I'm taking my Expedition in to a local auto.

Tiny
HAYNIZ1
  • MEMBER
  • 1999 FORD EXPEDITION
  • 197,000 MILES
I'm taking my expedition in to a local auto repair shop to have them take a look at why my heater doesn't work. The A/C is fine, but when I purchased the vehicle, the heater didn't work so I took it back to the dealer who stated that they needed more time to work on it. I let them keep my car for two weekends and it still wasn't fixed. When they told me they needed another weekend, I gave up and drove off without getting it done. I'm just curious as to why it would take someone 3 weekends to fix this problem and am I doing the right thing by having an auto repair shop look into it for me. I've used them before to fix my other vehicles, but I just don't wanna end up getting charged outragious fees. If I were to guess what's wrong with it, I'd say it was the heater core. Then again, I'm not an expert.
Monday, November 26th, 2012 AT 8:11 PM

8 Replies

Tiny
MEKANIC4755
  • MECHANIC
  • 85 POSTS
Need more information, what size engine, auto or manual a/c heat system, what exactly is it doing or not doing? Thanks for using 2CarPros
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Monday, November 26th, 2012 AT 9:43 PM
Tiny
HAYNIZ1
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
It's a 5.4-liter V8 I believe. When the system is in the on position, the air blows cold when turned to the "heat" option. The vehicle never heats up, it just blows out cold air.
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Monday, November 26th, 2012 AT 10:11 PM
Tiny
HAYNIZ1
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
The vehicle is an automatic
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Monday, November 26th, 2012 AT 10:13 PM
Tiny
BILL EBY
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
I too have a 1999 expedition 5.4l with no heat/defrost. Had the tstat replaced today. No improvement.
Engine warms up into the middle of the temp gauge just fine. Engine runs fine and has never overheated. Coolant level is in normal range and not leaking.
Turning the heat on after the engine is warmed gives about 30 seconds of warm air, then the heater air cools down to just barely not cold. Turn the heat off, wait a couple minutes, turn it back on and the same thing happens.
Any ideas?
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Monday, November 26th, 2012 AT 10:35 PM
Tiny
MEKANIC4755
  • MECHANIC
  • 85 POSTS
These have a inside temp sensor behind the dash on top of the heater box that goes bad or gets dirty and will read right, also start from the firewall and follow the heater hoses out to the engine, is there a heater valve in line? If not are both hoses hot to the touch after running for a while, if both hoses are not hot to the touch, that means the water is not going through the heater core, if there is an inline heater valve is the water hot on one side and not other, if so it is not working properly. Thanks for using 2CarPros Hope this helped both of your trucks.
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Monday, November 26th, 2012 AT 11:05 PM
Tiny
HOMER1967
  • MECHANIC
  • 875 POSTS
When you turn the dial from hot to cold, or red to blue do you hear any movement under the dash? These trucks have blend doors that open and close and determines whether you get cold or hot air. The doors use a small electric motor to open and close these doors. It is called a blend door actuator and it fails and will not move the doors anymore, they have small plastics gears in them that strip out. Often they will exibit a click, click, click noise. But not always. This is a very very common problem on these vehicles, I do about 6-8 of them a year. In all likeliness that is your problem. Based solely on the type of vehicle.
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Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 AT 1:35 AM
Tiny
HAYNIZ1
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Both responses sound logical. My next question is, what repair costs range am I looking at should these problems be the diagnoses? I know you probably won't be able to give me specifics, but any type of estimate would be better than nothing.
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Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 AT 8:02 AM
Tiny
HOMER1967
  • MECHANIC
  • 875 POSTS
A respectable shop should be able to diagnose it in an hour or two.
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Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 AT 5:39 PM

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