Peeps, I have a rather odd A/C problem

Renots, JNCOracer and myself are all experiencing this problem. Now what makes this problem odd is that it seems to be unique to the I30 dash.

After swapping the I30 dash into my car, I noticed my center A/C vents were "weak" afterwards.

Renots (james) just did the swap a few days ago and complained of the same problem.

Now, JNCOracer (jarrod) has an i30 and had to pull the dash. Upon reinstalling the dash he too noticed his center vents were weak afterwards.


James had an idea that this was being caused by the foam "filter" on the rear of the I30 center vents BUT if this were true...ALL i30's would have this problem, and it only seems to occur after removing the dash. I then had the thought the Max. blower might not be lining up correctly with the A/C ductwork on the I30 dash, BUT jarrods car IS an i30 so that theory went out the window.

My question is, does anyone have an idea about what could be wrong? Has anybody else experienced this same weakness after pulling your dash?

 

Are u referring to the "center vents" part itself? Its only a non-electrical part so unless the vent passageway is somehow obstructed then i dont see how the center vents could be "weak"?

THe only thing i can think of as causing the airflow to be weak is either the passage way being obstructed OR the blower fan. Somehow by changing the dash u changed the overall electrical resistance of the blower system and now not as much current if being used by the blower, hence it cant blow as hard.

Check to see if the same blowers are used in the max and i30.

 

The ducts should be pretty much sealed up to the vents. Its either not sealed all the way or there is an obstruction.

The center vents on the I30 stick out more than the ones on the Maxima dash, the ducts are probably not lined up, like they got shifted or something in the removal/installation process.

 

^^BUT

this same exact problem is present on an I30 with an I30 dash and blower motor

My buddy JT has to pull his dash on wednesday, im going to poke around and see if I can spot the problem at that time

EDIT: and by center vents I mean the vents located on the waterfall section with the hazard and defrost switches

 

JNCOracer R&Rd his dash, though, right.

An electrical problem is possble, but pretty unlikely. Check the voltage going to the blower, if its good, its something mechanical most likely with the duct routing.

 

will do, err JT will have to do that. I dont have a Multimeter

 

I was thinking the blower motor too but when I heard that jnco r&r'd his i30 dash an it did the same as mine an brads made me think differently, an all the same stuff from our max dash was used. Basically all that was changed was the dash it self an center ac vents, everything else is stock from the max. The only thing we did was unplug the connections an plug them back in, no different then installing a new radio or LEDs in the cluster. Just strikes me as weird cause I looked at both dashes while they were outta the car an both look the same from behind, the only difference is the center ac vent... Has me stumped lol

 

For reference purposes
Stock on the right i30 on the left

Dash removed



The i30 dash as an extra piece of duct behind the ac vents to line up with the center of the dash where the air comes out, what's weird is my vents by the doors don't seem to be affected

 

Its definitely NOT an electrical issue. Im thinking the ducts arent lined up perfectly and air is escaping behind the dash.

 

I have the same issue on my I30 after removing the center console numerous times. It still doesn't feel as strong as before but it does work at full strength intermittently without touching the dash. Seems like it's either a leak or an obstruction somewhere.

 

I took out my center ac vents with the ac on an no difference, I tried to feel around where I could for escaping air but couldn't feel any. Haven't dropped the glove box yet to see if I can see anything. Also I've noticed when I push the recirculate button it doesn't change anything, before it would speed up the airflow.

 

This sounds familiar too. I'm going to have to double check this when I get the chance. I rarely used that function to begin with.

 

OK, I just pulled out my center vents and found something.



The harnesses for the hazard lights, defrost and clock were wedged between the plastic duct and the vent trim piece. There was a pretty good sized gap just dumping air out behind the dash.

This might explain why on really humid days my AC vents would have condensation forming on the outside and even on the buttons.

The plastic duct has been warped from being like that for so long, Im going to have to put a little bit of foam weather stripping in to fill that gap.

And as for the motor that adjusts between outside/recirculating air...mine does work.

 

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, and to the car I go

EDIT: Just checked. I had no gap....however the plastic is very flimsy

BIG THING: Im leaning to the duct work being misaligned. I just checked and turned the A/C to high; the center vent and driver side vent were weak, like level 4 feels like level 1 BUT the passenger side vent is like level 4=level 10.

So the passenger vent feels like it is getting way, way, way, way too much air. Looks Im going to have to pull the dash

 

Tried closing that passenger vent some and seeing if some of the air goes to the center more?

 

Will do....and report back

EDIT: Just checked....

1.) closed the vent on the passenger side, noticed a change

2.) I was like Im going to close the driver side, I went to close it and noticed that I didnt have to turn it as far as the passenger side. So I turned it a few times and was like "WTF", so I forced it to the open direction and low and behold that vent was stuck from being able to open all the way. Got it open and dust flew out everywhere. So then I closed it and all air was directed to the center.

3.) the center still didnt feel normal. That leads me to two possible outcomes; either the center vent ductwork is misaligned or the I30 has some sort of open/close door on the main vent much like the side vents.

 

I don't wanna pull the dash again lol ima go out in a bit an pull the glove box. Is there any way to fully remove the air bag without removing the whole dash? I left it in an removed it after dash was out, I'm thinking if we remove ac/radio, guage cluster an air bag we might not have to remove the entire dash an possibly find the problem this way

 

dont know

 

Yeah Im pretty sure you can remove the airbag without pulling the dash.

 

I misunderstood what James meant in his post.

Yes, Im pretty sure you could remove just the air bag. Remove the torx bolts and the 4 side bolts, you should be able to...although I dont know if you could get any tools up there

 

are any of u guys running the center vents from the I30?? how do those compare to stock?

Seems like you guys gonna need some sealing tape.

 

^^you have to use the I30 center vents, the maxima vents wouldnt fit in there

 

Ok I removed the glove box an looked at the blower motor, when switching from defrost to the vents it's moves like it should. I also noticed when I switched it to defrost it seemed to blow harder then before unless it's just me. I felt around an can feel some air to the left of the blower motor behide this big black box thing lol. An I can hear alot of wind noise while the air is on in that area, could've been like that before but never noticed. I do hear it from the drivers seat as well

 

Brad, Jarrod, do me a favor. I noticed when I put the defrost on it comes out faster then it did before, can you guys check yours an see if it's the same as mine? The wife noticed it today an I was like "yea, defrost is stronger then before"

 

Mine blows the same as it did before.

 

Ill check the next time I get I the car is good and warmed up. Although I used it the other day and didnt notice a difference

 

You guys by chance figure this out yet? I haven't had the time to rip the dash out again

 

^^No. I just shut the passenger side vent for the time being (since rarely does anyone ride in my car). It blows strong enough like that