2011 Fusion Sport driver's side hot, passenger side ice cold

[knagl]

Hi everyone. It's winter here in Minnesota, and it was about 15 degrees today.

 

I drove my car today for about 45 minutes with no issue, and then used the "quick stop" feature of my remote starter to keep the engine running while I ran a quick errand (I've done this a hundred times, and there's never been an issue). When I got back out to the car and started driving again, I felt unusually cold. I realized after a minute or so that the air coming out of the vents on the passenger side of my car was very cold (it felt like the window was open to the outside). The driver's side vents were all nice and warm. I do have the touchscreen dual-zone automatic climate control where you set the desired temperature in Fahrenheit for one or both sides.

 

If this has any bearing on my situation, please note that I replaced my starter last night, which required disconnecting the battery for about an hour.

 

From some early searching, it looks like I should try running the system and adjusting both zone temperatures to as cold as they go, and then to as high as they go. If that doesn't work, it sounds like it may be a bad temperature blend door actuator?

 

Any other suggestions? Are there any fuses I should check, especially considering that I had just disconnected and re-connected the battery last night? I see something about when installing a new blend door actuator that you remove the "Smart Junction Box (SJB) fuse 15" for at least one minute to calibrate the stops on the new actuator. Would there be any potential benefit to me doing that with my existing actuator in case it just needs to re-calibrate the stops?

 

Finally, can anyone tell me if this is something I can easily replace the blend door actuator myself on my 2011 Ford Fusion Sport? Looking at the repair info I have access to, it says that the first step is to remove the passenger airbag, which requires removing a good chunk of the dash -- something I'm not terribly interested in trying to do myself.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[eGuru]

The blend door actuators should have recalibrated themselves after the battery was reconnected.

See if there is any positive result by adjusting the zones.

If not, I believe the passenger BDA can be accessed by removing the glove box.

[knagl]

The blend door actuators should have recalibrated themselves after the battery was reconnected.

 

...and my problem, now resolved, was related to that. I wasn't aware of the calibration procedure, and because of that I likely did not follow it correctly on the first start after the battery was reconnected.

 

For reference, and apologies to the person who posted this on a different site which I can't find now so I can't give proper credit, the procedure to calibrate the blend doors after the power has been disconnected and later reconnected is:

 

- Turn the car on.

- Do not touch ANYTHING for at least 30 seconds (do not turn on the HVAC, don't touch anything).

- Done. You may now turn the car off, or turn on the heat and drive, or whatever.

 

This is necessary after any time the battery has been disconnected, at least if you have the system I do with the dual-zones and electronic temperature control.

 

To re-calibrate, if you wind up in a situation like mine, disconnect the power for at least one minute (either remove fuse 15, or since they're a pain to get to, just unhook the negative terminal of the battery for at least one minute). Then, reconnect the power, and start the car as described above.

Edited January 11, 2017 by knagl