Marky77

Hi,

I've got a fogging windscreen on a 2007 Q7 and looking for a few tips.... All the actuators work (air is diverted around the car correctly) apart from the one for the windscreen. A search has pointed me towards checking the actuator motors but all the info I've found relate to the earlier Audi models where the motors and arms are visible behind the glovebox. Doesn't seem to be the case for the Q7 as I can only see the recirc arm moving with the glovebox out.

Question is, is it possible to access the windscreen defog actuator without stripping the entire dash? Or can I remove the top dash cover and simply wedge the flapos open for now?

tigerwillow1

Is this a left hand side steering vehicle? The defroster flap motor is on the same side of the hvac box as the steering wheel. Assuming left hand, the service manual says (my paraphrase) that if the retaining plate locating bolts aren't too tight, the motor can be removed without removing the instrument panel by dropping it's retaining plate that holds 3 motors. On the other hand, it's such a pain in the rear to do it this way that it's better to remove the instrument panel even though that's an even bigger pain in the rear. It cautions that without removing the instrument panel, it's not possible to visually determine that the motors are engaged correctly in the flap arms after installing the retaining plate.

The service manual has instructions for with and without instrument panel removal. Instructions for removing the instrument panel include removing the center console, airbags, and steering wheel. If not removing the instrument panel, the gas pedal assembly and some other module has to come out. You have to be careful to remove the correct bolts as some of them are only locating/positioning pins. Maybe there's some shortcut procedure somebody else can provide. The motors have to be placed in the service position with a scan tool before re-assembly. I can't imagine doing this job without the service manual.

I had a motor on the passenger side go out. It was accessible after removing the glove box and getting the MMI control unit out of the way. Access was horrible, and I had to work with mirrors and cobbled-up lighting. In a couple of cases it took me about an hour just to remove or replace a single bolt. (I don't work well with the image reversed by a mirror). The motor itself failed because of excess grease oozing onto the position-sensing potentiometer. I cleaned up the grease and wisely or foolishly reinstalled it. It has been working ok for about a year now. As plastic-cased, snap-together motors go, these aren't too bad to open and re-close the case.

Marky77

Thanks tigerwillow1,
I actually have most of the service manual but the heating section is missing... Also got 1800 pages of a scanned version but an hour of scrolling didn't show me anything heating related.
It's LHD but I'm not inclined to remove the whole dash as the 10 year old plastic is proving to be a bit brittle, as I've discovered whilst having to repair dozens and dozens of other annoying little problems! As I need to focus on unsafe safety belts and injectors my preference is to either disconnect the arms from the faulty motor leaving the top vent permanently open or try to remove the flaps from the top of the dash, sound possible to you?

Marky77

Not got round to stripping the motors out yet but discovered something that might help in the meantime.... Whilst running the actuator tests one of the readings gives me 'indirect heating' which blows air out of the top of the dash (not the windscren screen vent)

Seems this would help with screen fogging whilst I build the courage for a dashboards strip... Problem is, I can't find out how to pick 'indirect heating' via the aircon controls?? No matter which setting I choose, no air comes from the top dash vent that's activated via VCDS? Am I going mad or missing a trick?