Have an '02 Taurus w/ 103k miles and about 6 months ago all the air, heat or a/c, started blowing only out of the defrost vents at the bottom of the windshield. All the settings work correctly except air has stopped blowing from the floor and dash vents entirely. I know the fix on this is probably easy, just getting to it is gonna be hard. I've had the dash off my '11 Crown Vic to replace the leaking heater core so I've got a little experience doing this sort of thing.

Can any describe to me what switching door in the vent system has gone bad and how I might approach fixing it?

Thanks

 

Suppose we do a visual inspection before jumping in with both feet?
If a vacuum hose that supplies vacuum to the HVAC controls has split or come off , the system will usually default to defrost mode..
Suggest you check all the vacuum lines that go to the inside of the vehicle. Wouldn't it be awful if you didn't have to disassemble another dash to look for a possible problem that might not be there?

 

I checked all the vac lines on the firewall from the vac source on the driver's side to where it goes into the cabin on the pass side and everything seemed ok. So I get inside and take the glove compartment out and go poking around to see if I can find a loose vac line. Well lo and behold, I did, and lucky enough nothing's broken. I found a loose junction of vac lines that resembles a wiring harness connection. Best guess is it got knocked loose when my aftermarket radio got installed last year. Couldn't find my radio removal tools (on order for next week) so I wasn't able to get as good a view as I wanted, but after a lot of squeezing under the dash to look I never found these lines connection point. Can anyone tell me exactly where these lines plug into?...

 

If you can, hold iff until you get your radio removal tools..
It appears the plug could go on to the function selector of the heating switch section right under the radio. If that is correct ,you are right , an easy fix !