Just about had frost bite on my feet this morning, (1½ hour drive at 12°). Warmed the car up this morning for about 15 minutes as usual when its this cold, frost. For a little while I've been hearing the door/diffusor in the heater box popping when the actuator kicks in. This morning when I left, one of the doors/diffusors was stuck in the partial defrost/vent position. No floor heat. I tried playing with the buttons, but nothing other than hearing the actuator a little. When I got to work I shut the car off and the heard the actuators. Started it back up, and it worked like it was supposed to, floor heat. Will it work tonight I can't answer that. While I was pushing the buttons again, vent, out came a bunch of the old dry rotted foam/sponge seal. I'm assuming that this is/was binding the door/diffusor.
Questions are: - Is the foam seal available, or is it a trip to Home Depot and make something work? - How much is involved tearing into this? And how much of the dash should I pull apart to get to it? - I suppose that this would be a great time to replace the heater core.
The seal may be for noise as much as blocking air flow......I would take the lazy way and see how it works before jumping into a rebuild in this weather.
