This is on a 2007 V6 driven by a guy here at work. He had issues all last winter with no heat and a popping sound. I finally got a chance to look at it today. Turn on the heater and he says no heat will come out (pretty warm now, but it's 80 degrees here today sooooo...). Along with that, you can hear something making a popping noise. It is coming from basically dead behind the radio in the dash, and it pops about once every second or two, and then it turns into a machine gun for about 3-4 seconds. Only does this when you kick it over to heat.

I'm assuming this is the door actuator or something inside the blower motor? Never dug into that part, so I have no idea if it's even the right location or the correct symptoms. I've searched high and low and can't find anything similar here or on the Googles so I figured I'd ask.

On a previous car I had (Lincoln Mark VIII) you could either pay $500 for the new part or dig in and zip tie the broken plastic piece back together. Any input on what this is and recommended fix is greatly appreciated!

 

I think it is the "blend" door actuator....it blends/mixes cold and warm air to get your desired temperature. I had the exact symptoms on an Explorer....no warm air in winter....popping or clicking sounds, followed by rapid popping or clicking.

I can't comment on a fix, as I traded the Explorer off before getting it fixed. I do seem to recall it was going to be fairly expensive to repair....$600....as there is a lot of dealer labor involved to take the dash out to get to it. I don't think the actual part is all that expensive....mostly labor charges.

 

I work at a ford dealership as a tech and it sounds like a temp blend door actuator. I have done alot of actuators on many different ford cars and truck but not a mustang. But I believe they use the same actuators. I have replaced many actuators without removing the entire dash even though the workshop manual says to.