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Every now and then, the blend door actuator in the 2012 Ford Focus is known to malfunction. It's because the gears inside are plastic, making them prone to damage. To replace it, you'll first have to find the actuator, which is situated in the center of the car. Once you've located the blend door actuator, you'll need to gain access to it. While some users say they can spot it from behind the glove box, it's advisable to remove the passenger's side of the dashboard for better access. You'll find two Philips head screws securing it in place. After removing them (be cautious as it's snug!), disconnect the electrical harness to swap it out.
You don't have to take out the entire dashboard for this task. Instead, you can simply extract the glove box, reposition the fuse panel, and detach the plastic side panels from the center console. This process may be challenging, but it's a much smaller task compared to removing the complete dashboard and steering column.
Initially, you can't simply take out the dashboard on the passenger side. I recently worked on one of these cars, and I had to remove the entire dashboard, along with the steering column – it's quite a hassle. However, for the actuator alone, you may not have to remove the dashboard bracket, which I had to do for the AC coil. So, it's not as difficult in that regard, but it's still a time-consuming task.