BlaineBug

https://fordtransitconnectforum.com/topic/8303-what-is-this-bag-of-absorbent/?_fromLogin=1 These are the foam filled blag bags!

THESE BAGS are filled with miscellaneous colored foam pieces, which if the bags get a hole in them, WILL FIND THEIR WAY INTO YOUR BLOWER MOTOR! Ask me how I know! https://fordtransitconnectforum.com/topic/8863-solution-blower-fan-noise-dash-vibration-and-mice/?tab=comments#comment-42444

I gotcha. The opening for that glove box door almost looks reminiscent of the 2013 Transit Connect, I could be wrong as it has been awhile since I've seen them.

Your cabin filter appears to install in a totally different orientation than my Father's 2014 which installs in a vertical installation (or perhaps your TC is a pre-2014 model?) I did find the source of this FOAM though, there are 2 black bags which are stuffed with miscellaneous pieces of foam of different sizes and colors in each of the front fenders, closer to the doors, in-between the door hinges and the wheel wells. I ripped them out and removed them from his van and noticed the black bag on the driver's side did have a hole in it allowing foam to escape. I'm not sure how the foam is making its way into the air intake ducting from the fenders though? These black bags filled with foam must be there for some sort of sound insulating purpose and are slightly adhered to the inside of the fenders, so you will likely tear the black bags if you so choose to remove them. For the last year or so his HVAC blower motor blades have been catching a few pieces of foam causing a vibration when set to the highest fan speed. I have changed the cabin filter at least 2 times thus far since reading this thread and have pulled out foam each and every time. Maybe this problem will stop now, unless there are residual left over foam pieces still inside of the ductwork somewhere! Also it appears that the cabin filter is in-between the blower fan and the evaporator, so any exterior debris can still get caught in the fan blades before they reach the cabin filter. It would be nice to filter before the fan blades but I suppose they couldn't find the room in the vehicle to do that and had to put the cabin filter where it is. Luckily the vehicle's HVAC system can be set to recirculate, turned off, and the recirculation door will remain open so that the debris can be pulled out easily enough with an extendable reach grabbing tool with the glovebox removed from the dashboard.

I thought of this foam too but it's too small. These chunks in the blower fan wheel were larger, and also different colors too. And I found some under the hood too, just a very tiny amount but it looked to be the same stuff. Broken up chunks of similar size.

SOLD - please delete.

My Father's 2014 Transit Connect developed the vibration when the blower motor fan is on speed 3 or 4. Yesterday I finally had a chance to rectify the issue. I removed the glove box and turned the blower fan on with recirculation on which opens the recirculation door and allows easy access to the blower fan blades without removing the blower motor itself. If you turn the car OFF the blower fan will turn off and the recirculation door will remain open until the next key start. I didn't use a vacuum cleaner but used a flexible grabber for grabbing dropped bolts and such and pulled out a variety of small pieces of foam. I also found a small mount of these under the hood. I am not sure if it was from birds or mice. This is NOT the insulation from the front wheel well liners, so I am not sure what it is from. My question is, how does this get by the cabin filter? I just replaced his cabin filter a few months ago in September and replace it annually. Wouldn't any foreign debris introduced from the outside get stuck on the cabin filter before reaching the blower fan wheel?

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I'll check the voltage soon, possibly this coming weekend. I know strange things happen but I would imagine that the relay would be stuck 24/7 and not only when turning on the defroster via the switch. As in, the contacts would be welded closed. However if the window isn't heating then I can't imagine that's the case. It's also possible that the shattered window is a coincidence. Oh, and did I mention, he had a 2013 Transit Connect with barn doors and had one of the 2 rear windows in that one shatter as well. In the 2013 it shattered very early in the morning when the rear defroster was on. In the 2014 it shattered once while driving with the rear defroster on, and once while the van was parked in the middle of the night with the ignition off. He's had more windows spontaneously shatter between the 2 Transit Connects than I've ever heard of. He also doesn't haul anything for work that bangs into the glass. The 2 vans he's had have simply been daily drivers, not used in the trades.

Thank you. I'll check this out next for him. I do know that the rear defroster light on the dash does go off after some amount of time. Would there be a possibility that the glass element is still heating even when the light is off? Someone at Safe Lite told my Father that they heard about these vans having the rear defroster stuck on causing the shattering, like you have suggested. However I searched for quite some time and only found results pertaining to the F150's rear window shattering, not the Transit Connect. My guess is there are more non-window panel Transit Connect vans than there are Transit Connect vans with rear windows. Or, this is a fluke, and the guy at Safe Lite was misinformed.

While doing some service on his van yesterday including the front brakes, I finally tracked down the source of this rear end clunk. Just as I suspected, it was tailgate related! This would be hard to see otherwise. In a desperate attempt, I removed the two torx fasteners that hold the body side latch to the floor in the tailgate area. Low and behold, one of the two rubber "bumpers" that wedge the tailgate latch had slipped off and was sitting beside the body side latch, under the plastic trim. It's somewhat difficult to describe, but these two rubber bumpers keep the tailgate latch wedged tight and unable to wiggle. Since one of them had fallen off, the tailgate was wobbling around and the noise we heard was the play created between the body side and tailgate mounted latches. He believes the noise began ever since he had the rear window replaced the FIRST time. It's my thought that Safe Lite was probably vacuuming up glass and may have bumped into these bumpers, one of which slid off. As I said, my Father had to have the tailgate glass replaced twice. He doesn't use the rear defroster anymore and the glass hasn't shattered. Would there be any reason why the rear window defroster would cause the rear glass to spontaneously shatter on two separate occasions in less than 3 years of vehicle ownership? Anyway, the tailgate is finally clunk free. What a relief.

You know that could be it too, I suppose that would offer a noise similar to an anti-sway bar that was loose. I recall taking a look at the rear control arm bushings and not seeing anything obvious but I never checked the bolts to check their torque. I will be sure to do that. Like I said this van has NO rear anti-sway bar.

Thanks. I'll let you know when we investigate further this spring.

This spring we will be looking in to it more again. I can't imagine that cable against the steel wheel of the spare to make such a racket. It sounds like the tailgate to me but I can't imagine exactly what is causing the problem. Hinges or latch would probably produce the majority of the noise that would be similar to the sound of a loose anti-sway bar joint. But everything was tight......maybe I need to loosen all of the attachment points and then re-torque again.

It's a 5 passenger van. 60/40 rear bench with two front buckets. It is definitely not the seats. Folded forward or secured in normal fashion there's no difference. Also I highly doubt it's the safety cable for the spare tire. The sound is far too loud to be the cable slapping against the rubber tire.