Floor heat non-existent?

[bronco2drga]

Sorry I've been kind of busy just now getting a chance to follow up on this. I agree with everybody it has to be something with airflow not actuating over to the proper duct. There is just way too much noise for no output.

I wonder if this is going to be something they will look into and fix?

So far I think the quality of my Bronco and everything else is amazing so not a deal-breaker, but I was outside the other day for several hours and my toes were a little bit numb......I would have loved to have some floor heat.

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[amccue90]

Who's going in there first? Thought I'd take a look to see if there's easy access to the ducting...

 

[clarkT]

Agreeing with everyone on this problem. The rear is a trickle but only driver side. The footwell is laughable. And the side vents are like hair dryers.

I just kept pushing buttons of different configurations and eventually the sides shut off and feet improved a bit. But it’s a fight for random success every trip.

The kids get cold in the rear. … we got a 4 door so we could have it as a family and fun vehicle… so it’s not ok to have cold kids. No new car should be this uncomfortable… my 68mustang and 66 bronco work fine 50 yrs later with pull knobs and vacuum lines!

We all need to go to the dealer and get this documented. We shouldn’t be disassembling our dash to connect ductwork and having to hope dampers will eventually work by button mashing.

I’m going this week for the window hanging up and now this.

 

[schadenforduh]

 

[Jaymanire]

Agreeing with everyone on this problem. The rear is a trickle but only driver side. The footwell is laughable. And the side vents are like hair dryers.

I just kept pushing buttons of different configurations and eventually the sides shut off and feet improved a bit. But it’s a fight for random success every trip.

The kids get cold in the rear. … we got a 4 door so we could have it as a family and fun vehicle… so it’s not ok to have cold kids. No new car should be this uncomfortable… my 68mustang and 66 bronco work fine 50 yrs later with pull knobs and vacuum lines!

We all need to go to the dealer and get this documented. We shouldn’t be disassembling our dash to connect ductwork and having to hope dampers will eventually work by button mashing.

I’m going this week for the window hanging up and now this.

I agree completely. Same experience with windows too. Unfortunately, the dealership has no clue how to fix either issue and @Ford_Motor_Company just gave me the run around. The social media team actively monitoring this forum really offered no solution nor means to escalate to the engineering side. They repeated the same “explanation” from the dealership…”it’s a characteristic of the vehicle.” Meaning, it’s designed poorly and Ford has no plans to fix it. Stay pumped!

We are on our own…

 

[bronco2drga]

Ford is going to send us some of these as the fix, floor heater 2.0:

 

[Saltlife4shore]

I got basically no floor heat. My button for the floor (non auto clim contr) doesn't even light up yellow. All the others do. When I press it I can hear the baffles doing something but it still doesn't get much heat.

 

[MN_OuterBanks]

I live in MN. This is the biggest issue I have with the my bronco. Praying the have a fix for the defrost vents being on when the feat are the only selected position.

Honestly I could dry my hair with the side window defrosters blowing 100mph ALL THE TIME. My feet freeze. Not happy. My heated steering wheel is a joke. MN winters are tough and this doesn’t make it easier.

 

[HeliPilot]

I could be the outlier, and the rear under seat barely blows, but front feet heat will burn my feet if I have sandals on.

Not an outlier. I live in CT, and drive to the gym every morning in shorts and tennis shoes. My feet and legs are always toasty, even in sub 20 degree temps. And if I switch it from Auto to blow hot air from the upper vents, I'll break a sweat. Forgot to mention, mine is a soft top.

 

[JoeyGoats]

Decided to dig into this today and pull some things apart. Turns out that there is only a small passage for air left in the heat exchanger. When set to Floor, the majority of air is sent out to the front foot wells with only a very low volume being left for the rear to flow through a restricted port for the rear channels. It is certainly not the mechanism in the heater coil.

Image 1 - the console removed as well as the heater ducts.

Image 2 & 3 - view in from glove box with duct removed for floor in foot well and light from below to show the small hole at the end.

Image 4 is from below the rear heater channel opening from below with light from above.

 

[Silver-Bolt]

Decided to dig into this today and pull some things apart. Turns out that there is only a small passage for air left in the heat exchanger. When set to Floor, the majority of air is sent out to the front foot wells with only a very low volume being left for the rear to flow through a restricted port for the rear channels. It is certainly not the mechanism in the heater coil.

Image 1 - the console removed as well as the heater ducts.

Image 2 & 3 - view in from glove box with duct removed for floor in foot well and light from below to show the small hole at the end.

Image 4 is from below the rear heater channel opening from below with light from above.

Any obvious ways to improve the flow?

 

[JoeyGoats]

Any obvious ways to improve the flow?

I was able to increase the air flow by cutting out the rest of the material in the way. It was not easy and I think I have a better way, and less destructive to the hands, to do it. I noticed that the airbox flap does not completely close when floor is selected. it remains open a bit and my guess is that with the side defrosters contributing to the heating that the lower ones would not be needed.

I Gorilla taped the two larger holes in the front passenger foot well to increase the volume to the rear. It is noticeably better on the passenger side rear than the driver side "hot breath" coming out.

I can see that they would want to keep the hot or cold air up front as that is where it will be needed most times, but the volume of air as it sits is the equivalent to a kerosene heater in a sports dome.

We're taking a road trip tomorrow so my daughter will be sure to give me an update as she is usually the one under a blanket while we melt up front. I am going to do some more testing and hopefully come up with a useable mod/fix for this that does not require the way I had to go about doing it.

 

[da_jokker]

Not having my bronco I can't answer this... But can you simply close the dash vents when you have it on floor to increase the heat coming out of the floor vents?

My jeep vent...

 

[sgraing1]

At least you don't have to scrape frost on the inside of the front windshield like on a VW Bug.

Seriously, this should be a non issue. When, if ever, will there be an engineering fix and a TSB issued for the Broncos already produced?

 

[Moto26]

Not having my bronco I can't answer this... But can you simply close the dash vents when you have it on floor to increase the heat coming out of the floor vents?

You can close all the dash vents and switch the air to Floor, but what happens is all the air comes out the defroster and side window vents.

Another issue we noticed on our recent road trip is this:

Let’s say you have the air set at 72°, and the outside air is 60°. You’ll have heat blowing out the vents, as it should. But suddenly, you’ll notice cold air coming out, and it turns out the outside temp has risen to 62°. If you click it up to 74°, you’ll get heat again.

So it seems like you have to keep the temperature control at least 11° higher than the outside temp, otherwise you’ll get cold air blowing. Which I find incredibly weird. Then, the opposite would happen. All of a sudden you would feel way too hot for no reason! I’ve never had a vehicle where I had to continuously chase a good temperature setting like this…

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