Grey/black foam particles
 

Grey/black foam particles are blowing out of the HVAC vents on my '97 Boxster. I understand these may be coming from the "air dams in the HVAC system. Where is that located inside the dash? How critical is the issue, i.e., what's the risk if not repaired?
What "part number" do I need for the foam. What do I need to do to replace it?

It's a bit of a pain to get to. The easiest way is to remove the heater core from under the cowl.
The only risk involved in not repairing it is your sanity, due to the annoyance of foam spitting out.
Any foam should work fine.

Do dome searching. Fiddlebog gave you his opinion on the easiest method to get to it. For many others, they decided it was much easier to access from the dash, inside.

For me: I read about both ways, and finally let my irrational fear of heater cores determine my path of access: through the dashboard, behind the stereo and A/C controls.

Use the search, you'll find LOADS of info on this. Good Luck!

Haha, for me it was disassembling the dash of my '97 that instilled the fear of messing with it dash side in me.
Regardless, I haven't done EITHER method. It hasn't bothered me enough such that I want to dig in there yet.

similar story here: only twice has a car-project / repair kicked my A$$. the first was a heater-core in an '89 Mustang GT Convert. I was 21 yrs old..... and it handed me my ass on a plate and laughed at me. Ever since then, if a car needs any work on a heater core, I sell it. :barf:

haha. Okay, it's not quite that bad. but I'd rather replace a clutch than a heater-core... any day of the week. :cheers:

oh, and the 2nd time I got my A$$ kicked? It's happening RIGHT NOW, with my wife's R53 Mini Cooper. The convertible top is JACKED, and it's about the worst, most convoluted design I've ever seen. All the forum people said "oh you want to have that fixed at the dealer" 'cuz it's a PITA. Well I'm a glutton for punishment and I'm getting kicked in the junk. repeatedly.


Back to the OP's question: how large are your hands? If they're large meat-hooks, you might struggle going in through the front. My hands are chunky and i got pretty beat-up doing it. But smaller, less ape-like hands should have no trouble at all.

You can find some information including detailed pictures of the process here.
http://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/36713-ac-question.html