I got the foam chunks too, no rattle.

 

I am bringing this back from the dead! I am sick of cleaning the foam bits every time I drive this car! Has anyone found the actual source of the foam? I removed the blower motor and ducting that connects to center dash (under pass dash) and I can see the foam peeling in the air distribution housing behind radio Looks as though dash has to come out Has any one else tackled this? It's amazing how much I keep putting up with on this car

 

After awhile it will stop it took mine about 1 year to fully leave the vents lol.

 

While investigating, I also found my recirculate blend doors do not operate, just a buzzing noise. As **** as I am, I will have to fix it...all of it

 

the good things is once you fix all of the issues that bother you , you can open a bay in your shop and go into porsche repair!!

 

ain't it great when we do nothing and outlive a problem with the car!? my headliner stopped rattling LOL

 

That's funny, after installing the lift and my customers seeing my car on it with the engine out, I have been asked more than once...lol I just might take some on

 

This is a common problem with mid 90's and up VW's. Had a 96 Passat TDI that did the same thing, foam bits blowing out of the vents. IIRC, the AC blend doors are covered in foam and start to disintegrate with age. Proper fix will probably require replacing the blend door mechanism.

There were some DIY repairs on the VW forums, where they would cut the side of the blend door housing and recover the blend door with foam. Not on my P-car, but to each his/her own.

Unfortunately, the blend door isn't solid in the VW's, more like perforated plastic / swiss cheesed and the problem will likely get worse as the blend doors won't separate the heater core from the ac coil and/ or the defrost from dash and floor vents.

I suspect Porsche likely used the same /similar supplier as VW.

Just found this on Rennlist 996 forum:

"...The foam is coming from the air intake flapper door right behind the cabin air filter. This is pretty common on older cars that spend most of their time outdoors.

You can easily remove the residual foam sheeting from the flapper door by removing the cabin filter and reaching down to the door and pulling off the remaining foam. Also you can stick a vacuum with a crevice tool on it to suck out any other foam that is in the blower motor cavity right below the door. Lastly, if you want, you can get a new piece of foam from any fabric store and replace the old foam that has disintegrated.

This repair is completely accessible from the outside cowl on the passenger side of the car. Just remove the plastic cover as you would to replace the cabin filter, pull out the filter, and reach in and pull out the old foam."

 

I wish it was that easy! I have it apart and the foam on that flapper door is fine. If you pull the fan motor you can see that easily. Problem is, the blower pulls from the filter or interior and pushes through the evaporator. So that foam would have to go through the coils. I can see with a flash light where the foam is peeling and its behind the radio. The dash has to come apart

 

Another poor design by porsche. I cant believe they did not change the foam to some different material. Yes it did happen to early models. I get foam coming out its dark brown when i turn my AC on full. Few chunks of foam come out and it stops. F annoying. Its do to age. Plus when car sits for a long time also during summer dash board gets hot. Only way to fix this, is to pull the dash board out. Probably by removing 2 fronts seats as well. More room. Ill do it but not now. It be probably more annoying in winter time when you have to turn the heat on

 

I have to admit, this is my first "foreign" car to own and I'm a little surprised at some of the things I see. I am really digging a lot of the German engineering that went into the car, but damn...they missed the boat with the liquid cooling system and the HVAC system If I had to pay someone to do all the work that I have had to do, I could have bought a new one I will pull dash during the week this week and fix it right. That black foam is kinda greasy and stains the tan carpet and my wifes clothes! Can't be having that!

 

In the year or so since I started this post the amount of foam has diminished to an occasional occurrence. What I did was to change every setting that caused the blend doors to move, kept the ac on high and a shop vac at the vents for about 30 minutes over 3 weekends. I cant believe how much material came out.

Unfortunately, the adhesive stains light clothing, so getting rid of it was a must as I usually wear lighter colored shirts.

 

^ just one more reason to NEVER let that dash surface get hot if it can be avoided. leaving it uncovered in direct sunlight is asking for creaking/flexing noises of unknown origin in addition now to the possibility of heat "curing" the foam.

foam?! unbelieveable....

 

Unfortunately, this is Florida and I will not own a vehicle that can't sit out in the sun. I will take it apart and fix it.

I have done the shop vac and even compressed air with blower on high several times. Just as you think you got it then, bam, here it comes again. Now I notice the fresh air/recirc. blend door does not move. I really want the recirculate to work due to car being black and Florida heat! I also notice that when looking through the small opening where the foam is peeling, it appears that the blend door in the air distribution box is not solid So there are large holes where the foam has lifted! That explains the inconsistency and temp fluctuation

 

Yes it causes the blend doors to not seal properly have seen this on Audis/VWs and there is no real cure other then dash removal/repair. I hope since my car is not left in the sun etc I can avoid this but who knows lol.