ford ranger heat issue

chimp koose · December 19, 2012, 09:07:18 PM

I realise many of you have or have had ford rangers. I just bought one a week ago hoping to end the persistent repairs required on our primary vehicle. Today it starts blowing cold air when the temp dial is turned to hot. Previous owner told us that it will do that but if you turn it to cold and back to hot it will right itself. We have done that previously and it worked fine. Tonight it didnt fix the problem. When we got to our driveway after the long cold trip across town it fixed itself again. This is a '98 model, I took it to the shop tonight and looked at it. I can not find a vacuum canister under the hood as I suspect this heat diverter door is vacuum activated. A look under the dash on drivers side finds 2 vacuum pots, one with 2 lines and another with 1. What needs fixin? anyone solved this problem before? Vehicle has 150,000 KM

Glen · December 19, 2012, 09:29:43 PM

check the vacuum supply to the heater control valve. There is a distribution block you can pull vaccuum manually on that block to see if you have a leak on the other side.

wayne petty · December 19, 2012, 11:39:06 PM

hopefully.. you can do this from north of the border..

i find this a big help

go to motorcraft.com it will redirect you to the ford parts site..
you can enter the model info... get to the parts pages..
many of the sections have line drawings that will help... as its easy to see what's behind things with the parts department drawings..

i also usually set the limit from 10 to 75 links per page..

i totally agree that it could be a vacuum supply issue.. i will look through the site and see what i can see..

there have been issues with the control panels on a lot of cars needing to be resoldered or having some of the switches replaced..

if you have issues opening the site.. send me a PM with a direct email address and which motor you have... i will forward you the various drawings and perhaps some of the wiring diagrams for the HVAC system ...

drop me the pm i have some jpgs that i cannot seem to attach easily..

for ranger owners.. there is also therangerstation.com they have a tech page that comes in handy for some issues...

Ernie Callen · December 20, 2012, 02:44:33 PM

Had a 92 with heater problem,replaced the coil. After that it would run you out.
Ernie

rooster · December 20, 2012, 04:29:01 PM

Quote from: "chimp koose"I realise many of you have or have had ford rangers. I just bought one a week ago hoping to end the persistent repairs required on our primary vehicle. Today it starts blowing cold air when the temp dial is turned to hot. Previous owner told us that it will do that but if you turn it to cold and back to hot it will right itself. We have done that previously and it worked fine. Tonight it didnt fix the problem. When we got to our driveway after the long cold trip across town it fixed itself again. This is a '98 model, I took it to the shop tonight and looked at it. I can not find a vacuum canister under the hood as I suspect this heat diverter door is vacuum activated. A look under the dash on drivers side finds 2 vacuum pots, one with 2 lines and another with 1. What needs fixin? anyone solved this problem before? Vehicle has 150,000 KM

what year? Might be a blend door moter gone south!

rooster · December 20, 2012, 05:08:38 PM

Arnold · December 20, 2012, 11:48:36 PM

Quote from: "Ernie Callen"Had a 92 with heater problem,replaced the coil. After that it would run you out.
Ernie

Are you referring to the heater core?

I spent too much time * around with an on/off heat situation somewhat like yours Chimp. Turns out that when I turned the heat on/up..it allowed the hot coolant(older unit) to flow thorough the core. Didn't take long sometimes before NO more coolant flowed through it and the heat went away? GRRR. Then when I turned it off for a while and back on..it had heat..GRRR. Turns out that the heater core was really badly corroded and plugged up. The coolant would flow for awhile..ya right. JUST until the flow,pressure of the coolant forced more of the crap to plug up the core again. Once it was plugged up..the core cooled down as no coolant could circulate. I finally figured this out by accidentaly noticing that the hose going into the core was not very warm? Then finding it hot.
When I turned it off..it allowed the crap to settle somewhat and there was some flow.

I'ld make sure you have consistent heat at the core first. My .02

chimp koose · December 21, 2012, 07:30:10 PM

After looking at the ranger site wayne proposed it seems like the damper door is broken. It makes a thump noise and then the heat comes. We cycle the heat control from cold to hot and it throws heat.If it works well enough this winter it wil be a needed fix this summer. plastic parts just get too cold and brittle to work on in a wrecking yard or elsewhere in the winter.