Blend Door Actuator Issue Thread

[FiSTerTheGrouch]

Had mine replaced under warranty at roughly 25,000 miles.
I was nervous about getting the car back with a dozen new rattles and broken clips all about the dash, but I give my service manager a lot of credit. They did a solid job.
They even took the time to neatly run and zip-tie the cabling for my accessport, dash camera and radar under neath the panels when they were putting it all back together.

17,000 miles have been put on since the job and I'm still rattle free, thank goodness.

Oh wow u have a nice dealer. Mine tried giving me my car back with the brakes locked up. Took them 5 days to get the car back to me for an unrelated reason. Was not happy.

 

[winniethepujals]

Oh wow u have a nice dealer. Mine tried giving me my car back with the brakes locked up. Took them 5 days to get the car back to me for an unrelated reason. Was not happy.

Ooof... sorry to hear that. I am lucky to have found a good service team. I'm personally boycotting my original dealership.

Here's my fun story:
My original dealer clocked out my mileage as 64,000 on my 10,000 mi service/state inspection. I am so disappointed in myself for not reviewing the service bill closely that day.
Once I realized what they had done, I called the service dept and the [insert adjective here] insisted that the car was tampered with...
I started seeing red at that point, so my next move was to check the dash camera to see who I could specifically blame for the incompetence.
My dash camera triggers on any door opening via the USB or any movement via it's internal battery. A gust of wind turns this camera on, so some portion of the oil change would be recorded, even if just entering/exiting the service bay... right?
There was a clip of them initially parking the car, and a second of them moving it from that same spot where it gets one of those paper floor mats, goes through their car wash and then delivered back to me.
The video footage chronology # was in order, so there were no "deleted" videos. I think they just forgot to service it, or pulled the wrong car for my vehicles service work.
After repeating this "theory" to the service manager, it was clear they were sticking to their arrogance.
I went to my next closest dealer and immediately saw a world of difference in cleanliness of the shop, knowledge of the tech team and quality of their work.

TLDR: Not all dealerships thrive on torturing their customers, believe it or not!

 

[Feisty Fiesta]

Had mine replaced on my '16 FiST @ 20k miles under warranty. Good as new!

 

[tiggerbren]

Just had the blend door actuator diagnosed on my 16. It didn’t make the noises many complained about, just stopped blowing through the main vents. Under warranty at 26k miles

 

[FieSTa Blanca]

I just got back from the dealership after having the actuator replaced. The only glitch was that they accidentally broke the cruise control interlock switch on the brake pedal assembly and were sent the wrong switch to replace it, meaning I had to go back today to have the correct switch installed. All appears to be well, and being under warranty there was no charge. This was actually the first time I've taken the FiST to the shop for service in over two years of ownership. It's been a good'n. ;-)

FB

 

[HBEcoBeaST]

My clicking is coming from driver's side dash. Which air blend door actuator is it? Inlet recirculation door actuator, temperature blend door actuator or mode door actuator?

I'm getting quotes from some local mechanics and apparently 'the actuator under the driver's side dash' isn't an adequate description.

Unfortunately my apartment complex doesn't allow any type of auto work.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[chicagoslick]

I am now getting the infamous click and I have ~18k miles on my 16 Fist. Everything seams to work fine, but can be annoying when it does click. It seams to happen mainly when the sun is shining on the dash or when I drive into the sun and the car has not fully warmed up...Oh well still under warranty//...

 

[Business6]

My clicking is coming from driver's side dash. Which air blend door actuator is it? Inlet recirculation door actuator, temperature blend door actuator or mode door actuator?

I'm getting quotes from some local mechanics and apparently 'the actuator under the driver's side dash' isn't an adequate description.

Unfortunately my apartment complex doesn't allow any type of auto work.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

That's just what they say to stop people from having fluids all over the place, cars on cinderblocks, etc because it's crap they are ultimately left with cleaning up and it hurts the complex's image. It's also how they try to sell you their garage ports.

I've been through that before. I wouldn't be the slightest bit concerned with doing this. If they throw some shit at you tell them it was airbag related or something scary like that.

 

[HBEcoBeaST]

That's just what they say to stop people from having fluids all over the place, cars on cinderblocks, etc because it's crap they are ultimately left with cleaning up and it hurts the complex's image. It's also how they try to sell you their garage ports.

I've been through that before. I wouldn't be the slightest bit concerned with doing this. If they throw some shit at you tell them it was airbag related or something scary like that.

Yea unfortunately we had a couple previous tenants ruin it for everyone by storing beaters, spilling oil, keeping car parts in exposed carports and working on cars late at night. Like most southern California high density housing there are a couple section 8 tenants(families) that make our property manager be super strict on rules.

I might try to sweet talk my property manager into letting me do it during a weekday but it's still a crap shoot.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[HBEcoBeaST]

Lol jeeze $725 and 5.7 hours labor. Tried to scare me and say the HVAC core might have to be removed. Maybe I look like I'm car dumb or made of money but this is the 2nd shop try to overcharge me for something basic.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[bradst]

What the heck?!?!
I'm in the "click" now too.
Stopped by TWO separate Ford dealership service departments, and they acted like I wanted them to raise the dead.

Terrible customer service at both...they want me to drop the car off for the day...they'll need at least an hour to diagnose it...and they might have the part in stock.

This is simple folks...stick your head here...click, click, click...look up part availability...schedule warranty repair. 10 min max, but they spent that long telling me BS.

47 years-old...first Ford Vehicle. Dislike Ford Service. Mad this little damn part is defective, and has been for years. Seriously FORD...here's your lunch.

 

[RavynX]

What the heck?!?!
I'm in the "click" now too.
Stopped by TWO separate Ford dealership service departments, and they acted like I wanted them to raise the dead.

Terrible customer service at both...they want me to drop the car off for the day...they'll need at least an hour to diagnose it...and they might have the part in stock.

This is simple folks...stick your head here...click, click, click...look up part availability...schedule warranty repair. 10 min max, but they spent that long telling me BS.

47 years-old...first Ford Vehicle. Dislike Ford Service. Mad this little damn part is defective, and has been for years. Seriously FORD...here's your lunch.

As much as we want things done immediately as we get with Amazon and everything else online the dealers still have bureaucratic crap that they have to go through with documentation and whatnot for auditing and tracking purposes so give them some leeway in that regard. Aside from that, yeah, this part shouldn't be breaking so early in a vehicle's life.

 

[flat_lander]

I'm still wondering why they cycle the Hvac system each time you power cycle the car? Why not just leave it in the last position, and change as demanded? Yes it is a cheap pos and shouldn't break as often as it does. But if it only cycled as needed it might make it outside the warranty period.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[Business6]

I'm still wondering why they cycle the Hvac system each time you power cycle the car? Why not just leave it in the last position, and change as demanded? Yes it is a cheap pos and shouldn't break as often as it does. But if it only cycled as needed it might make it outside the warranty period.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

Was wondering the same damn thing. Is it such a problem to leave it in the last position? No wonder why it breaks as easily as it does, yeesh

I'm sure there's a reason for it but I'm equally sure that reason is dumb.

 

[flat_lander]

Could be as simple as the early control circuits could only do that, and couldn't retain position. So that's the way it always worked in the past, so they continue to work the same now. Fight that all the time at work. "Well that's the way we've always done it."

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[flaxseedoil1000]

Just started on my 2016 with 24k miles
#bummer

 

[Bosnian Fiesta]

I've replaced 3 actuators due to broken teeth on the gears. I'm starting to think the grease Ford used is part of the problem. Maybe it's not meant for plastic.

There's a lot of it, and it could be causing the gears to slip and teeth to jump each other. Also it stains the white gears yellow, meaning it's being absorbed, and if it's being absorbed it could be making the material brittle. In my case, all of the broken teeth have been on the yellowed sections exposed to grease. The white/ungreased teeth are fine.

As an experiment I cleaned out all the grease in the actuator I most recently installed. It's quiet & working just fine - we'll see if longevity improves.

It's also interesting that virtually all of the failures Fiesta users have reported have been with the Chinese YH1895/YH1896 actuators, not the French YH1935/YH2016 actuators, even though they all see the same service. There's gotta be some QC or design issue with them.

 

[flaxseedoil1000]

^ interesting info, thx

My GF has a 2016 Lincoln MKZ hybrid. Only has 14k on it, no issues yet but wonder if it's the same part.

 

[miguel.in.az]

Original blend door & recirc door actuators both took a dump at 10k, replaced it under warranty at 12k miles with part number BE8Z19E616A/B (blend/recirc)

Now at 32k the blend door is clicking again.

 

[Zombie]

Mine has been clicking for months. How can I tell if it’s the driver or passenger side actuator that’s bad? Is it obvious?

It sounds like the knocking is coming from the center of my dash.