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Car Forum / Mercedes-Benz Cars / July 2007

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'87 300E AC Center Vent

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Pete Cowper - 16 Jul 2007 06:54 GMT
My 1987 300E air conditioning blows very strongly from the two side
vents with only a feeble amount of air drifting out of the twin center
vents, hardly enough to even feel.  The manual roller on the outside
works fine to open and close the shutters.

I suspect a vacuum operated valve is stuck closed; it has never worked
since I got the car in 1999. How do you get in there to check things
out?  Remove center console and radio, or is it an even worse job?!!

Pete Cowper
1987 300E
Tiger - 16 Jul 2007 14:54 GMT
Do you have alot of air coming out of your defrost vent? Regardless of what
position you set them in?
Pete Cowper - 16 Jul 2007 21:26 GMT
"Do you have a lot of air coming out of your defrost vent? Regardless of
what position you set them in?"

Yes.

There is air blowing up through the defroster with any of the left four
of the five buttons pushed (obviously the fifth on the right is off).
The volume of air coming up through the defroster vents seems a slight
bit less when the middle of the five buttons (compressor 'on") is pushed
on.  May mean the vent control is trying to work?

Pete
1987 300E
DougS - 16 Jul 2007 22:57 GMT
> "Do you have a lot of air coming out of your defrost vent? Regardless of
> what position you set them in?"
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Pete
> 1987 300E

I suspect Tiger will have a similar response, but here goes my
opinion.

You have a bad vacuum pod for your center vents (possibly the other
four as well). To change it, you need to remove the entire interior,
along with the transmission, then its a piece of ca
just kidding.
DougS - 16 Jul 2007 23:02 GMT
> "Do you have a lot of air coming out of your defrost vent? Regardless of
> what position you set them in?"
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Pete
> 1987 300E

Yeah, I think I may have posted something wrong. Thanks to sneaky
friends, and computer left idle...

Anyway, I was going to say that all you have to do is remove the glove
box to get to a couple of the pods. The center vent hoses need to be
removed to get to the vacuum pod that is probably the problem, but
some people have reported that its not necessary (only really
helpful).

There are multiple how-to's on-line for doing this repair. I have read
at least three different ones. Here's a really helpful one that was
recommended to me (I think from this newsgroup):
http://articles.mbz.org/hvac/vents/permadefrost/

Hope that helps.

Sorry about the previous post.
Tiger - 17 Jul 2007 03:39 GMT
Yep, my thought exactly... your defrost vent vacuum actuator is probably
dead. Make sure you got vacuum at the yellow checkvalve (maybe 2) in between
your two firewalls in the engine compartment by the master cylinder... Check
at the one hose side... that should have vacuum.
Pete Cowper - 17 Jul 2007 04:49 GMT
Thanks for the tips on getting behind the dash to the center air vent
vacuum valve(s).

I was transporting houseguests from the cool Seattle area in the back
seat.  The side vents don't reach back there as well as the center vents
since the two front passengers hog all the cold air.  They were
suffering seated back there in our Fresno area 100+ heat.  Figured I
ought to get around to fixing it after 8 years of ownership . . .

Pete
Tiger - 17 Jul 2007 15:57 GMT
 
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