D-Man

Okay, my g/f has a 95 protege and this has been a on going problem. Dirt & debris keeps coming thru the defrost vent & air vents.

I thought it might be the air filter but checked it and it's fine. I guess dirt is getting in thru the outside air vent below the windshield.

I thought there might be a filter to change but after talking with a mechanic, he said that there could be dirt inside the heater box.

I have no idea where the heater box is and how to clean the inside of it, if infact it's dirty.

Has anyone else had this problem and how do you stop the dirt from coming into the car through the vents?

Green Skanka

Is there smoke coming out of it at all?????

This happened with my old T-Bird when my heater core took a "crap"... Had to pull the whole dash out to get to it and replace it...

D-Man

No smoke, just alot of dirt & crap coming out of mainly the defrost air vent. Any idea where it's coming from and how to stop it from entering?

Green Skanka

what you can try is.....
Pop your hood and right where you windshield wipers are is the vent where it sucks air in, unscrew it and pull all the **** out and clean it and it should hopefully fix it....

kano_808

or you could try taking the air filter out and vacuuming the box, some dirt and **** could've fallen in which is causing the dirt to blow into the car. or i could be wrong and green skanka could be correct.

kano_808

protegeboy78

I have the same problem, it isn't the air filter cause before i had my ractive intake i continuously kept the box and filter clean. I'll try the vent by the windshield wiper and see how that work, thanks.

D-Man

Let me know how you make out with cleaning the vent by the windshield wiper. My g/f is bugging me to get rid of the dirt. I wipe her dash clean and by the next day, there is dirt all over the place.

D-Man

This weekend I removed the windshield bonnet to clean the air intake duct. There wasn't alot of debris in there but I gave it a good soak with the hose. I really couldn't tell where the actual air enter's the inside of the car.

Well, I haven't got any results yet but I'll keep you informed.

iyke_20

allright, the best thing i think u probably should do is what someone posted awhile ago. take the rack where the winshield wipers go off ( there should be three or four screws there) then right there u should see your outside vents. now some people might say wash with hose... they might be right but i`ll say first vacuum it out while your air is on inside before u finally get a a blower and do the same thing . that should fix ur problem. but u have to do it for a while. also check ur filters and the hoses.

p.s make sure the a/c vent is set to outside intake. good luck

D-Man

That's what I did. I removed the weather stripping, windshield bonnet and wipers.

Once removed, there was very little dirt in there, not enough to vacuum. I just gave it a good spray down with the hose to remove the sediment. Other than that, I didn't notice anything else.

I guess I could have used my leaf blower and blowed the dirt inside my car but that would have ment more vacuuming.

If the problem persists, I'll do it again but use the vacuum and leaf blower.

P.S. I don't have A/C.

D-Man

Okay, the dirt coming in thru the windshield defrost vent is still present. I talked with a tech at a mazda dealership and he said that there could be debris inside the heater box.

Does anyone know how to get at the heater box? Written instructions with pictures would be very beneficial.

Any help would be appreciated.