Whistle from Air Vents, Even Worse With Sunroof Cracked '22 ST

[Seachief]

I have a 2022 Explorer ST, my fourth Explorer with about 270,000 miles driving them. Anyway, my new 2022 ST has an annoying whistle that seems to be heard from the center air vents. The higher the fan speed, the more annoying the whistle noise. When underway, cracking the sun roof makes it way worse too, as one might expect. Anyway, I was in at the dealer to change over to my Blizzak snow tires/wheels and I had the Service Writer add it to my requests to 'check annoying noise from air system' basically. The mechanic came out to the car with me and sat passenger side and heard it immediately....car completely still. He acknowledged it shouldn't be that loud and went in and looked for TSBs for that symptom. He came back and said he didn't see any and that he should probably remove/disassemble the blower and that would take some time. I've booked that for 20 December with a loaner car, but I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience, and if so, what the resolution was.

 

[Seachief]

It took a few tried for the dealer to solve this. The Ford hotline told the dealer's chief mechanic to replace the 'HeaterBox'. That was an all day affair that had the dashboard removed, the front seats removed and the steering wheel off. Result....same exact whistle at any fan sett5ing higher than '1' or if the sunroof or a window is cracked (which I do all the time). This time when I dropped it off for the day and took a Bronco Sport with 49 miles on it as a loaner, I let them know that the whistle seemed strongest if I used the menu and selected just the defrost vents...I also noted that this lead me to realize the sound seemed to be coming from close to where the windshields meets the dash area. This time the mechanic discovered a plastic poiece that was either not installed correctly when assembled, or had moved out of position and this was allowing a narrow gap that created the whistle. Nice and quiet now thanks goodness.

I have a 2022 Explorer ST, my fourth Explorer with about 270,000 miles driving them. Anyway, my new 2022 ST has an annoying whistle that seems to be heard from the center air vents. The higher the fan speed, the more annoying the whistle noise. When underway, cracking the sun roof makes it way worse too, as one might expect. Anyway, I was in at the dealer to change over to my Blizzak snow tires/wheels and I had the Service Writer add it to my requests to 'check annoying noise from air system' basically. The mechanic came out to the car with me and sat passenger side and heard it immediately....car completely still. He acknowledged it shouldn't be that loud and went in and looked for TSBs for that symptom. He came back and said he didn't see any and that he should probably remove/disassemble the blower and that would take some time. I've booked that for 20 December with a loaner car, but I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience, and if so, what the resolution was.

 

[DaveG ST]

Thank you for this update. These really annoying issues that can be resolved is why I am on this forum.

 

[Skeek]

It took a few tried for the dealer to solve this. The Ford hotline told the dealer's chief mechanic to replace the 'HeaterBox'. That was an all day affair that had the dashboard removed, the front seats removed and the steering wheel off. Result....same exact whistle at any fan sett5ing higher than '1' or if the sunroof or a window is cracked (which I do all the time). This time when I dropped it off for the day and took a Bronco Sport with 49 miles on it as a loaner, I let them know that the whistle seemed strongest if I used the menu and selected just the defrost vents...I also noted that this lead me to realize the sound seemed to be coming from close to where the windshields meets the dash area. This time the mechanic discovered a plastic poiece that was either not installed correctly when assembled, or had moved out of position and this was allowing a narrow gap that created the whistle. Nice and quiet now thanks goodness.

Thanks for circling back on this. Haven't encountered this exact issue but I do get a slight whistle like air is moving through the 2nd row roof vents while going 60+mph. Doesn't seem to make a difference if the fans are on or off, however.