1994 wagon

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

I THINK I need to clean the air side of the AC /heater coil. Anyway, air flow from dash seems to be less than my Park Avenue. Appears as if one must remove the dash to do this. Advice gladly accepted!

I do not have a service manual [will order one] If any one has a manual with step by step instructions, I am willing to pay for copies of relevant pages.

Thanks

Ben

[NTX5467]

ONE area which might be a contributing factor is the leakage from the joints in the plastic "vent works" behind the instrument panel. Usually, these are just slip joints that are NOT really tight. Plus, if there were any which originally had some soft foam rubber to seal them against each other, that foam deteriorates with age and time. Used to be that almost every winter season, when I'd hit the defroster vents on my then-newer 1977 Camaro, I'd get a few chunks of foam rubber "erupted" through the defroster vents at the windshield. It could well be that your evaporator coil is not that plugged or restricted, but the fact that the cool air which used to come out of the vents is now cooling the backside of your instrument panel!

You can find some thinner and shorter foam "weatherstrip" products at the home improvement stores. OR you might securely-position the vents and wrap the joints in "duct tape" to help decrease the air leaks.

UNLESS you might desire to remove the complete hvac system from under the instrument panel (as an assembly), you could well have one BIG mess in the front floorboards! Not specifically from lint, tree leaves, or other accumulations on the evaporator coil (there normally IS a thin filter attached to the evaporator coil, on the air inlet side, from many of the illustrations I've seen of GM a/c "modules" over the years). NOT to forget about possible mold accumulations from undrained condensate "water" in the a/c case!

IN the case of possible mold/smell issues, the GM recommendation usually involved removing the blower motor resistor from the a/c case, underhood, to gain access to the a/c evaporator coil. Then, a special solution was sprayed onto the evaporator itself, to wash off and "treat" the debris being removed . . . ALL through the normal a/c water drain. Whose to claim you couldn't remove the resistor (or drill an appropriate hole, later to be plugged), spray some of the "coil cleaning foam" into the case, then rinse it. Probably wouldn't hurt, in general, but your'd really need to ensure the a/c drain tube was open!

One time, I was at a friend's service station one afternoon after work. He had a Buick X-car fwd car on the lift. I was looking around under it when I found a flattened rubber tube, with a small drip and wetness on the flat portion of the "end". I touched it and more water came out, then I flexed the tube and the REST of the water and condensate JUNK came out, landing near the floor drain in that service bay. YIKES! What a mess from an otherwise nice-looking and maintaned Buick! Mental note . . . "Don't do THAT again -- period! IF you do, get the heck out of the way before 'the flood' hits!"

Associates who have done the "reseal" procedure have been amazed at how much MORE air comes through the vents afterward. Also something you can do a little at a time and NOT immobilized the vehicle in the process, too.

Just some thoughts . . .

NTX5467

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Thank you, sir, I will follow up on that.

Ben