2009 F150 Climate Control

[BobT]

Just wondering if this is a rare thing or common.

2009 F150 Lariat.

Automatic dual climate control system.

About two years ago my fan suddenly got stuck on high speed. The control module did not indicate that I was pressing the manual speed control buttons. It was still under warranty so I took it in and a control module needed to be replaced.

The following winter (last year), I was driving to work one morning and realized that there was a cold draft coming from the passenger side. A little checking and I discovered the passenger side was not blowing warm air. Took it in and had to replace the temperature door control module.

This past summer I started having intermittent problems with the fan not working while using the AC. Since it was very intermittent and I don't use AC much I felt it could wait until it finally quit completely. Last fall comes along and I found out as the engine warmed up the fan would begin to blow at high speed and then get stuck there. When I pressed the manual fan speed control buttons, the console did recognize me doing it. After a little testing of my own I deduced that it had to be a temperature sensor of some sort. The system basically thought my truck cab was cold and so it would run the fan accordingly. In the summer it would not run it and in the winter it would run it at full speed. Air temperature worked fine. Turned out I was right. It was related to a temperature sensor input on the fan control module.

This winter, just a few months later, I started noticing a tapping noise like someone tapping a desk with a pencil at about 2 beats per second for a few seconds every time I turned my key to the on position to start the truck. The colder it is outside the longer the noise continued. After some testing on my own I determined that it had something to do with the driver's side temperature control. Took it in for my 60K service this past weekend and they diagnosed that it is my driver's side temperature door control module. This one will cost almost $700.00 to fix because the entire dash has to be pulled.

Aside from these climate control issues, the truck has performed flawlessly and I am very pleased but this is getting a bit ridiculous having to repair the climate control system every 6 months. I tried a web search and it does seem there was some trouble with the 2008 and older models but I found very little with regard to the 2009 and newer models.

Has there been a history of problems with this system?

[delcecchi]

That kind of story is almost enough to make a guy swear off all the fancy automatic stuff. Want it warmer? Turn the knob.

[BobT]

Problem is, even those where you manually turn the knob are probably just adjusting a potentiometer or rheostat to a control module input. In my 20+ years working with elecronic equipment I don't recall any time when our equipment had so many problems. Having some component fail is not unusual but four times with four different components in two years? Now that's getting a little out of hand.

[delcecchi]

Problem is, even those where you manually turn the knob are probably just adjusting a potentiometer or rheostat to a control module input. In my 20+ years working with elecronic equipment I don't recall any time when our equipment had so many problems. Having some component fail is not unusual but four times with four different components in two years? Now that's getting a little out of hand.

So they charge a bundle for a thermometer connected to the controller rather than a knob? Typical.

[JOHNBIGDOG]

the best part that I'm looking forward to in the future is the MyTouch system, as it has a module called an APIM (accessory protocol Interface Module)that has the radio, climate control, navigation, and phone interface all in someway linked to this module, if it goes out you can loose all of this. It seems like this module is very finicky as it has a huge amount of software for a small computer to handle. time will tell how it will go. Don't worry though, ford issued an extended warranty for this module on vehicle where the APIM was prone to fail.