I did take pictures of the repair, although they turned out a bit dark. I will post some of them later. My garage is small and does not have the best lighting. The instructions posted on this forum by several others who have tacked this job were great.

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Brian
'94 E420 - 99K
'12 C300 4 Matic

Previously owned:
'06 CLK 500K Cabriolet
'85 300SD (Old Smokey)
2002 Boxster
2002 C320 (The five-pointed star Mercedes)
1993 300E 3.2 (Dealership's cash cow)
1979 300SD (Chrome beauty)
1983 300D (Old faithful)
1983 240D (Right lane cruiser)
1977 240D (Miracle of bondo)

Sounds to me like vent flaps/arms with a second choice being the push button unit.

I second toomanyBNZ's viewpoint. I have just dealt with air flow issues sinec I have owned my 300SD. I am installing a nice uncracked dash at some point and will look into the dashpods and vent flaps at that time. I hope to fix it but have my doubts.

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2009 ML320 Bluetec
1985 300CD
1981 300TD

Past Mercedes
1979 300TD
1982 300TD
2000 E320 4Matic Wagon
1998 E430
1984 300SD
1980 300SD

I have uploaded a few pictures from my disassembly of the dashboard and center console in my vehicle. In one of the photos, I have pointed out where all of the vacuum pods are located.

The dashboard cover is held in place only with six easily removed attachments (combination of three 4 mm allen key bolts on top, two 10 mm bolts on the botton left and right sides and a phillips head screw with bracket to the heater box itself).

I will probably have to wait a bit longer to remove the dashboard cover again to try to address the air flow issue. Because of the sharp edges of the dash cover, I have multiple small scratches on both of my hands and will probably wait at least another day.

There are two clips that hold the bowden cables in place under the center vents for the left and right vent slider controls. The middle slider has a completely different set up. Of course, they easily fell off when removing the dash cover, but I could not replace them despite trying. As a result, the sliders no longer move with ease, which may be inhibiting proper flow of heat in addition to other vacuum or electrical possibilities. Wondering if there is a trick to get the clips back into place other than brute force and cursing....

Attached Thumbnails

     

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Brian
'94 E420 - 99K
'12 C300 4 Matic

Previously owned:
'06 CLK 500K Cabriolet
'85 300SD (Old Smokey)
2002 Boxster
2002 C320 (The five-pointed star Mercedes)
1993 300E 3.2 (Dealership's cash cow)
1979 300SD (Chrome beauty)
1983 300D (Old faithful)
1983 240D (Right lane cruiser)
1977 240D (Miracle of bondo)

Agreed.

I'm curious if anybody has repaired this issue properly. Both the SD and SDL suffer from it and my feet are freezing. I'd like to fix it properly, once and for all............but, I'll bet the entire console must be removed.

On mine I believe it was a failed wrist pin type thing, as I recall thee isn't an arm dangling on the door itself, so, yeah, I'd have to dig pretty far into it.

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83 SD

84 CD

not a permanent fix, but i used a coat hanger with a loop bent on the end so it wouldn't be a sharp end, and pushed it in through the knee panel opening at the door so the coat hanger pushed the door open enough to allow the warm air to come out.

very poor sentence structure but i hope it makes sense. certainly made those long drives from Maryland to Tennessee in the winter much more comfortable with having warm feet AND a warm door by the way.

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R Martin
Dallas, TX (Addison)

86 560SEL, 128K

Well, in trying to address the airflow issues I reexamined my work last night by again taking apart the dashboard. I had made the mistake of not replacing the penny clips that hold the bowden cables in place for the center vent sliders and thought that it would be o.k. Well, I was certainly wrong, as the sliders worked horribly and cut off airlow to the center vents. Of course, the only way to reattach the clips was to take off the dash cover. At least the job was easier the second time around, taking only about 6 hours to complete.

So, now I have heat to the side and top vents, but the floor and door heat is weak. At least the car now shuts off, which is what started this ordeal. I know that the vacuum pods are brand new, so I will try to locate the source elsewhere.

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Brian
'94 E420 - 99K
'12 C300 4 Matic

Previously owned:
'06 CLK 500K Cabriolet
'85 300SD (Old Smokey)
2002 Boxster
2002 C320 (The five-pointed star Mercedes)
1993 300E 3.2 (Dealership's cash cow)
1979 300SD (Chrome beauty)
1983 300D (Old faithful)
1983 240D (Right lane cruiser)
1977 240D (Miracle of bondo)

Oh well, thanks for posting the pics.

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83 SD

84 CD