2001 VW Beetle heater

[mark_gober]

Hey everyone,

I'm new to the forum, but hopefully you guys can give me some insight into the problem I'm having.

I'm working on my niece's 2001 VW beetle (2.0). My sister bought it from her friend to give to my daughter for her 16th birthday. She asked me to give it the once over to make sure that everything was good to go. I've had more than a few frustrating moments working on the car.

My current issue is the heater and the air conditioner. I have been driving it for the past few weeks to stretch its and it has had extremely poor heater performance. I'd say almost non-existent heater performance. I've already drained the radiator, flushed the coolant system and refilled. While I had it drained, I checked the heater core for blockage and it was not blocked. I was able to effortlessly blow air through it. If I open the hood once the engine is hot, both hoses going to the heater core feel nice and warm. That tells me that the heater core is receiving coolant, so why am I not feeling any heat in the car.

The controls on the dash all appear to be functioning normally. I write than in italics because I suspect that my heater issue has to do with the mechanics of delivering the air and not the actual heater core. When I rotate the switch from feet to face to defrost, I can clearly hear the air diverter moving and the air switches....until I press the recirc button. When I press that, it goes crazy. Regardless of the switch position, if the recirc is on, the only place the air blows is out of the dashboard. If you place it in defrost, it shuts off recirc and does blow up on the windshield. (I believe this is by design)

I'm not sure if it's relevant or not, but there are small pieces (about the size of a penny or smaller) of foam that shoot out of the a/c vents when it's blowing. It's extremely thin foam. I'd say approximately 1/32 of an inch thick. It was worse when I first started driving, but it still does it occasionally.

So I'm open to any suggestions you guys may have on why I don't have any heat in the car and your thoughts on whether or not the controls are causing that. I look forward to hearing back from everyone.

Sincerely,

Mark Gober

[Bratgirl]

check out this link, it might help.
Blend Door DIY
If you need more info, do a search for "blend door" or "foam out of vents".
Good Luck, and welcome to the forum.
Barb

[Smileybug]

Bingo. Blend door.