Heater problem

The heater on my 98 Windstar seem to have stuck blowing air upward. I cannot set the selctor to blow air hot or cold to the floor or through the dash. Being in Canada, this is not a bad thing as I need the hot air blowing to at windshield most of the times but it does make for cold toes. I took it to dealer and they told me they would have to take the dash out before they know what is wrong. I was told this could run me upward of $1200. Any insite???

Thank you.

I'm not real familiar with your model but think I know what the issue is... the ac/heater plenum has several "doors". On your year model they are all operated (I believe) by pneumatic, not electric, actuators. Chances are real good that the "floor/panel door" is on the driver's side of the car. It is probably driven by a little actuator that has two hoses going to it .... bet you can see this device looking up under the dash. Check this out. May be a problem with the actuator.... or the controller switch that sends vacuum to the actuator.

I had the exact problem, plenty of heat but only to the window. Hot head and cold feet. It had to do with the black vacuum supply hose that runs from the intake manifold to the selector switch.

On my 1999 3.8 the hose was melted shut.

A hose runs from the intake manifold (passenger side of engine) to a vacuum resevoir then the black hose runs through the firewall behind the glove box and to the air flow direction selector in the dash.

The melted section was in the engine compartment, I was able to purchase a same size black replacement hose from Autozone with a connector, I cut out the melted part and spliced in the new hose. Now my toes are toasty.