lol, it happens so frequently, we'll know within a few minutes if that's the problem!

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll do that tonight and report back.

 

No change ... HVAC still has a mind of its own with the trim piece removed.

However, I did a Power button/AC button, power button reset of the HVAC and the heat began to work.

Also, no clicking noises when the actuators are moving, just normal humming/buzzing actuator noises.

 

Ok if the touchscreen is still acting like buttons are being pressed when there is nothing touching it I would assume the touchscreen is bad, I will say I have yet to see a touch screen go bad but anything can break.
This is a bit of a long shot but it might be worth going to a dealer you trust and pay them to do a on demand test for the touchscreen/APIM/HVAC and make sure all the APIM/HVAC is reprogrammed with the most up to date programming.

 

i would assume that there is also a control module of some sort that directs the input from the touchscreen to the various functions that it controls. I need to find out if that control unit is integrated into the touchscreen itself, or if it's located remotely. And then probably replace one or the other or both.

 

The touchscreen is called the FDIM (Front Display Interface Module), it is screwed directly to the APIM (Accessory Protocol Interface Module).
I do not know if the FDIM tells the APIM of the specific request (max cold/FM/ect) or if it just says I was touched at this point and the APIM knows which point is which button.

 

Thanks for the info.

And now, the wife says it's blowing hot out of the drivers side when the A/C is on. Blows cold out of the passenger side though. This appears to be common, as I remember seeing a lot of hits for that complaint on the Google machine. I have to look it up again though, because I think that the suggestions for fixes were all over the map.

 

Which side operates correctly all across the temp range?

Most of the time its a blend door actuator that breaks.

 

It was the drivers side blowing hot while the passenger side was cold with the a/c on. I did the power button/defrost button then power button "reset" I've seen described elsewhere, and after 2 tries, cold air was coming out of both sides.That would seem to indicate to me that the actuator works, but it may be getting incorrect signals from a control unit. We'll see how long the "reset" holds things together.

 

Unless you have a ford obd2 program I would bring it to a dealer, pay at least one hour labor and have them run tests on HVAC and APIM in addition to a few other tests to see what is bad. It sounds like a intermittent module fault to me.

No chance you have ESP?

 

Are you asking if I can read the car's mind? Or is that a diag software acronym?

(EDIT : which I guess wouldn't be all that much different, lol. Either way, the answer is no)