Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and TraderMark
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- Joined
- Jul 5, 2015
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
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- Vehicle Year
- 2001
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Transmission
- Automatic
My 2001 Ranger Edge 4.0L got to the point there was almost no air coming through the vents. The blower motor still worked on all the speeds, I could here the blend door operating as it should. I spent a couple nights searching for others who may have had this problem and found the question was asked a lot, but no one ever posted a solution. So I decided I would give back to the forum for all the other information I've gleaned from here over the years. I hope this little write up helps someone else.
I decided that since everything else was working as it should, the problem must be a blockage somewhere, preventing air from getting through the AC evaporator/ heater core. Since the blower was the easiest thing to remove and obviously the origin of the airflow, I decided to start there.
I found the area behind the blower wheel, against the evaporator was filled with leaves. I mean they were PACKED in there too.
I tried using my shopvac to get them out, but the hose was too big and the angle was too hard to get the hose between the plenum and the evaporator anyway.
I dug with my fingers as much as I could, but I wasn't getting anywhere so I decided rather than pull the whole assembly out and separate the housings, I could be a little creative and I'd have a way to clean it again if the need arose.
I used a hole-saw and VERY carefully drilled a hole at the top of the plenum. Be VERY careful if you try this. You could drill too hard, too fast and wind up with a hole in the evaporator. I set the pilot bit just barely below the hole saw and drilled the correct size hole for a plug I had laying around. In my case it was 1-1/4". Once I had the hole made, I could see just how tightly packed the leaves really were.
I put the shopvac hose where the blower fits then used a long, thin air blower in the hole I made to blow all the leaves and debris from between the plenum and evaporator. I was shocked at just how much stuff was in there.
I reinstalled the blower, used some silicone around the plug for the hole I made and tested the airflow again. WOW what a difference. Where I used to run the blower on MAX high and still sweated, now I can run it on LOW2 and be very comfortable.
Again, I hope this helps someone else.
TraderMark
I decided that since everything else was working as it should, the problem must be a blockage somewhere, preventing air from getting through the AC evaporator/ heater core. Since the blower was the easiest thing to remove and obviously the origin of the airflow, I decided to start there.
I found the area behind the blower wheel, against the evaporator was filled with leaves. I mean they were PACKED in there too.
I tried using my shopvac to get them out, but the hose was too big and the angle was too hard to get the hose between the plenum and the evaporator anyway.
I dug with my fingers as much as I could, but I wasn't getting anywhere so I decided rather than pull the whole assembly out and separate the housings, I could be a little creative and I'd have a way to clean it again if the need arose.
I used a hole-saw and VERY carefully drilled a hole at the top of the plenum. Be VERY careful if you try this. You could drill too hard, too fast and wind up with a hole in the evaporator. I set the pilot bit just barely below the hole saw and drilled the correct size hole for a plug I had laying around. In my case it was 1-1/4". Once I had the hole made, I could see just how tightly packed the leaves really were.
I put the shopvac hose where the blower fits then used a long, thin air blower in the hole I made to blow all the leaves and debris from between the plenum and evaporator. I was shocked at just how much stuff was in there.
I reinstalled the blower, used some silicone around the plug for the hole I made and tested the airflow again. WOW what a difference. Where I used to run the blower on MAX high and still sweated, now I can run it on LOW2 and be very comfortable.
Again, I hope this helps someone else.
TraderMark
