AC vents

[oldone]

When i have the heat selector in the heat/defrost position, i get cold outside air thru the dash vents. Is it supposed to work like that, or do i have a door in there thats not closing?
I read thru the archives and seen where it was mentioned that you couldnt get heat thru the vents, but nothing about the flow of cold air from outside.

Thanks

Jeff

[elcamino1]

Thats what those vents are for on non air condition cars!

[edudu77]

Mine does the same thing, although it's not "blowing" cold air, but it is coming in. Was the same way on my Audi too. Does it stop if you put it on recirculate?

Donovan

[elcamino1]

The fan will circulate that air coming in out thru the vents.

[mechanicaldj]

there are 3 levers in the ventilation dash pod area

the top is to select where you want the air to blow

the middle is for : if you want to recirculate (air from inside the car) or if you want fresh air(outside from under the cowl)

and the bottom lever is for cold air thru hot air

[GenevaDirt]

Mine does the same thing, although it's not "blowing" cold air, but it is coming in. Was the same way on my Audi too. Does it stop if you put it on recirculate?

Donovan

it does help some to put on recirc. But I just take the cover off and fill with a foam pad for the winter....no more cold air through the vents.

[kxhonda]

Wow i was wondering about this. I thought i had a vaccum line loose or something. I thought you should be able to get heat through those vents.

[lasvegascop]

yup...sucks

[nattyphysicist]

I have the same problem. Cold air coming out the dash vents when I have foot/defog selected. I haven't checked it out yet, but my thought was that it must be due to a deteriorated foam gasket.

This other issue about never being able to get hot air from the dash. Someone has to come up with a mod for that!

[jglutz]

^^Possibly....or....the cable linkage is not operating properly.

I was alway thinkng about the mod...thanks for the motivation.

It's great to have another physicist around.

[ch33z3x]

mod eh? Hmm. I live in a cold place. This may become necessity. I'll check the jy i work at, and get back to y'all

[lasvegascop]

def check if we can fix it....Geez, Vegas in winter sucks! its like 40 now and believe me, it feels way colder than the snowy country for some strange reason!

I wonder if you would have to get the whole heating mechanism out of an Aspire or a EGT? or something else? Maybe even the whole dash just to make it work? Either way, sounds like a good project and lots of work...it could be a great write up if you can do it!

[geezerstiva]

cheap, (relatively) easy (relatively) mod FTW!!
this is extremely annoying. its like your undoing all the heat the (pitiful) little heater on the festy can put out!

[elcamino1]

What happens if you swap in a AC heater box?

[nattyphysicist]

First of all, thanks to GenevaDirt. I looked into this last night, trying to see if I could replace the offensive foam gasket, but it's buried behind the dash. In the end I just did the stuffing the vents with foam trick and it worked great!

I also have the same question as lasvegascop. Does the aspire have the same problem? Will the box fit into the Festiva?

If you take off the trim that holds those center dash vents (around the radio too), you can look in and see the flap. If you open the flap, you can actually see the top of the blower fan. Therefore, the blower only blows fresh air out the top of the heater box, so that would have to be closed off. The temperature controlled air comes out of the box at the rear (toward the rear of the car) at the bottom sides, pretty much at the foot outlets, and is ducted up to the defog vents. You would want to use the face vent flap and inject the controlled air just before it.

What we need is a junk yard dog to tell us what could possibly fit for an entire replacement.