clicking in dash on 2001 windstar

this is weird...my wife drove our 2001 windstar and said a clicking sound was coming from the dash.. I listened and sure enough it was a terrible clicking/banging noise.... it did indeed change then you moved the slide that controls the cold to hot if you didnt move all the way to cold it would stop but all the way to cold and it clicks....sounds like flap door that shuts off heat from heater core is banginging in there.....dont know much about heater controls or the parts that run them.........help

That sounds like the heat blend door motor/actuator clicking. It clicks because the temperature control knob wants the blend heat door closed all the way at the coldest setting, but the gears inside the motor/actuator are stripped, so it keeps trying to close the door all the way but it can't, so it keeps trying. I believe others have found that the coldest setting forces the blend door too far causing the eventual failure of the gear teeth. I suggest you do a search of terms like clicking, blend door, and like terms.

My theory is that the rather-thin-original-design blend door warps as it sits most of the time against the heating coil. Once warped, it can no longer sit properly in either the most-hot or most-cold position ... thus causing a tug-of-war between the blend door and the actuator. Either/both can lose.

Therefore, if you are lucky and only have to replace the actuator ... do something to physically make it impossible to put the controller in either extreme position ... or you will eventually lose the blend door. It ain't pretty. When the blend door got redesigned ... the whole plenum got redesigned to suit. You can't buy just the new blend door ... wouldn't fit anyway!

schadd1971,

i had the exact same problem. ordered a new actuator and installed it. took apart the old one and noticed 2 plastic teeth missing in one of the smaller plastic gears. terrible design. installed the new one and no sound and heat/cool works perfectly.