No Heat in the cabin

[Recce93]

Hopefully someone has some ideas for me to check...now that winter is upon us up in the north.  My 2013 FFET seems to operate the fan and vents ok but no heated air flows it is as cold as the air outside.  I have checked and topped off my radiator coolant levels, tried various vents and max heat temp settings with no success.  There is airflow but not heated at all, not even luke warm.  Air blows on auto or manual settings and the AC is off.  

 

Any ideas?

 

Also, when it is in auto mode the car puts the air out through the windshield defrost vent...is that normal?

 

Hopefully someone has an idea about what to check.

[JATR4]

Hopefully someone has some ideas for me to check...now that winter is upon us up in the north.  My 2013 FFET seems to operate the fan and vents ok but no heated air flows it is as cold as the air outside.  I have checked and topped off my radiator coolant levels, tried various vents and max heat temp settings with no success.  There is airflow but not heated at all, not even luke warm.  Air blows on auto or manual settings and the AC is off.  

 

Any ideas?

 

Also, when it is in auto mode the car puts the air out through the windshield defrost vent...is that normal?

 

Hopefully someone has an idea about what to check.

Try disconnecting the 12 volt battery or removing and reinstalling  fuse #10.  Reset sometimes helps.

[comike]

Hopefully someone has some ideas for me to check...now that winter is upon us up in the north.  My 2013 FFET seems to operate the fan and vents ok but no heated air flows it is as cold as the air outside.  I have checked and topped off my radiator coolant levels, tried various vents and max heat temp settings with no success.  There is airflow but not heated at all, not even luke warm.  Air blows on auto or manual settings and the AC is off.  

 

Any ideas?

 

Also, when it is in auto mode the car puts the air out through the windshield defrost vent...is that normal?

 

Hopefully someone has an idea about what to check.

Our car is being serviced right now for an intermittent heating failure. Sounds very similar. Fan blows but the air coming out of the vents is cold. I believe the part they are replacing is called a "coolant heating unit" or something like that. Part is going to take 3 - 5 days to arrive. I'll post more once I can confirm.

[Timewellspent]

I'm having this same issue right now.  If I'm using the engine, it seems to work OK, but once off and just using battery it just turns cold after awhile.  I can even watch the temp gauge (left of the speedometer) and see it slowing drop off to showing nothing.

[Recce93]

So I ran it in EV later mode to work today based on timewellspent's post and confirmed my runs the same way. I get some heat in hybrid/gas mode but when I run just on batt the heat drops off. My appt at the dealer is on 17 Nov (getting my modem upgraded at that time too) but I will keep trouble shooting until then.

[bdginmo]

Mine did the same thing. I had to have the electric coolant heater replaced.

[Recce93]

Bdginmo,

 

Was that warranty work or do you know how much that cost? I am out of warranty so I wanted to know what to expect price wise

[bdginmo]

It could be pricey. The car was reporting trouble code P01EB: 96-2F (engine coolant heater fault). This code did not activate the check engine light. They replaced the heater under warranty, but if I was not under warranty it would have cost $900 or something like that if I am remembering correctly (it's possible I'm not). The part was back ordered and it took 6 weeks for the dealer to get it.

[Recce93]

Wow, that would be a good chunk of change.  I have been looking around for the coolant heater with no luck.  Must have some super cool name from ford.  My car isn't reporting any faults and ran a system health check but I do think that really checks much of anything worth while.  I don't have my OBDII reader anymore to check the computer.  Thanks for your help 

[bdginmo]

Because it doesn't activate the CEL I doubt the vehicle health report would show it. Your best bet is to get an OBD reader. They're pretty cheap and good to have on hand anyway. I recommend the ForScan app for iOS or Android to go with it.

 

In the meantime, just switch back to EV Later occasionally to get the coolant warmed up so that you can some heat in the cabin. Note, for me when the electric heater faulted out it would prevent me from switching to EV Later until I turned on/off the car. Are you having that symptom?

Edited November 5, 2016 at 01:28 PM by bdginmo

[Timewellspent]

So I had my car in to have this checked out.  They were able to confirm my issue, but since there were no codes, TSBs or SSMs they performed a hard reset and said that fixed it (see attached).  I drove it home last night and it was cold the whole way home.  Took it out for a drive this morning and same thing.  Cold the whole time on EV Now.  Drive straight to the dealer with the temp set at 81 and asked them to get in and tell me if that felt like 81 and if they really fixed it last night.  Service writer, I guess i need another tech to look at it.  I told them others have this same issue and had to have the electric coolant heater replaced.  Again, he stated if there are no codes, it is hard to get Ford to do anything.  Still waiting for a call to see what they are going to do about the problem, since they know there is an issue.

[openair]

I, like bdginmo, have also had my electric heater replaced with the same DTC eventually pulled. However the DTC is not stored beyond one or three power cycles of the vehicle and in my case was accompanied by the orange wrench for a powertrain fault.

 

Because the DTC is not stored beyond one to three power cycles it took me ten months of multiple visits to multiple dealers with orange wrenches and "No codes, nothing wrong" to get the issue resolved.

 

May help to have a dealership pull the DTC without the usual power cycles that come with the normal routine of dropping a vehicle off for service. I'd power it down to park it. They'd power it up and down to move it and again before the tech even got close to it, nevermind check for DTCs. So the DTC would be long gone.

 

Also ambient temperatures between 0 to 3c with light partially melted snow or freezing rain on the vehicle seemed to trigger my powertrain faults that were eventually resolved by replacing the electric heater.

Edited November 11, 2016 at 08:20 PM by openair

[Recce93]

My car is out of warranty and it is going to cost 108 just to trouble shoot it. They better not come back and say there is nothing wrong and 'hard reset' it. I pulled fuse 10 and disconnected the battery with no luck. We will see.

[Recce93]

Oh, on the plus side of freezing my butt off, I haven't lost any range for the winter yet

[murphy]

Oh, on the plus side of freezing my butt off, I haven't lost any range for the winter yet

The seat heater should solve your butt problem. :happy feet:

[openair]

Today my orange wrench returned 2000km outside the bumper to bumper warranty. It occurred today in exactly the same weather as previously and disappeared after power cycling the vehicle just as previously. The electric heater also seemed to be getting weaker in advance of this. This suggests the electric heater only lasted 9 months after being replaced and dieing again due to some undiagnosed problem that is the real problem. At this point, if you have to pay out of your pocket to replace your electric heater, I would suggest not bothering unless you can and want to spend $1000 every ~9 months on a new heater.

[Timewellspent]

Openair, do you use the block heater.  I'm wondering if using that has any effect on this heater issue.

[openair]

i do have a block heater.  I have not used it this fall.  I dont believe ive used it since before the electric heater was replaced.

[Recce93]

I thought genuine Ford parts came with a 2 year, so I'd think that the part you had fixed 9 months ago should be covered if it went bad. I am sure they have some excuse though.

[My14Energi]

That heater is most definately covered under the oem motorcraft warranty. Any dealer should technically honor the warranty. I suppose it sucks if you only have one dealer to choose from and get stuck with crappy service. I have 5 Ford dealers and 3 Lincoln dealers all within a 20mim drive from me. If i got the shaft from one i'd just move on to the next one. I read alot of problems people have with dealers and i fortunatly havent had that experience.

[Recce93]

Got my car back from the dealer today and they have fixed my heater issue, we will see how long it lasts because no parts were swapped out. The frustrating part is it was all computer work that I can't do even if I wanted to. But, here is what they say they did:

 

Found incomplete configuration in APIM U2100, code B11EE 19 in ACCM. Performed reprogramming of APIM and initialization and calibration then performed PPT H1-H10 found FCIM had lost programming. Installed as built data into FCIM then per PPT repaired pinfit at connectors, reassessed test systems and verified heater working correctly.

 

Not sure what a lot of that is and the tech had gone home for the day so I couldn't chat with them to find out. There were no codes in the obdii reader I have so this is not within my capability to fix. Guess 250 is better than 900 bucks but it is frustrating that it was just code that went bad and not a part that I can touch.

[jdbob]

B11EE:19 A/C Compressor: Circuit Current Above Threshold

 

Not sure what that has to do with the heater.

 

Two modules losing programming is scary. 

[murphy]

Got my car back from the dealer today and they have fixed my heater issue, we will see how long it lasts because no parts were swapped out. The frustrating part is it was all computer work that I can't do even if I wanted to. But, here is what they say they did:

 

Found incomplete configuration in APIM U2100, code B11EE 19 in ACCM. Performed reprogramming of APIM and initialization and calibration then performed PPT H1-H10 found FCIM had lost programming. Installed as built data into FCIM then per PPT repaired pinfit at connectors, reassessed test systems and verified heater working correctly.

 

Not sure what a lot of that is and the tech had gone home for the day so I couldn't chat with them to find out. There were no codes in the obdii reader I have so this is not within my capability to fix. Guess 250 is better than 900 bucks but it is frustrating that it was just code that went bad and not a part that I can touch.

Your owner.ford.com account should show a warranty extension for the APIM.  There has to be a reason that they extended the APIM warranty.  Maybe the APIM went nuts are messed up the other modules.  They all communicate on the same bus.

[openair]

I may or may not have figured out a way to reproduce the coolant heater performance DTC when your electric heater is working poorly or not at all. However, again, this DTC is not stored beyond one to three power cycles of the vehicle and you'll have to reproduce it at or near the dealership.

 

At ambient temperatures ranging from -3 to +6 Celsius run the ice to warm up the vehicle with the climate controls set to 21c (or above?). You may need to drive the vehicle to get the ice and heater coolant to about 1/3 up the temp guage.

 

After the vehicle is warm but not too hot allow the ice to turn off and drive or park and allow the climate controls to run on electric heat alone for a time. You should see the temp guage eventually begin to fall if your heater is not working well. If the temp guage falls low enough (below the hash mark on the guage?) you should see the orange wrench illuminate.

 

Your mileage may vary with model year, ambient temperature, precipitation and how poor your electric heater is performing.

Edited December 10, 2016 at 10:49 PM by openair

[openair]

The dealership was able to pull this DTC (p01eb) without the orange wrench on today. Unlike 3 other dealerships ten+ months ago. Whether this is due to a software update (the fcim was updated about a month ago while I had been told it was up to date a few times in the past) or the other dealerships not knowing what they're doing idk. They also tell me the part number for the replacement heater has changed twice in the past ten months meaning there was likely a known issue with the original and my replaced heater model. However I am being charged my ESP deductible even though my heater was replaced ten months ago and they pulled the exact same DTC for this issue that has existed since the vehicle was under the bumper to bumper warranty.

Edited December 16, 2016 at 07:37 PM by openair