A-Premium HVAC Heater Blend Door Actuator, Compatible with Ford Explorer 2002-2010, Explorer Sport Trac 2007-2010, Expedition 2003-2006 & Mercury Mountaineer 2002-2010, Main, Temperature Actuator

bugger to get to, as are they all, but this is a great unit thatfixed my heat flap problem, better quality component than OEM - Explorer 2003

Funcionó a la primera pero hay que calibrar la puerta en el hvac porque se podría dañar si no lo haces. El producto es muy bueno.

Had a 2003 explorer that blew full heat all the time. Google led me to this part pretty much immediately, and horror stories about how it's a $600 job and the dash needs to come apart, etc. Saw people who tied zip ties or shoe strings to the blend door lever so they could manually switch between full heat and no heat. I didn't do that, but I did confirm the actuator was not working when the lever did not move at all when changing the setting. If you're semi-handy and have a few hours on your hands you can definitely DIY this job. All you need is a 7, 8, and 10mm socket. Would recommend a 1/4" drive with extensions, and a 10mm box wrench preferably of the ratcheting variety and having a longer one may be helpful. Its pretty straight forward and easy to remove the center console and slide it back to the back seat, then remove a piece of duct work and support brace on the driver side. That's all you need to have access to the actuator. The actuator itself is when the job starts to suck. You'll bleed, swear, and feel like giving up since the area is so small and some of the bolts are hard to get to. Two of the bolts are pretty easy, a third one is a giant pain - you may have success going under the steering wheel with a long, flexible extension. A standard box wrench should work too, but you'll need to have a longer handle. It sucks, but its do-able. once all the bolts are off its easy to pull the actuator straight out and down. Plug the new one in. 1) Test the new one to make sure it works before putting it all back together, save yourself more headaches. To test it just plug it in, turn the key ON, and adjust the temperature dial. The actuator will slowly turn as you change the temperature. If it isn't turning, then it's bad and do not go any further. Get another part. (mine worked, i just would recommend testing it because you dont want to do this job twice) TIP: for getting the new one in. The shaft that drives the blend door has grooves so it only goes in one way. You can see exactly how its supposed to go in, and even though there's not much room pushing it in is extremely easy when its aligned correctly. Aligning it correctly took me awhile, but you can turn the key ON and then adjust the temperature dial, turn it slightly until it's aligned. It will push into the hvac box with light pressure, doesnt require a lot. Even though mine was stuck in FULL HEAT, turning the temperature dial to full heat didnt quite have it aligned, probably because the blend door is free to move once the motor is removed. So just play with it and you'll get it in eventually. Once it's in its just a matter of bolting it back up, you might consider only putting two bolts back in and leaving out the pain in the ass one in case you have to do the job again. I feel that two is plenty to secure the little plastic box but that's up to you ultimately. Normally I would say go with OEM Motorcraft for the part, since it's a pain to replace and all that. The OEM motorcraft one is prone to failure and is poorly built though, and it will fail again eventually. So I figured it was worth the risk to save the $30 and get an aftermarket one, maybe the aftermarket one is better built on the inside. I couldn't tell ya, but I do know the ford one is a poorly made part that will fail again. Also, the 2003 explorer is old now and not worth that much - so spending less on parts is preferable. I highly recommend just replacing this, it's a little annoying but it doesn't require any special tools and i was able to do it even with my fat fingers. Can do it in a couple hours, so I don't really see the point in doing the shoe string/zip tie ghetto rig. If you break that lever too you have a whole different world of problems, so better to just fix it properly. And if you don't want to DIY it, an independent mechanic should charge no more than 3 hours for this job. (I did it in about 2, in a driveway, with cheapo, basic tools). (On the explorer, at least - not sure on other models). If they're charging you $400-$600 in labor then I would find a different mechanic.

I think the gears might be sturdier than OEM as the one I replaced was also a black coloured unit and not the white OEM one. The contacts proabaly failed previoulsy, so we shall wait and see.

I had a clicking sound in the console and no heat, so picked this up for less than half the price of brick and mortar store. Product came well packaged and looks just like the OEM. Fit my 2009 Explorer EB 4x4 just fine. Had to take the kick panel out of the driver's foot well and the cover off the bottom of the steering wheel just for some headroom. The actuator is under the center console side panel and is fully reachable with a 1/4" drive and a flex knuckle and extensions, but I just stuck my hand up there and used the socket blind. Took me less than a half hour to do the whole thing. Actuator came with the correct alignment, but if yours doesn't you can cycle it by plugging it in and turning on the blower.