I have started to see small pieces of black foam poking out of my air vents, does anyone know what they are?

I have searched the service manuals and parts lists but cannot find reference to it. Is it from some kind of cabin air filter? Or possibly some kind of sound deadening? Is it important?

If anyone could provide a part number or description I'd be most grateful.

Thanks,

Allan

 

I've had this happen on a variety of cars, inlcuding my older Jags.

The various flaps inside the climate control assembly have foam applied to help seal them and for quiet operation, and/or some of the ducting junctions use foam for sealing the gaps where they slide together. Over time the foam dries out, crumbles apart, and gets blow thru the vents.

Considering the amount of labor involved to disasemble the system just to replace some foam, most people decide it just isn't very important

Cheers
DD

 

Thanks Doug, very helpful. I guess I'll just vacuum up the bits as best I can and assume that eventually it will all come out. I definitely don't fancy taking apart the ventilation system!! :-)

 

To add to what doug stated, The only issue this causes is that you get blow by. So if you want it to come out of the bottom you might have some leak through to the top vents. I have noticed this on many of my vehicles and starts happening sooner on the cars that I don't leave in the garage. So I assume the heat just cooks the foam till it is fragile and the fans blow it around the vent system.