Rear blower flow must move from right side of the car to the left so 25<-26->27 would get the third row vents but then something has to be wrong on both sides for flow to not get to the B-pillar vents.
At about the 5 minute mark Rich starts removing trim over ducts between B and C pillars. There are glympses of 6-10 near the end, but this is a 5-seater.
Thanks! This is perfect.
So I just went on a 30 minute journey..
Step 1: Remove load floor cover
Step 2: Take sill plate off
Step 3: Remove side trims
As soon as I peeled back the right side, I got hit with a blast of air. This is indeed where the blower is:
I felt around and found the culprit part 26 to blower. That foam gasket wasn’t doing a great job and didn’t create a seal. In the bottom corner as well as the center gap air was blowing back into the cavity instead of being directed through the tubes. I pushed down on it and used some masking tape to temporarily test my theory. As soon as I did that, I got a good blast of air from the right B pillar vent!
Unfortunately, there was still a good amount of air flowing into the cavity and the drivers side B pillar vent still had no air. So I felt around some more and found that Part#26 wasn't connected to #27. I had to push them together, but it doesn't make a great seal either. It goes together about as well as one of those toy prizes from Chuck E Cheese.
The issue appears to be Part #28, the plastic tube that runs along the bottom that connects the two sides. It does not appear to be secured by anything and moves freely. Knowing this, I’d now caution against putting too much stress on the bottom floor (I used to throw 10x 40lb softener salt bags in there) which probably caused it to pull away up top. But after messing around even a much smaller amount of weight would have done the same as the drivers side is held by a 1/4" piece of tape and the passenger side was a cheap indent in the plastic.
As soon as I pulled the tube up and connected 26 & 27 together, I heard a hissing on the driver side. I followed #28 to the drivers side and found the plastic tube connects to...foam. Part 30 is just really light foam. I’ve had amazon packages that used heavier foam.
Which led me to air leak #3. I hadn’t noticed it before but the drivers side 3rd row is weaker than the passenger side. This leak was probably why. This one will require a little more work before I get to it but I was able to reach in and pull it up and resecure the 1/4” piece of tape that held #21 and #30 together. You can see the tape mark that was expected to hold it all together here:
That gave me much better airflow in the 3rd row, but still left plenty to be desired with air still leaking. More importantly, I now had a faint but distinct amount of airflow in drivers side B pillar vent! I call that progress.
So off I went using the video as a guide (and snapped a clip anyway). I snapped a pic, Part #10 does indeed go into part #16 and it does not appear to be a splitter.
Parts #10 and #11 are also foam. If you scroll up to the prior pictures, those are not ABS plastic. It's thin, light, squishy foam! The only thing that secures them to each other is the bumps on the ends, which are flexible. So needless to say, more air leak!
I used a whole bunch of masking tape for trial to see if it improved air flow, and with each leak sealed; I got better air flow out of the vents. All of this took 30-45 minutes to diagnose, which tells me that to SC didn't even put effort into it. Gotta love the service center.
While I was able to get everything opened up to feel around, I didn't open it enough to fix everything. That will probably take me more time. I do have HVAC foil tape, but I'll have to see if it'll adhere to foam. I really don't know why they would use this foam instead of actual plastic, perhaps weight but I may see if someone could 3D print replicas for more durability. Additionally, I still have to go back and address part #28. It needs some sort of support to keep it from pulling at Part #27 & 30 and causing it to separate at the top of those.
I hope this helps someone else in the future...
**It's important to also note that I had thought the 3rd row was working as there was air flow. I couldn't be more wrong. There was definitely air flow, but the amount of air cranked out now is magnitudes higher than what it was before. My 2nd row now cranks at about what my 3rd row previously did, if I can get it sealed up I think it'll perform the same as the rear. My setting at 4 now is just under the airflow that I had at 7 previously.
