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Offline Elijah Gunn

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car repair saves money
« on: October 13, 2009, 03:25:58 PM »
Today I did a car repair to the heater system on our 2000 windstar. When you moved the temp selector slide to heat there was no heat, and there would be a click, click, click sound coming from under the dashboard. The guy at the garage said  something was wrong with the heater blend door and that it was a major job that required taking most of the dashboard apart to get at what needed to be fixed. Probably close to $1000. :o I'm laid off and don't have that kind of money, so I researched some on the web, and also asked around some, and this morning I took the info I had gathered and was able to remove and replace the actuator that moves the blend door. It took a couple hours, and did not require any major disassembly of the dash. The new part was 63 dollars. :D
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Offline JustaShooter

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2009, 04:12:43 PM »
Talk about a timely post, my Taurus has started doing the same thing - if I turn the control back to about 3/4 hot, it stops, any further and it starts up clicking again.  What was the part you replaced?

Just a Shooter
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Offline mirage1988

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2009, 05:30:05 PM »
Quote from: JustaShooter on October 14, 2009, 04:12:43 PM
Talk about a timely post, my Taurus has started doing the same thing - if I turn the control back to about 3/4 hot, it stops, any further and it starts up clicking again.  What was the part you replaced?

Just a Shooter

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Offline Elijah Gunn

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2009, 01:29:03 AM »
On the receipt the part is called a motor ( I would call it the heater blend door motor). I've also heard it called an actuator. It is a motor that moves the heater blend door to adjust the temp of the air that comes out of the heat/defrost. I'll try and describe what mine looks like. It is NOT round , or cylindrical like most electric motors are. It is somewhat square shaped, about 3" by 3" and 3/4" thick. Its case is a white-ish color, has a clip with a few wires, and there will be a driver shaft coming out the back side of it that will go into the slot that moves the blend door. The end of the driver shaft is about 1/4 " square. Actually 3 sides of the shaft are square and the fourth is rounded.
One thing I did was to check and make sure that the blend door was ok, and not jammed up or broken. So after I removed the old motor what I did was to take a 1/4" drive ratchet extension, place it in the slot and make sure the blend door moved freely. It does not turn very much. About 1/4 to 1/3 of a revolution.
When it works, the motor moves the driver shaft slowly.
Mine is located under the dash  about in the center of the car.
Hope this helps.
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Offline DirtyHarry

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2009, 05:15:09 PM »
A couple months back the beater was due for a timing belt change, called around for prices and the cheapest was just over $1k bucks. I didn't really have time to do it, but for those prices I made time, the job was billable for 6hrs of labor, took me just over 5hrs and I saved $800.
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Offline Dee

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2009, 08:08:08 AM »
The proper term is actually the "actuator motor" when you go to buy the part.
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Offline Victor3

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2009, 12:46:39 AM »
 Internet searches for repairs on my 2000 Ford Exploder saved me a lot of cash.

 I had to replace the thermostat, and it looked like a terrible job with all the stuff that needed to come off the top of the motor. I found a website (complete with pitchers and all) that showed how to shoe-horn the thermostat into the housing without hardly taking anything apart.

 About a month later the ABS light came on. Shop said it would be $350; Front two and one rear sensor needed to be replaced. Ford repair website said that most of the time it was just the rear sensor (~$50 part, one bolt and one wire to R&R). I replaced it in about 1/2 hour, and the light went off :)
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Offline Dee

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2009, 07:05:59 AM »
Ya know net working like this, is also a great way to save money on repairs of ANY KIND. When I traded my 2006 Chevy pickup for a 2000 Jeep Wrangler, with quite a few more miles on it, the salesman asked me why? I told him there was little I could do in a pickup that I could not do in a jeep with a two wheel trailer, but there was a lot I could do in a Jeep that I could not do in a pickup.
Also, my last jeep was a 2000 and I knew the model. It, at my age will most likely be my last personal vehicle. I am tired of the trade in loss I have been hosed with all these years.
It is actually cheaper to REBUILD, than buy now a days.
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Offline Captain Emo

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2009, 04:26:55 PM »
I have 163K miles on my vehicle. Mostly because I was willing to try to do repairs and maintenance myself.  I broke a few things, but saved lots and lots of money. I also use synthetic oil and change my oil and filter at 5 or 6K miles rather than 3k miles. My most recent repair was shocks and struts.  I will soon be replacing a bypass valve on my evap canister. I am getting a CEL. 
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Offline Cornbelt

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2009, 04:11:24 PM »
We recently saved some bucks by straightening a 16" aluminum wheel and finding a used tire. Tire store wanted $175 for a new tire and a new wheel was about as bad. Straightened the wheel for nothing, and bought a tire with as much tread as the others for $8 at a U-Pull-It auto salvage. When they wear out in a year oe two, I'll scrounge some steel 15" wheels and get away from aluminum low-profiles.
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Offline Elijah Gunn

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #10 on: November 26, 2009, 02:12:35 AM »
Quote from: Elijah Gunn on October 15, 2009, 01:29:03 AM
On the receipt the part is called a motor ( I would call it the heater blend door motor). I've also heard it called an actuator. It is a motor that moves the heater blend door to adjust the temp of the air that comes out of the heat/defrost. I'll try and describe what mine looks like. It is NOT round , or cylindrical like most electric motors are. It is somewhat square shaped, about 3" by 3" and 3/4" thick. Its case is a white-ish color, has a clip with a few wires, and there will be a driver shaft coming out the back side of it that will go into the slot that moves the blend door. The end of the driver shaft is about 1/4 " square. Actually 3 sides of the shaft are square and the fourth is rounded.
One thing I did was to check and make sure that the blend door was ok, and not jammed up or broken. So after I removed the old motor what I did was to take a 1/4" drive ratchet extension, place it in the slot and make sure the blend door moved freely. It does not turn very much. About 1/4 to 1/3 of a revolution.
When it works, the motor moves the driver shaft slowly.
Mine is located under the dash  about in the center of the car.
Hope this helps.


I need to come back to this and update. I opened up this actuator, and did find a small electric motor. What I was describing in the previous post was the case/housing it is in. Inside it is the motor, some electronic stuff , and a couple of plastic gears. The problem was that the smallest gear had 3 broken teeth. Probably cost 3 cents for that gear, but I don't think that even if I had one to replace it I would have been able to put it all back together, and be able to depend on it long term.
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Offline JBlk

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Re: car repair saves money
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2009, 03:02:36 AM »
During my life time I have seen the different car manfactures switch from supplying indivigual parts to fix a component with to a component with no indivigual parts available.The small nylon gear that you wrote about is a good example of that policy.These companies have discovered that there is alot more money in selling components than indivigual parts for the product.The beauty of the model T was that the average person could fix it with a few wrenches and a minimum out lay for parts.A far cry from todays Ford.I often obtain the necessary parts that I need from a salvage yard, and the price sure beats the dealers.That same unit that has failed in your vehicle was probably used in many of the models made by that manufacturer.Many of the Ford models with have the same exact parts as the Mercury or Lincoln.We live in a throw away society induced by the manfacturers  so they can sell their new products.
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