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Heater Blower malfunction

35K views 36 replies 21 participants last post by  TomfromVermont  
#1 ·
I've been away a lot for work and haven't much opportunity to enjoy my ST these last two months.

When I last left for work there wasn't any snow, but when I came back there was. I've been driving around in the snow since Sunday, and today my heater wasn't blowing. I took it to Ford at lunch and they had a service bulletin about this known problem in the heater blowers. When it's cold they malfunction, blow the fuse, and cease to operate. Due to a buildup of snow and ice or something.

I leave my vehicle parked outside so it will need to withstand and operate in 5 month/year subzero temps. It was -20 Celcius today, but it will get colder as winter progresses.

I've left it with Ford and they will check to see if it's a blown fuse. Ford has a new cover for the heater blower that I guess eliminates the ice buildup problem. I'm imagining this part will be necessary for me.

If they replace the fuse and I can drive it until the new part arrives, great. If not, it'll be courtesy car livin' for a little while.
 
#5 ·
Wow, minus 20c, that weather would probably kill me. You guys in North America and Canada do it tough and having to run winter tyres for 6 months of the year. He's my summer and winter set up.

]
It's not so bad here in Canada during winter. We stay nice & warm in our igloo's ! ;-). Lol

Where you from Sekred ?


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#9 ·
I seem to remember that the regular Fiesta has had a problem with snow/ice getting into the heater air intake area. There is a thread on the other forum

I don't know if they ever fixed it, but from the sounds of it, the answer is no. I'd suggest (as a temporary measure) that you throw a piece of canvas or something over the air intake area when parking in bad weather to cover it up, at least until Ford gets their act together and fixes this for good. It's either that or put up with no heat...
 
#10 ·
I've had my FiST for few weeks now, no problems yet. Blower and heat seems to be working fine. Although was driving tonight and the blower sound seemed to change for no reason and it wasn't on auto. The only other thing weird was one day when it was -10 C or so and after brushing off snow I started to drive; could have sworn snow was coming through the vents but only a very small amount and only for a couple of seconds


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#11 ·
It is always upsetting to have any trouble with a new car, I am sure your dealer will get it sorted out.

I am up and off to work between 3:00 - 4:00 AM most days.
I am sure glad my heater works and I have Heated Seats.
It drops below 40F degrees around here this time of year.


Dave
 
#12 ·
Had the exact same problem pop up last night. Unfortunately for my wife it happened to her while driving home from work in -15 weather. The only way to keep the windows somewhat clear was to finish the last half hour of her drive home with the windows partially open. She loves her ST, but she was seriously unimpressed. Had to call roadside assistance once she got home to tow it to the dealer. Hopefully there's no more glitches for a while once this gets fixed. So far we've had the TPM sensors fail after changing over to winter tires, the front speaker problem which I asked them to look at now while it's in, and had to do a master reset of MFT a week ago when vocie control stopped working on it. Still love the ST but I'm not impressed with having 4 issues (2 requiring a trip to the dealer) already on a vehicle we've only had for less than 3 months.
 
#15 ·
It's happened again to me. The temps have fallen to around -19 Celsius these last few days. Ford confirmed the updated part is still on back-order, so my car has been listed as a "unit down," they are going to store it this afternoon, and they'll zip me over to a rental agency to pick up an interim vehicle. A real shame - I do love driving this car. But I can't see when the windows are frosting up inside!
 
#17 ·
My car gets garaged at night time but have also requested the dealer to install the cover ice shield. It was in last Friday, they had the cover but are missing the special clip to install it. I guess this special clip is what is back ordered. Hopefully its in by Dec. 16th when hopefully my Ford OEM winter 16" aluminum wheels show up and they can replace the rear wiper motor too.
 
#18 ·
Thats not good to hear. I spoke to my dealer today and they promised to have the parts and get me fixed on Monday. If it sits any longer than that I will be demanding a loaner. Ford will also be getting a nasty letter. How the F'ck can you still keep producing a vehicle using a part you know is defective for years past your own TSB? Why isn't the new cover part of the standard assembly proccess? That is absolute BS especially when something non-critical like a blower motor can keep a car off the road in cold climates.
 
#21 ·
From speaking with my service rep, this is a pretty well known issue with Fiesta's in general. Honestly, it sounds like it will happen to pretty much all of them if they are driven in a climate where it snows. I don't understand how Ford's engineers could overlook this issue in the first place, and why on earth Ford would choose to keep manufacturing the cars with the faulty intake and only replace them when they fail. You figure that since they have a re-engineered part that fixes the issue, that it would be cheaper to incorporate the new part into the assembly line then to deal with the warranty claims of replacing the entire blower assembly when it fails.

Even with a large percentage of these cars never seeing snow, how hard is it to stop producing the old part and only supply the assembly line with the new intake? At the very least they should be requiring the selling dealer to replace these faulty intakes with the new style one prior to delivery in locations where snow is a normal annual occurance.
 
#24 ·
I had no issues with my heater until today. Got off work (after a 12 hour shift) start up the car and am waiting for my window to defog. After a couple minutes I turn down my music and find its kinda quiet. Turn it all the way down, turn it all the way up..nothing. UGH! turned the car off and back on, nothing.. call ford road side assistance due to the fact I couldn't see outside the windshield. Tow truck driver comes, asks what the problem is, hops in my car..damn thing works...I don't get it..guess i'll be heading to Ford sometime this week!
 
#26 ·
yup..worked fine today though..both in the morning at 6am (-20) and at dinner time ,630pm -15 so I dunno..guess ill still bring it to ford though and see what they say
 
#27 ·
Well. mine died again. Not even 3 months since they "fixed" it last time. This is the first new vehicle we've owned that has given us this much warranty trouble so early on. Granted this is a relatively minor issue, but an issue that still makes your car undrivable in a colder climate. We have less than 6months, and 5,000km on it and this issue has already popped up twice. I don't really feel like dealing with this issue 2-3 times every winter.

As much as we love this car if Ford doesn't get their stuff together and come up with a proper fix it will be difficult to keep it more than 2 or 3 winters. Living in Winterpeg we need a car that is reliable for the 7 months of the year that it's unbearably cold.

Hope my dealer is more help this time.
 
#28 ·
Make sure your dealer did the latest TSB 14-0021 which is basically the same as the TSB 13-11-17 but they replace the existing pollen filter with a newer style pollen filter. I had TSB 13-11-17 done but still had snow come in threw the vents after the car had a few cm's of snow on it. Hopefully this new TSB 14-0021 will fix the problem
 
#29 ·
Is the problem only occurring when there's a combination of snow and cold? Is it snow getting into the blower that's the problem? And, if this is the case, is it snow passing into the intake at the base of the windshield that's the issue? Anybody know?
 
#30 ·
There's always snow and cold here so it would be difficult to isolate the problem that way. I'm pretty sure as others have stated that it's just the snow getting in that is causing the problem, not the cold per se. There is a lengthy discussion on the issue here: http://www.fiestafaction.com/forums/fiesta-service-bay/39963-no-heat.html

I still can't believe in this day and age with automakers being so competitive that Ford could botch something so simple up. The car is brilliant to drive, but who wants to deal with trips to the dealer 2-3 times a year because they can't keep snow from getting in the blower. That's ridiculous.
 
#31 ·
So I'm not 100% convinced the latest TSB 14-0021 (Jan. 29/14) actually solves the issue 100%. I had about 1/2 cm of snow on the windshield today after work and when I started it I could feel a very small amount of moisture coming through the ducts, although it only lasts for about 30seconds then stops. Although it wasn't as visible as the last time it happened after the dealer did TSB 13-11-17. I suspect Ford will have another TSB that supersedes this latest one. Part of me says thinks that if Ford can't find a cheap solution to this problem they will try and convince their customers that this a normal occurrence to get snow in the cab of the car. Time will tell.
 
#32 ·
My biggest concern is that if they don't come up with a permanent fix for this issue that it will become a very expensive "maintenance" item to fix once the vehicle is out of warranty. We have the exteneded warranty to 5yrs but what happens after that? It's bad enough bringing it in once or twice a winter to replace the blower motor under warranty, but I'm assuming it wont be a cheap fix once it's an out of pocket expense.