotate the other way. The unlikely scenario is your mode door is jammed and you have bigger problems then this tutorial, or a new actuator can help.
8 - Install the two 8mm bolts into the new actuator.
9 - Reconnect the actuator wiring harness.
10 - Reattached the gas pedal with the three 13MM bolts. Their torque spec is 18ft-lbs if interested, but it would be hard to get a torque wrench in there IMO. I just tightened them "oil drain plug tight" as that's how they felt coming out.
11 - Reconnect the battery.
12 - Wait 30 seconds.
13 - Turn the key to the on position, but do not start the car.
14 - Turn on the HVAC, but do not do anything else like change temp or mode. I simply hit the auto button on mine to turn it on.
15 - Wait 30 seconds. (Not sure if the HVAC calibration happens at battery reconnect, or when first turning the HVAC back on. So I just waited 30 seconds for both.
16 - All done! Your new mode door actuator should be calibrated and the quiet as a mouse.
