SSM 49264 - Climate Control Temperature Will Not Adjust With Clicking/Snapping Noise From The Dash

[Bsthroop]

Just curious ?, as I have a 20 with a little more than 15K on it.

Mine starts clicking in the morning about 3 - 5 minutes after I start the truck and continues until it's warmed up then stops when its cold.

How long after people started hearing the clicking did everything go FUBAR and stop working?

Good thing I have an extended warranty ?.

Mine never did any clicking, just started blowing only hot on the drivers side one day after parked in a sunny spot. I think the cab got hot inside and caused the box to warp. Next morning after parking overnight in the garage it worked for a bit but failed again. 27k miles.

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[Cmar]

Mine's been clicking for 5 years, presumably it probably was before I bought it second hand too. Still works though. Clicking is worse in summer, and particularly after being parked in the sun.

 

[EJH]

And my 2021 to the list. My truck has a December 2021 build date by the way.
HVAC 'clicking' normal or not?

 

[NOVA_Ranger]

After weighing my options, I'm slapping one of these bad boys in and call it a day. Just going to bypass the heater core in the summer.

 

[AzScorpion]

Just curious ?, as I have a 20 with a little more than 15K on it.

Mine starts clicking in the morning about 3 - 5 minutes after I start the truck and continues until it's warmed up then stops when its cold.

How long after people started hearing the clicking did everything go FUBAR and stop working?

Good thing I have an extended warranty ?.

On my '19 I only heard the clicking one time. Then the very next day nothing but hot air. I wasn't going to let the monkeys at the dealerships here work on it so I did the manual fix found in this thread/video here. I posted some pictures of my removal here.

It's pretty easy to do (I think it took me under an hour) and there's only one PITA screw to get out. Once you take the broken piece out moving it manually is easy and saves the trouble of them tearing your whole dash and console apart.

 

[EJH]

was this issue fixed in later year models?

Somewhat fixed. Most all 2019-2020 though July 2020 will have the HVAC blend box fail.

My 2021 was affected. Other people with newer trucks here report the issue also but in less numbers than earlier trucks.

It usually doesn't show up until 30k or more miles. That makes it hard to say newer trucks are not affected.

IMHO, get an extended warranty while you are within the factory 3/36 coverage. Warranty cost will be less than this repair.


FWIW, I was nervous about the repair. You cannot tell my dash was pulled. No scratches, no rattling, and the dealer reconnected my aux light wiring and TBC just as it was before.

 

[NOVA_Ranger]

Tossed that valve posted above in, took 10 minutes, and good to go. No more heat from driver’s vents with AC, just nice cold air. Easily reversible if I ever want to go in and fix the stupid blend box.

 

[conductor]

I have a 4-year-old 2020 Ford ranger. I noticed the air conditioning wasn't doing much in Florida heat, 63° coming out of the vents. So I took it into my favorite garage and they looked at it about 3 hours before they called me. They said first I thought it wasn't enough gas, and then maybe it was the condenser, and then they kept looking and finally they said we think it's the blend door. My heart just sunk, cuz I thought well there goes about $2000 to $3,000. So anyways, he called me up he said we got it fixed and I said what did you do? He said we electronically reset the blend door and now it's running wide open so it works great, 47 degrees. I never heard of such reset on a blend door. I didn't know they could do that, anyways bill was only $300 bucks, I got lucky.

 

[EJH]

If you have not had the HVAC box replaced yet, I would be very cautious about getting excited.

 

[airline tech]

I have a 4-year-old 2020 Ford ranger. I noticed the air conditioning wasn't doing much in Florida heat, 63° coming out of the vents. So I took it into my favorite garage and they looked at it about 3 hours before they called me. They said first I thought it wasn't enough gas, and then maybe it was the condenser, and then they kept looking and finally they said we think it's the blend door. My heart just sunk, cuz I thought well there goes about $2000 to $3,000. So anyways, he called me up he said we got it fixed and I said what did you do? He said we electronically reset the blend door and now it's running wide open so it works great, 47 degrees. I never heard of such reset on a blend door. I didn't know they could do that, anyways bill was only $300 bucks, I got lucky.

Yes they can be reset and or replaced and operate just fine but if it is binding then it will fail again as the actuator will again get lost and loose it’s position.

 

[VegasP11]

Can someone explain how to reset it?

 

[Bobby-C]

I have a 4-year-old 2020 Ford ranger. I noticed the air conditioning wasn't doing much in Florida heat, 63° coming out of the vents. So I took it into my favorite garage and they looked at it about 3 hours before they called me. They said first I thought it wasn't enough gas, and then maybe it was the condenser, and then they kept looking and finally they said we think it's the blend door. My heart just sunk, cuz I thought well there goes about $2000 to $3,000. So anyways, he called me up he said we got it fixed and I said what did you do? He said we electronically reset the blend door and now it's running wide open so it works great, 47 degrees. I never heard of such reset on a blend door. I didn't know they could do that, anyways bill was only $300 bucks, I got lucky.

I fixed my for the price of a small tube of grease. Took the actuator motor out greased it put it back in just like new.

 

[thewhiteranger]

I also have a 2020 - what are the symptoms of this? so far seems fine but do hear some clicking under the dash sometimes I assume that is what it is .

 

[airline tech]

Per the manual to recalibrate the actuator:
Disconnect the connector on the actuator and the connector on the FCIM
Reconnect the actuator then the FCIM
But this is part of a complete wiring check of the control circuit (5-Volt Ref)

You could just pull the FCIM fuse (Fuse 12 at the BCM) Interior Fuse Panel, would be the same as pulling the connector on the FCIM.

But if you clear the code and then perform a FCIM SELF Test -It should cycle the actuators for a self-test, the problem is if you have a binding door the actuator may see this as end of travel and make that what it believes (thinks) is the full open / closed position and thus result in improper heat/cold distribution

It's easy to view with the proper scan tool - Live Data with Bi-Directional Control, you can command full travel and view it.

Example:

The issue with the actuators is that they are just small plastic gears, and a circuit board wiper, the wiper is the feedback for position.
If the wiper gets dirty it can lose that feedback and it gets lost and out of sync for position and then try to overdrive the door, click and pop sound - the plastic gears are jumping.

The binding of the door, if that is the case will provide the same sound as the actuator is trying to move the door past that bind and continues to drive it is jumping the plastic gears.

 

[Rocketeer61]

Wow. How did we ever survive before computers?

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