A3 windshield front demister / defroster not working

[FredT]

Hi, I have an A3 2009 2.0TFSI . Just realized that the windshield demister/defroster vent are not working. No air is coming out. Everything else works fine. Front and bottom vent works.

I removed the glove box and saw one actuator but that's not the one with problem (temperature control). Anybody has experienced this problem? Anybody know where that actuator might be? I'm afraid you have to remove the dash or perhaps the radio?

Thanks

 

[Legend7]

its defo behind the glove box. I have seen it turn on mine when the windshield demister/defroster is turned on

 

[FredT]

Thanks Legend7. I can only see two actuators once I remove the glovebox. One seems to control the temperature. The other one is a flap that seems to control the re-circulation(This one is under the dashboard right in front of the passenger seat).

 

[FredT]

Update, I can confirm that the actuator is on the driver side and not really accessible unless you remove a lot of stuff.
Not sure what happened but after doing nothing except moving wires under the dash trying to see something it started to work again. What is interesting is that the climate control froze at some point while we moved the wires and was not responding to any button pressed. Once I restarted the car everything worked.

Not really sure if there is miss connection somewhere or it was just plain luck....

 

[Legend7]

Update, I can confirm that the actuator is on the driver side and not really accessible unless you remove a lot of stuff.
Not sure what happened but after doing nothing except moving wires under the dash trying to see something it started to work again. What is interesting is that the climate control froze at some point while we moved the wires and was not responding to any button pressed. Once I restarted the car everything worked.

Not really sure if there is miss connection somewhere or it was just plain luck....

Where abouts on the driver side???

 

[FredT]

Pretty high up not really accessible. See attached picture. You will see the blue lever on the left side

 

[FredT]

Writing this so it can help somebody else. I had to replace the motor. First of all, OBDeleven Bluetooth module was able to confirm the failure of the motor. Pretty cool gadget. It also told me the date the problem started to happened...

Now for the fun part, it will cost about 200$ for the parts. 150$ for the motor and 50$ for lever kit. It may be possible to reuse the old lever but it did not want to take any chance because it looks slightly different and I really don't want to do this again.... The part has been replaced. The new part number for the motor is 1k0907511Q. The lever kit is 1k0898002B. You may be able to save a couple of bucks if you shop online but with shipping it think you may break even. You may be able to replace the motor yourself in the actuator casing as you can find the part online but.... again it is not something I want to redo so I did not want to risk it plus shipping delay....

Also since I wanted the part now, I had to get it at a VW dealer. None of the Audi dealers had it in my area (California) while the first 2 VW dealer I called had it in stock. ECS tuning carry the parts too.

Now that being said, you have to remove a lots of stuff to get access to it... Climate control, central console etc... I followed the guide at http://audiretrofit.quinlivan.net/rs4startbutton

Disclaimer: not sure if the way I did it is by the book. It was very challenging to do it from underneath the driver side. You may be able to do it by removing the dash but don't know about that....

You need to remove the central console(between seat) to be able to remove a metal stud/bar. After it is removed, you will have enough room to work.(barely)....

It is easily a 5 hours job (Start-finish) for somebody that has never done it. Removing central console takes time so you do not break anything.

Also, one thing I noticed while testing is that when the defroster vent position is ON on the climate control, it will close the flap when you stop the car and open again when you start the car. I'm suspecting that this would add more wear. Mine was always on pretty much all the time so that could explain the wear. I tested the old motor and it had dead spot where it was not turning.

You can see the picture attached.
The top one is the actuator/motor for defroster flap.

The Metal Stud in the way onced removed..


The picture below

 

[motto_L]

Thanks for the write up FredT, my GF's A3 having the same problem. I had tried to get to it from the glove compartment last month with no success, Glad I found your post. Question, When I pressed the front defroster I can certainly hear the flap moving and the fan was blowing under the dash but no air was coming out of the vent. Is your situation similar? Thanks