Accessing the heater blend door

[Steve777]

So I have narrowed my 00 Golf's no heat problem to the blend door (heater core was fine, and after some recent bumps there is now always heat). Checked some of the post on replacing the arm and/or door clip and started taking the lower dash out panels off to give that a look.

Well, maybe I just didn't go far enough, but after getting the trim panels off, on both sides there is another plastic inner panel that blocks access to the heater box. Same sort of inner plastic panel behind the radio too. And these inner panels do not seem to want to come out easily.

Any advise on this?

Where exactly is the blend door (appears to be on the driver side near foot/mid-calf level)?

How do those inner panels come out, and do I need to remove them?

None of the posts about fixing the blend door mention these panels. Do folks just hack thru them?

TIA

 

[mudduck]

Plenty of info if you search "blend doors". I believe the dash has to be pulled. Apparently one of the most dreaded jobs to do.

 

[dogdots]

The hardest part of the dash pull is getting a feel for the air bag latches on the steering wheel. The rest is just mundane screw and bolt removal.

 

[Steve777]

OK, took a look at 6 or 8 posts on this here and at VWVortex and have it solved. Took a while to figure out how their pics ere oriented. So I thought I'd post the answer in case anyone else is ever looking...

You do not have to take those inner panels off. In fact you do not need to take off anything on the drivers side. All you need to do is pull the glove box and its associated panels on the lower dash on the passenger side and that is enough, to fix the blend door lever at least.

The blend door shaft runs vertically, with the cable lever attaching at the bottom. If you look very close at the bottom of the big heater box assembly that is in front of the radio, just a couple of inches in from the trim on the passenger side, that is where the lever arm and blend door shaft are located. Just in front and a bit to center of the black plastic foot air vents that are there.

It is fairly common for the bushing that connects the lever arm to the shaft to break and fall off. If that happened to you, your lever arm may be loose in that area instead of attached to the shaft. This is a common enough problem that VW carries replacement bushings, partno 1H0 819 136. Lists for $10. It is two tiny clips on the bushing that hold it in, and they break over time. All you need do is unbolt the old bushing from the arm (7mm hex), bolt the new one on and replace it. Note, it helps to align the blend door with the old bushing first. Easiest if it is in the cold position.

A pretty simple fix, once you know where to look. Of course this won't fix other issues, but if you've lost control of the air temps this is a simple fix that is worth checking out before you do anything drastic.