whtbronco
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The driver side blend door actuator, the lower one, failed on my 2004 recently. The typical knocking noise was the telltale and impacting the driver side it was obvious which one. There’s excellent write-ups and videos on the passenger side already, which by the way is much easier to get to and replace. So I bought 2 actuators since they are the same part number, Motorcraft YH1865 / 1L2Z-19E616-AA, and I will replace the upper, for the passenger side at another time. I really could not find a whole lot of detail on replacing the driver side so I decided to write something up. This required a long ¼”ratchet and a borescope.
Ford says to remove the entire dash and the plenum to replace both actuators. That is not required for either, and doesn’t make sense for the upper actuator. For the lower actuator there’s a good bit of disassembly and 1 amazingly difficult to remove screw, that by the way is not going back in. It’s not likely possible without removing the dash. More on this later.
This took me a total of 13hrs including a trip 1.5hr to Home Depot and Lowes looking for a ratchet. I’m slow and often find other things to address and/or clean during a task that adds a more time.
To replace the driver side blend door actuator I removed the front seats, center console, pulled the carpet back to just behind the end of the rear floor HVAC ducts which also need to be removed. The kick panel trim and kick plates need to be removed on each side to get the carpet loose. It’s got 1 push in retainer under each front seat and pushes onto the duct under the dash.
The seats have four T55 bolts and multiple connectors. Remove the front bolts, move the seats forward like 70% of the travel and remove the rear bolts. Disconnect the battery, and then disconnect the electrical and airbag connectors for the seats. I just laid the 2nd row outer seats down and flipped the front seats backwards onto them. I also put a section of 2x6 on the 2nd row seats to keep the front seat mounting points from cutting into them.
The console is not hard to disassemble, but there are quite a few fasteners. Remove the rubber liner in the forward storage bin and remove the 7mm screw. Open the rear storage bin lid and pop the front top off, it just snaps on once the 7mm screw has been removed. Disconnect the power port at the front and the heated seat switch connectors at the rear. Open the 2nd row cup holders in the center console and remove the two 7mm screws. Remove the tow Phillips screws under the back of the lid, they hold the top of the rear panel on. The rear panel should pop off now, disconnect the electrical connectors. Remove the eight Phillips screws in the rear storage bin and pull it out. The main harness has a 10mm bolt that seats/unseats it, it should turn by hand to seat the connector during reassembly. If not check the pins, reseat it and try again. Remove the black 8mm bolt in the lower rear corner on each side and the 4 gold colored 7mm bolts inside that hold the side panels on. Now lift the side panels up and off the molded subframe, disconnect the power port connector on the passenger side panel. There’s two silver 8mm bolts holding the subframe to a bracket near the center and two 7mm black colored screws in the front of the subframe. The main harness has a push in retainer that needs to be pried out of the subframe and then the subframe can be removed.
There’s a plastic cover around the floor ducts you’ll see once the console is removed. It just uses three push in retainers, pry ‘em out. Remove the driver and passenger side lower dash vertical braces located at both sides of the transmission tunnel, three 8mm bolts each. There is one more bracket to remove now on the passenger side, the bracket you just removed bolted to it, and there’s just one 8mm bolt at each end of it. There are two push in retainers to pry out of the rear floor ducts and then they just pull off the front floor duct. There’s 4 gold colored 8mm screws holding the front floor duct to the plenum and three of the same 8mm screws holding the actuator to the plenum. On the driver side there’s one front and rear and another towards the rear on the passenger side. These three are easy, it’s the forth screw in the center towards the front/firewall that is near impossible to reach. This is a good time to remove the actuator connector. Now the fun begins. The remaining screw is accessible from the passenger side against the firewall about 9” from the side. I tried a 7” long ¼” flex head ratchet and an 8” 8mm offset wrench. I could get both on the bolt, but couldn’t do anything with it since it was finger tips only. My wife with her small hands tried to no avail. We decided another tool was needed and found a 12.5” locking flex head ¼” ratchet with a very thin/flat shaft at Home Depot, URL below. This worked, but still took some adjustment to get the low tooth count ratchet to grab another tooth, there was just too much play in the ratchet and the socket to bolt head. The 8mm socket had some play, a 5/16” was slightly smaller and with a strip of electrical tape on 1 of the 6 sides it was tight enough. I also had to lubricate the ratchet so it would swing back easier. Slow gentle movement didn’t work. Holding the ratchet up with left my left hand and very quickly swinging the ratchet back and forth would grab a tooth every couple passes. It took a few minutes, but we finally got the screw out. As noted I did not even attempt to reinstall this screw. Neither my wife nor I believe this would have been possible without my borescope/endoscope to see the screw and enable guidance for the tools. We pushed the lighted scope in on the driver side of the actuator for a decent view of the screw area. With the front floor duct loose pivot it towards the driver side, and remove the three 8mm screws that hold the actuator in. Swap the actuator and start reassembly.
Not required, but I removed the forward of the two steel brackets under the console subframe, two 15mm bolts, just ‘cuz I kept bumping it.
Good luck.
Ratchet, not an impressive tool, but it got the job done. https://www.gearwrench.com/all-tool...ick-release-locking-flex-slim-head-ratchet-12
Here’s several pics that might be helpful and in some I circled the bolt/screw locations.
Ford says to remove the entire dash and the plenum to replace both actuators. That is not required for either, and doesn’t make sense for the upper actuator. For the lower actuator there’s a good bit of disassembly and 1 amazingly difficult to remove screw, that by the way is not going back in. It’s not likely possible without removing the dash. More on this later.
This took me a total of 13hrs including a trip 1.5hr to Home Depot and Lowes looking for a ratchet. I’m slow and often find other things to address and/or clean during a task that adds a more time.
To replace the driver side blend door actuator I removed the front seats, center console, pulled the carpet back to just behind the end of the rear floor HVAC ducts which also need to be removed. The kick panel trim and kick plates need to be removed on each side to get the carpet loose. It’s got 1 push in retainer under each front seat and pushes onto the duct under the dash.
The seats have four T55 bolts and multiple connectors. Remove the front bolts, move the seats forward like 70% of the travel and remove the rear bolts. Disconnect the battery, and then disconnect the electrical and airbag connectors for the seats. I just laid the 2nd row outer seats down and flipped the front seats backwards onto them. I also put a section of 2x6 on the 2nd row seats to keep the front seat mounting points from cutting into them.
The console is not hard to disassemble, but there are quite a few fasteners. Remove the rubber liner in the forward storage bin and remove the 7mm screw. Open the rear storage bin lid and pop the front top off, it just snaps on once the 7mm screw has been removed. Disconnect the power port at the front and the heated seat switch connectors at the rear. Open the 2nd row cup holders in the center console and remove the two 7mm screws. Remove the tow Phillips screws under the back of the lid, they hold the top of the rear panel on. The rear panel should pop off now, disconnect the electrical connectors. Remove the eight Phillips screws in the rear storage bin and pull it out. The main harness has a 10mm bolt that seats/unseats it, it should turn by hand to seat the connector during reassembly. If not check the pins, reseat it and try again. Remove the black 8mm bolt in the lower rear corner on each side and the 4 gold colored 7mm bolts inside that hold the side panels on. Now lift the side panels up and off the molded subframe, disconnect the power port connector on the passenger side panel. There’s two silver 8mm bolts holding the subframe to a bracket near the center and two 7mm black colored screws in the front of the subframe. The main harness has a push in retainer that needs to be pried out of the subframe and then the subframe can be removed.
There’s a plastic cover around the floor ducts you’ll see once the console is removed. It just uses three push in retainers, pry ‘em out. Remove the driver and passenger side lower dash vertical braces located at both sides of the transmission tunnel, three 8mm bolts each. There is one more bracket to remove now on the passenger side, the bracket you just removed bolted to it, and there’s just one 8mm bolt at each end of it. There are two push in retainers to pry out of the rear floor ducts and then they just pull off the front floor duct. There’s 4 gold colored 8mm screws holding the front floor duct to the plenum and three of the same 8mm screws holding the actuator to the plenum. On the driver side there’s one front and rear and another towards the rear on the passenger side. These three are easy, it’s the forth screw in the center towards the front/firewall that is near impossible to reach. This is a good time to remove the actuator connector. Now the fun begins. The remaining screw is accessible from the passenger side against the firewall about 9” from the side. I tried a 7” long ¼” flex head ratchet and an 8” 8mm offset wrench. I could get both on the bolt, but couldn’t do anything with it since it was finger tips only. My wife with her small hands tried to no avail. We decided another tool was needed and found a 12.5” locking flex head ¼” ratchet with a very thin/flat shaft at Home Depot, URL below. This worked, but still took some adjustment to get the low tooth count ratchet to grab another tooth, there was just too much play in the ratchet and the socket to bolt head. The 8mm socket had some play, a 5/16” was slightly smaller and with a strip of electrical tape on 1 of the 6 sides it was tight enough. I also had to lubricate the ratchet so it would swing back easier. Slow gentle movement didn’t work. Holding the ratchet up with left my left hand and very quickly swinging the ratchet back and forth would grab a tooth every couple passes. It took a few minutes, but we finally got the screw out. As noted I did not even attempt to reinstall this screw. Neither my wife nor I believe this would have been possible without my borescope/endoscope to see the screw and enable guidance for the tools. We pushed the lighted scope in on the driver side of the actuator for a decent view of the screw area. With the front floor duct loose pivot it towards the driver side, and remove the three 8mm screws that hold the actuator in. Swap the actuator and start reassembly.
Not required, but I removed the forward of the two steel brackets under the console subframe, two 15mm bolts, just ‘cuz I kept bumping it.
Good luck.
Ratchet, not an impressive tool, but it got the job done. https://www.gearwrench.com/all-tool...ick-release-locking-flex-slim-head-ratchet-12
Here’s several pics that might be helpful and in some I circled the bolt/screw locations.
