I'm hearing a "rustling" noise in my A/C that sounds like a piece of plastic is in the air tube somewhere. It only appears when the system is on "MAX A/C", and gets louder with fan intensity. It appears that a leaf or some plastic is in the interior intake door. Does anyone know where that particular part of the A/C is located? I hope one of our A/C experts will chime in here. Thanks.

 

In Max A/C, vacuum is applied to the servo controlling the recirculation door. This closes off most of the outside airflow and pulls air primarily from the interior. Since the door opens up the blower motor to the interior, chances are that any noise at the blower will be much more noticeable.

As a first step, I would pull the blower motor from the plenum on the firewall and look for debris such as leaves or twigs that may be contacting the impeller.

 

Thanks Bob. Is that inside or outside the cab? For some reason, the tech manual has nothing about the blower or inside air pipes. I've combed the CD, and the A/C section only covers the engine bay side of the A/C system.

 

The recirc door should be inside the cab. The blower assembly is removable from under the hood. I think you'll need to remove or reposition the windshield washer reservoir to get the blower out.

 

OK, thanks again Bob. Any idea on the interior intake port? I might be able to see the obstruction if I can find where the blower gets it's interior air from. I was also thinking about running the blower backwards to see if that will blow out the problem.

 

Here are some pictures to help ya out. (yes I'm a picture *****, but what else are ya gonna do when disassembling an Explorer!?):

Blower motor (round device on left)


Firewall (interior) side of blower motor and fan. This is where your "trash" should be.


The Blower Motor/Fan can be pulled off easily by removing the small screws along the perimeter. I believe it's 6 or 8 small (7mm) screws that hold it to the housing. Don't forgot the wiring harness!

 

Awesome pics! Thanks Tim.

I now know where to start.

 

it was a squirrel.

 

Not sure what the heck it was. Pulled into the garage last night, crawled under the dash with my flashlight, turned up the A/C, and NO noise.

I played with all the settings, but the A/C is back to normal. Not sure what was in the duct, but I hope it doesn't get stuck somewhere in the vents.

Anyways, thanks for the info. Next project is new shocks for the the truck. Looks like I'll be pulling the wheels and fender liners to get the fronts off. Gee thanks Ford.

 

You can reach them with a swivel attachment and some extensions, if you're patient enough. Otherwise, just move the inner fender rubber flap upwards and stick the socket on. It's real easy, without removing the inner fenders....I've done it many times!

 

The driver's side front is cake, but the passanger will require the "through the wheel well" trick, just like you said. My first surprise is that the top bolts are metric 15mm. I need to pick up the correct socket sizes, as all my metrics are short sockets. May pick up a 15mm ratchet wrench just in case. No way I'll be able to fit my torque wrench in there, just have to eye ball it. Bottom bolts are SAE 1/2, go figure

The rears are also metric, 15 and 18mm. Glad I still have the big 18 wrench that I purhcased in my ricer days

 

Wow....it must be difficult working on the truck without full sets of sockets! A set of Metric deep well sockets will be worth the investment in the long run!

Also, are you sure about the SAE 1/2 on the bottom nuts? Mine are 13mm.

 

You're right as usual Tim. 1/2 will fit the bottom nuts, but they will stick inside the socket. It's 13mm like you said, and that means doing shocks is a metric job.

I have a full set of SAE, and some leftover metrics. The dang truck seems to go from SAE to metric on a whim. Plus, some of the metric sizes are oddballs, like 15mm and 18mm. I went to Harbor Frieght on the way home, and got a cheap set of metric rachet wrenches and deep metrics. This made the job much easier, though each shock seemed to have it's own personality.
I'll post the whole story on my site next week, but for now all's well.
Thanks for the help Tim, I appreciate it.

 

No problem! I'm always glad to help. 13mm and 1/2inch are only .012 inches different!

0.500 inches = 1/2 SAE
0.512 inches = 13mm

Also, you'd be suprised how many 15 and 13mm bolts there are on this truck. When I work on my truck, I work strictly from the "metric side" of the toolbox. I believe (IIRC) the entire truck is Metric.