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Door heater vents

Posted: 19 Jan 2011, 19:55
by darkangel1975
Hi all, can anyone help me with the door heater vents. Are they designed to blow heat from the heater through to the back, if so how, as i have no ducting to these, and there is no trim around the holes on the door or bulkhead, so when the door is closed there is a gap from the post to the door, i would expect a plastic trim to be fitted to these to make a seal.
Many thanks
John

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 19 Jan 2011, 20:49
by dansimpson
IIRC they are vents from the cab to the outside - I'm sure someone referred to them as "fart vents"( lol) to let out the stale air. the holes in the pillars are for caravelles that have rear heating ducts, the panel vans didnt have the ducts in the rear so they are just "holes"
Dan

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 19 Jan 2011, 21:01
by darkangel1975
Can you get any vent covers for the pillars to seal the pillar to the door when shut, as thinking of adding some ducting to the heater to make those door vents work.

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 20 Jan 2011, 12:36
by kevtherev
Yes you can get seals... But as has been said, they suck air out, not blow. They are a vestage of the past from when the van had a bulkhead and the air coming in could get out via these vents.

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 20 Jan 2011, 22:24
by darkangel1975
Thanks Guys for the replys as always you are a mine of information. xx

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 21 Jan 2011, 21:27
by garyd
It sounds to me as if the posts above are confusing two issues.

The vents in the bottom rear corners of the doors do, as said, act as part of an air extract system. If there is nowhere for the air to get out then the heater will have trouble pulling air in to heat, demist etc. It just opens into the interior of the door but there is presumably a low pressure area outside the door bottom where the air can be sucked out of the drain holes. Either that or at the front edge. Opening the slide vent on the inside allows air to be sucked out.

The second issue is that of fresh air supply to the rear of the vehicle. In the Caravelle and similar models unheated air is ducted from the heater (4th control lever) into the structural knee rail below the dash and then through the doors into the B posts, up to the cant rail at the edge of the roof and then backwards to vents in the lower edge of the headlining. There are rubber seals which fit at front and back of the door to seal the airways across the openings.

As I said though, these are for fresh air, not heat, in the original installation. They could, perhaps be adapted though.

Garyd

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 28 Jan 2011, 19:56
by darkangel1975
Thanks for the advice garyd, really useful. Deos anyone know where you can get them seals from?

John

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 28 Jan 2011, 20:57
by kevtherev
Brickwerks do them I believe

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 20 Mar 2011, 06:57
by Allanw
(slight Thread revival)

So - can I modify my heater box to pump air down the back via these vents? I have a early 84 Kombi, which doesn't have the 4th lever (It does have the footwell heater duct to the rear though). Can I add the flaps etc? Or is the heater box quite different?

What vents fit in the "roof" - I see the holes there. Are they common to any other models?

Cheers,

Allan

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 20 Mar 2011, 08:50
by kevtherev
Allan
unless you can duct the air across a door and an A pillar then no
as said they suck air out.

Re: Door heater vents

Posted: 20 Mar 2011, 23:31
by Allanw
Hi Kevtherev!

I don't mean the vents in the corner - I know air goes out them, I mean the ones ducted through the inside of the door.

I have the ducts through the doors, and from the A pillar, there are no seals (can fix that) but the heater system doesn't currently blow air down that way.

The back of the van gets quite sticky in Summer, so air flow would be GREAT!

(I also want a set of late rear windoes with the vents in, but aren't too common over here!)

Cheers
Allan.