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

[Motorpsychology]

For those of you who have had this repair done, did Ford run into other issues with your Ranger? If so, did they give you a loaner or rental vehicle while they fixed it?

Of course they ran into problems with something completely unrelated when performing this warranty repair on my Ranger last week. I dropped my Ranger off at the dealership Monday June 25th at 830 am, and I still don't have it back. They said the heater box went fine, but they were trying to reprogram the BCM for some reason, and now my Ranger is all messed up. They can't get all of the error codes to go away. They said when the driver's door is open, the Ranger thinks it is closed, but when the door is closed, it thinks the door is open. Also the airbag light is on and won't go away. Finally today they called me with an update that the Ford engineers they have been in contact with told them to order a new GEM module, which I really hope fixes these issues.

I'm supposed to be taking a small road trip out of town this weekend and pulling my boat along with us, but it is sounding highly unlikely that my Ranger will be done before I leave. They claim they don't have any loaner vehicles because they are so short on used vehicles to sell, which I can understand. I'm thinking about calling up Ford's customer service and see if they will pay for a rental vehicle, at least for the weekend so I can bring my boat on our adventure. It doesn't even need to be anything big since my boat with trailer weighs less than 2000lbs. Suggestions anyone?

My heater box was warped, breaking the blend door. It was fixed under warranty, in & out the same day once parts arrived; no other issues. Can be done.
I assume the truck was working fine otherwise when you brought it in. I am not an expert on BCMs or the heater, but it sounds to me that somehow they screwed up your BCM when doing the heater fix. I believe that the battery needs to be disconnected before servicing the heater; the whole dash and APIM needs (touchscreen) to come out.

You might get somewhere with Ford, the dealership obviously is causing the delay. As you said the heater is fixed, meaning ordinarily you would have your truck back. Ford or the dealer should reimburse you for a rental vehicle, as the BCM issue is their (the dealer's) fault.

Good luck and please keep us updated!

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[jfoster1320]

Does anyone know how long it has been taking for you to get this part? I ordered it back on June 10th from Tasca and have not heard anything since. I understand the back order and shipping delays. Just wondering how long it has been taking to get the parts. Thanks.

 

[WhtRanger]

Mine just blows cool air on the drivers side, no clicking from the dash just no heat driver side. Major pain in the ass during the winter.

 

[Frenchy]

Mine just blows cool air on the drivers side, no clicking from the dash just no heat driver side. Major pain in the ass during the winter.

And its anothe HVAC Distribution box here too. If you are within the 3 year 36K(whatever it is in KM) then you are set. If you have an extended warranty you should be good too

 

[WhtRanger]

And its anothe HVAC Distribution box here too. If you are within the 3 year 36K(whatever it is in KM) then you are set. If you have an extended warranty you should be good too

Ive got the used ford extended warranty so hopefully that covers it, thx for the reply i was wondering what part was wonky

 

[rang19ca]

I just had mine fixed under extended warranty. There is an upgraded part for this. They called it the heater box. It’s available but it took the dealer 7-8 days to finish the install. Shortage of people is the reason.

 

[NuclearSoup]

So this actuator must have just failed on my 2020 XL with single zone climate control. 12000 miles in at this point. My Ranger came off the assembly line on 7/2020. The actuator is on the passenger side, tucked up behind the climate control panel area. It failed when I turned off the heat. I heard a nasty gearing-grinding sound. Thought that was weird. Turned it back on, no awful sound, but also not much heat was being blown out. Turned off the climate control system again and I heard that same gear-grind, but not as bad as the first time. I discovered the sound also happens when the system is on and I turn the temp control to cold. I only have warm-ish air blowing from any vent now on regardless of the temp setting.

Real bummer that I may have to have the dash pulled, but based on some searching here and YouTube, it seems like if the service department tech have some of these jobs under their belt already, it might not be so bad. I’ll have to ask the service manager when I schedule my appointment if they’ve done this procedure for Rangers in the past.

 

[HAMMERTIME]

I had my dash pulled last summer and its going back in for squeeks behind the speedo area. My tech that did the work only does dash work so lots of experience. Be prepared for the same . Plastic parts suck in a dash.

 

[Mokume]

I had my dash pulled last summer and its going back in for squeeks behind the speedo area. My tech that did the work only does dash work so lots of experience. Be prepared for the same . Plastic parts suck in a dash.

Tell me about it...

I used to wrench at a Lincoln-Mercury dealership during the mid '70's and worked on new Mercury Monarch's which sometimes had numerous rattle and squeak concerns in the dash and A pillar sections.

A can of Rotunda silicone spray was my best friend, for the squeaks at least...lol

 

[NuclearSoup]

I had my dash pulled last summer and its going back in for squeeks behind the speedo area. My tech that did the work only does dash work so lots of experience. Be prepared for the same . Plastic parts suck in a dash.

Well shoot, I am trying to be an optimist here! Haha.
I already have some occasional squeaking above my cluster where the top of my dash meets the defroster grill trim. I was hoping that if I do have to have the dash pulled, that not only would it go 100% smoothly, but my defroster grill squeak would also get fixed. But I am probably hoping for too much. I hope they get your’s straightened out without too much work again. I’d prefer to have a squeak I can attempt to fix rather than scratches and broken tabs on the trim pieces.

Here are some links to videos about Ranger dash pulls if anyone was curious and hasn’t seen them. Two are for the SSM 49264 work being done. The other user is replacing the dash wiring harness. We should consider ourselves somewhat lucky that it’s only the housing being replaced and not the wiring. Yikes.

YouTube user, Ford Boss Me:
Part 1:
Part 2:


YouTube user, Rain City Wrench (dash pull to get at the wiring):



And I think we already have seen Nemesis5Zero’s photos in his second video of his 3 part series posted earlier.

 

[Y2Dip84]

Welp, call me the lucky lottery winner because I dropped off my 2020 XLT yesterday for this issue (grinding/clicking behind the dash, no heat). They need to order the part, said it would be in early next week and expecting a two-day job. I am going to stop by today because they have a loaner for me. I only have 24K so it's covered but damn, I'll be disappointed if they do a poor job putting the dash back. I love the truck and I keep it meticulous so it'll be easy to spot/hear if something was done incorrectly. My dealership has an excellent service reputation so I am hopeful this stays true. I was thinking of maybe leaving a bit of a tip (cash) for the service tech with a note but not sure if that's obvious and unnecessary but...couldn't hurt though? I'll keep people updated.

 

[Y2Dip84]

I can report back…that surgery went great! It was a two day repair (pull out dash, replace, and reset dash)…but I got it back without any visible damage, clean, and no weird creaks and noises (yet)…crossing my fingers it was as straight forward as it seems. Good luck all!

 

[Dr. Zaius]

I can report back…that surgery went great! It was a two day repair (pull out dash, replace, and reset dash)…but I got it back without any visible damage, clean, and no weird creaks and noises (yet)…crossing my fingers it was as straight forward as it seems. Good luck all!

How many miles does your truck have?

My 3 year ran out today but I have the extended plan.

I only have 18k on the truck so I don't know if I've cycled the HVAC enough for it to fail.

This particular issue is the reason I bought the extended warranty.

 

[MagneticRanger]

I don't know how many instances it takes for a recall to come into effect..but this issue seems to be one that has plagued quite a few people.

I had a 2019 Ranger that this happened on and Ford fixed it under warranty no problem...but the replacement part (entire heater box assembly) took about a week to source and the truck had about 2 days down time for repair which went without issue.

But....this occurred during the winter and resulted in no interior heat and windshield defroster....which in my opinion is a fairly significant safety issue.

I'm not sure if that SSM tech bulletin had been updated but I thought the bulletin outlined affected models all from 2019 to 2020 (specific date of mfg in 2020) and subsequently after that date the Rangers have been built using the revised heater box design....I can't confirm that for a fact but it just does seem like it's only 2019's and select 2020's being affected.

I traded my 2019 not too long after that on a 2021....no issues to this point fingers crossed.

 

[AzScorpion]

How many miles does your truck have?

My 3 year ran out today but I have the extended plan.

I only have 18k on the truck so I don't know if I've cycled the HVAC enough for it to fail.

This particular issue is the reason I bought the extended warranty.

Dennis, Mine had around 22K when it broke. Living here we don't have major temp fluctuations so it's usually only cycled a couple times a year. Heat is on only for a few months Dec-Feb then nothing for a few months then ac from May- Oct.

didn't have much warning just one day I heard some grinding noises coming from the lower center stack. It was weird because when I shut the truck off it continued for a while and was loud. A few days later when I went to run the ac is when I noticed hot air coming from the drivers side vents.

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