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Actually, yes I did!
I received a very helpful reply from lister Stephen
(Timinski) regarding what he thought - and turned out
to be - the problem.
The flaps inside the heater box are metal plates
covered with foam, which is used to direct air in the
vents when you set the dials to their various
settings. There are 2 "foam" flaps, one that controls
where the air flows (vents and defroster) and the
other one that controls the air mixture from the
heater box (that has the heater core) with the other
box that contains the air conditioning system.
There's a third flap that controls airflow to the
floor vents, but it's plastic.
When the heater core blew, it of course sent coolant
everywhere, including the foam flap that controls the
temperature. When I replaced the heater core, I did a
visual inspection of the flaps and that one was pretty
wet, but intact. So, thinking nothing of it, I put
the car back together (that was the weekend before
last).
I of course felt proud of myself for fixing my car,
and after refilling the cooling system I cranked up
the heat. I was immediately met with a shower of foam
bits flying out of the vents. Lots of bits.
Everywhere.
The heat sort of worked, but it didn't get hot as hell
like it used to. Stephen was kind enough to point me
in the direction that the foam covering the doors
needed to be replaced. So this past Saturday I once
again pulled the dash (and this time in only an hour!)
only to find that the foam insulation that was there a
week earlier was missing completely. The issue with
not having the foam is that VW used metal doors that
have rather large holes in them (think swiss cheese).
Without the foam, hot/cold air was mixing freely not
allowing the heat to work or air conditioning to work
as prescribed.
I searched the tex and came across this:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2301864
Using the craft foam, I replaced the missing foam and
put everything back together - again. This time, the
heat worked.
The thing I can't figure is why your fan speeds have
changed. There's no cables that control that - it's
an electrical relay. The only thing I can think of is
that if you too are missing your foam on the doors,
then maybe the vents are not getting a proper seal
thus allowing air to leak out. I never had any issues
with my fan speed after the first go around. The heat
just didn't get hot. But, I only had to replace the
foam for the heater box (not the vent control flap).
If your system isn't getting hot or cold, I would
first check the cable that controls the flap for
temperature. You can get to it if you remove the
passenger knee pad and the foam insulation over the
pass. footwell. My cable was blue, and the Bentley
gives a procedure for adjusting the cable. If that
doesn't work, you might want to check the heater box
itself, but you know what that entails . . .
Short answer, it got fixed.
Feel free to let me know if you have any more Q's.
It's all still very fresh in my mind :-)
Ryan
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