Hi, I suspect the temp. blend door, 2002 Passat with no heat, is broken or stuck in the opposite position for desired heat. Can blend door be accessed via removing glove box, repositioned manually to work for rest of this winter, and then be dealt with later in the spring more comprehensively? Is the culprit (suspected blend door stuck open or closed- whichever is the wrong way) palpable, identifiable and manipulable from the removed glove box? Of course if this is not the problem, then no harm no foul, but I was hoping someone could answer if it is even worth a try in the very cold outdoors today. Boston, poor, inexperienced, cold college student operating this car.
Thank you for your consideration, and crowd knowledge.
Just one more thing, I was looking online and I found YouTube of VW dash removal heater core repair. I think this is nothing short of hysterically funny, mostly because if I can avoid what is in this video and just Torx out the glove box, it will be much less Rube Goldbergish. The video is only 5 minutes, but it is sped UP and I think the operation took several hours.
You can pull the control module for the heater cables and see if any are loose but odds are the heater core is plugged . If it were as easy as pulling the glove box that would have been written up on the VW/Audi Forums a dozen times by now . The heater core is more in the center of the dash , not on the passenger side .
Hey thanks, I went over to the forum and it led me to this, TSB 8506-01.
"John Weathers 337 solutions Jan 01, 2009
Sure sounds like a blend air door problem. The rotary temperature knob moves a cable that moves the blend air door. There is a bushing in the housing that likes to break and will either leave the door closed no heat or open heat when a/c is on. TSB 8506-01 covers this problem. " from this, http://forums.motivemag.com/showthread.php?4445527
On the forum I found the above fix, fairly straightforward to get to and repair that broken blend door without taking apart the dash. Also there is a You Tube (02 Ford Explorer Heat Blend Door Actuator Simple Fix - No Tools Needed) of manually operating the broken blend door from taking off the glove box, but for an Explorer. I know this will be a more expensive fix (the heater core doesn’t seem to be the issue) on the Passat and this is not an Explorer, but I just wanted to know if the blend door is reachable from removing the glove box or not. Sorry for the rambling, just wanted to check something simpler first…if at all possible.
TSBs are fine and dandy, but did you verify that the heater core is not plugged?
Are both heater hoses hot?
I’ve worked on several 10-year old vehicles with plugged heater cores.
Why should yours be immune to this possibility?