Crown Victoria HVAC repair

[emmett442]

For a few years now, the defrost function in this car had been poor. No matter what mode I'd set the HVAC panel on, air would mostly flow out of the dashboard vents. Not the greatest situation on a icy winter day!

After snaking an inspection camera down the vents, the problem was obvious: the door that controls the vent airflow had broken from it's hinge, not allowing it close when needed.

It's not an incredibly common failure with these vehicles, but it's not unheard of either. Rather than using a real mechanical hinge, the door is attached to a flexible piece of plastic that breaks over time.

The fix? Dashboard removal and plenum replacement! really taking my time and waiting for some help to haul the dashboard in/out of the car, it took 5 hours start to finish. Pics in case anyone else needs a visual reference when tackling panther body HVAC problems.

 

[69GTX]

So much work....for just one simple part. This seems to be fairly common among the Ford and Lincoln sedans. I've had several of them live to old age. And fortunately never had to do this repair....or even a heater core. I wonder if at one time they used an actual hinge, then cheaped out along the way?

Very clear and detailed photos. Thanks for posting them.

 

[dogememe]

Let's use flimsy plastic that gets brittle with age and gets hot and cold. Smart!

 

[emmett442]

I'd also like to mention that it does look A LOT worse than it is. After doing it, I have to admit that while this car has it's own set of faults, the dashboard and hvac setup in this car is an extremely serviceable design. The job went very easy and smooth. If I had to do it again, I'm confident I could have the dashboard out in under an hour.

Same can't be said for some of the other vehicles I've owned.

 

[Chris142]

A company called heater treater makes a kit to fix that. Often by cutting the box open instead of removing it.

 

[StevieC]

Still looks easier than the 1995 Cavalier we did for the A/C coil. There was the knee crush bar in the way and it literally took all day to take it apart, take out the coil, replace and put back together. Customer was none too happy with the big repair bill and then the replacement coil failed 2 years later again.

 

[emmett442]

Originally Posted by Chris142
A company called heater treater makes a kit to fix that. Often by cutting the box open instead of removing it.



From what I see, heater treater makes a "core regulator" for this car to address temperature blend door problems. That's not what I was facing here. I had heat and a/c, but couldn't control the airflow mode. More specifically, I couldn't direct the hot air to the windshield when I needed to defrost.

I'm also not sure how much of a shortcut could be made for this car, since the HVAC box is nearly totally buried with the dashboard in place. Not even very accessible from underneath or through the glove box. So if I have to remove the dashboard to install an aftermarket kit, I'm already 95% of the way to fixing it correctly! That said, even if there was a shortcut fix for this, that's not the kind of guy I am. I'd still want to fix it "right".

I lived with this problem for some time by closing off all of the dashboard vents to force air out of the defrost. It helped some, but it didn't work very well. Replacing the plenum is the only fix in this case. There are no workarounds that I'm aware of.

 

[Colt45ws]

This is interesting because I repaired my friend's 2011 with the same fault, and I diag'd another 2011 as well.
On my friends, I didnt even pull the column; Just set it on the floor. I agree that once youve pulled a dash in one of these later panthers, you can probably do it again fairly quickly.

 

[emmett442]

There's probably some preference here, but on most vehicles I find it easier to simply leave the column attached to the dashboard and remove it as an assembly. That way, there
s no need to work around it while it lays on the floor and no need to deal with the tiny PRNDL cable. On this car, pulling the pinch bolt on the steering shaft and popping out the shifter cable from the shifter lever is all that's required to remove it with the dashboard. Literally about 1 minute to do both tasks.

Super simple. I'd imagine that separating the column from the dash is actually more difficult and time consuming! But I could be wrong. May I ask why you choose to separate them? Maybe your way is better and I can make it easier if there is ever a "next time"!

 

[John_K]

Originally Posted by dogememe
Let's use flimsy plastic that gets brittle with age and gets hot and cold. Smart!


Exactly. And of course ours broke right after the warranty expired. Dealer $1000 Me $0

 

[Irishman]

This is the ideal time to replace the air door actuator while the dash is removed. It is a part that Ford had a real problem with and there was never a recall to the best of my knowledge.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Mine is doing the same thing, though I can get defrost by setting the dial to that and closing off the dash vents. I do not want to deal with this. I do not have the time or ambition to do this.

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted by emmett442
There's probably some preference here, but on most vehicles I find it easier to simply leave the column attached to the dashboard and remove it as an assembly. That way, there
s no need to work around it while it lays on the floor and no need to deal with the tiny PRNDL cable. On this car, pulling the pinch bolt on the steering shaft and popping out the shifter cable from the shifter lever is all that's required to remove it with the dashboard. Literally about 1 minute to do both tasks.

Super simple. I'd imagine that separating the column from the dash is actually more difficult and time consuming! But I could be wrong. May I ask why you choose to separate them? Maybe your way is better and I can make it easier if there is ever a "next time"!

Make the dash lighter and easier to move around, and also I didnt want the wheel/clockspring to lose time by accident. But mostly to do with making the dash more manuverable. You see I just pulled it back and laid it on the seat, face down. I didnt want to finagle it out of the car inside my garage. It wouldn't have really fit on the seat if I had left the column attached. The column wasnt in the way as I did all my work on the pass side.

After I did this 2011 I pulled the dash out of my 2002 so I could convert it to Automatic HVAC. Its not as easy. Definetly prefer the 2005+ for this at least.

Its funny, I told someone that when I do the blend door actuators I pull the dash. He thought I was crazy. Cause there is a "shortcut" that involves unbolting the pass side and leavering the dash out enough to access it through the glove box and airbag area. Thing is thats still leaves so little room. So here I am, my arm almost up to my shoulder inside the dash of my 2004 with a gearwrench getting about 2 clicks on each movement...times 3 bolts on the actuator. Then I had to try and find the holes again by feel when I put it back together. Just..no. Pull the dash, takes 5 minutes, to swap it like that and its all in view and easy to work on.
He still didnt get it, but what ever.

 

[Garak]

My 1983 midsize LTD was similarly involved for the heater core. Yikes.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Going to be pulling the dashboard off on my '01 to replace the heater core pretty soon. I dread the idea, but often once you get going, you finish up faster than you anticipate.

 

[emmett442]

Originally Posted by Colt45ws

Make the dash lighter and easier to move around, and also I didnt want the wheel/clockspring to lose time by accident.



I see.

I also had some concerns with that. So, before I disconnected the steering shaft, I looped a couple of zipties from the bottom of the steering wheel to a steering column brace to keep the wheel from spinning freely while disconnected.

Originally Posted by Irishman
This is the ideal time to replace the air door actuator while the dash is removed. It is a part that Ford had a real problem with and there was never a recall to the best of my knowledge.


Yeah, I installed a new actuator at the same time.

Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Mine is doing the same thing, though I can get defrost by setting the dial to that and closing off the dash vents. I do not want to deal with this. I do not have the time or ambition to do this.


I'm sure I'll never convince you, but really: it's not bad at all.

That said, this car has EATC and I really like the AUTO function. But the AUTO function doesn't work very well with broken doors, so I opted to fix it. I might be less willing to fix it with the manual controls of a P71.

 

[Y_K]

All I had to do on 2004s - O-ring replacements. Both are EATC units. I guess, I am lucky to have it easy like that. Thank you for sharing and detailed pictures

 

[ZZman]

What a Pain!