No heat :(

[Shaun 97VIII]

ok, so the weather out here is getting colder, and my vents are doing the same: blowing cold.
i have a sneaky suspicion that the blend-door is to blame, but are there any alternatives to this? how much will a dealer charge to fix this plague of the Mark VIII family?
if it is too expensive, i will probably buy a portable heater and power inverter and use that for a heating source. the COLDEST it gets here in the winter is around 30-40 degrees (i am originally from Milwaukee, WI, so i know what "cold" is) but i mainly need the heat to defog the windows because it rains a lot here.
any help is much appreciated!

 

[lilhector2k2]

No Heat!!!

I have a 97 LSC in chicago and its getting chilly out. Every morning my windows are fogged up and theres nothing but cold air blowing. Im only 17 so i have no idea what is going wrong, so i rather ask mkviii owners that might have had this prob, before i get ripped off at the mechanics.

 

[Jibit]

The job is just labor intensive. The part is only about $30 or $40 (blend door). It takes between 3-5 hours. Its a big pain in the butt. I wouldn't recommend tackling it yourself if its your first time.

 

[poschultz]

It could be the actuator motor

It could be the actuator motor that moves the door between the hot and cold sides. Just had this done. Cost me $600.

 

[maskmarkman]

Its a very commond problem with the gen 2's. I have a 97 Mark VIII with the same problem and to get the heat for now I have to pull the glove box completely down and stick my hand to the left hand side of the box and there is a little lever that sticks out of the black air duck work. I just need to move it just a little bit until I get the heat to flow and until I fit my blend doors. A temp fix for now would be just tie a string onto that lever and drop it towards to floor so i can just give it a little tug it to get heat until you can spend some time to do it right. You don't have it move that lever but just a bit until heat flows on mine.

 

[Shaun 97VIII]

good idea. i am going to try that tomorrow when i have some daylight.
its not horribly cold here, its like 50-55 degrees in the morning and still in the upper 60s to low 70s when i leave work. but when it starts raining, the interior windows fog quickly and that is going to suck! lol

 

[94m5]

The job is just labor intensive. The part is only about $30 or $40 (blend door). It takes between 3-5 hours. Its a big pain in the butt. I wouldn't recommend tackling it yourself if its your first time.

Thats why he pays you to do it.....

 

[maskmarkman]

temp fix

I did my temp fix yesterday... I just dropped the clove compartment down and the blend door was just to the left hand side of the glove box. It a close fit in their but you can get to it. On my 97, If I moved the plastic blend door just a little bit downward toward the floor I would get the heat to flow so I just tied some wire to the plastic door and I fished it just below the dash so I can reach it a tug on it to get the heat to flow until I get to it to fix it complete. I hate Jerry-rigging it but for now it is working.

 

[scott9050]

It could be the actuator motor that moves the door between the hot and cold sides. Just had this done. Cost me $600.

I would have done it for you for half that price.

 

[torquemonkey]

I just did my '97 LSC. $30.00 from Max at Five Star. Total time for me was less than 4 hours. Unless you want to count the "trouble shooting" time from when I realized I forgot to connect the plug to the actuator. Or the amount of time for locating a vacuum leak. There is a connector behind the glove box for the vacuum hoses that control floor/vent/defrost ducts. I found evidence that this operation had been done twice before I had gotten the car.

Should you follow through, make sure to reinforce the arm. There are write ups availible.

IMHO you can do the work, it is worth it. Just make sure you have access to 15mm, 10mm deep sockets and a six inch extention bar for your ratchet.

 

[AquaLS01]

Just finished my 97 also. Same thing was about 3-4 hours. And $30 from Max. Not that hard to do if your at all mechanically inclined. I have restored many old fords and lincolns so I have taken out dashes before just never on a "newer" car. I wondered if mine had been done before also. I noticed the sun load sensor was unplugged when I removed the defroster panel. Sure hope this one lasts awhile. I would recommend taking both front seats out. I took the passengers seat out that helped would have been easier with the drivers out also. 1/4" drive ratchet is a must for all the small screws. Now that's it's done I wished I would have done the reinforcement tips listed. Just as long as I get a year out of it.