This has been a long standing problem with all VW's made... My girlfriend has a 2001 jetta and the same thing happens. Almost no air comes outta that vent, even on my touarg.

Trent

 

I have found that on the Touareg, if you push the button that forces all air through the dash (not defrost or floor), this increases the air flow to the rear seats.

 

Mine work fine, in fact the airflow annoys me because of the noise near my head as I drive.

 

Holy old thread Batman!

Well, as long as we're here, I'm pretty sure it's simply an issue with the air taking the path of least resistance. In the two-zone system, the blower is up front, and it is a long circuitous route to the b-pillars. The vents on the dash are much closer, therefore less resistance to the airflow, so more air naturally flows out of them.

The four-zone is a different animal, with the b-pillar and back-of-console vents connected to the rear system and not battling with the dash vents. I'd put good money on the four-zone putting much more air out of the b-pillar vents than the two-zone.

Matt

 

I think your right Matt. Those vents are almost useless with 2 zone. I tried closing all the vents one time to try and see how much air actually comes out, not much at all.

 

Who cares you are the one driving!!!!

Thanks
Ken

 

My back seat passengers have never complained about not having air flow...just the opposite, they are asking me to turn down the amount of air or they are closing the vents themselves.

After reading this thread I went down to check and see for my self and I found that the B-pillars and the center vents for the back put out considerable amount of air and I do have the dual zone only.

Cya

 

Time to revive this thing again, because this issue has been the sole thing really that has been annoying me on my T-Reg since I bought it.

Vegas Matt sais that he puts money on the 4-zone being capable to force more air through those B-Pillar side vents. I would bet alongside with him. But......

EARL97850 , you are saying that you have the dual zone, and not the 4 zone, but you get plenty of air on the B-Pillars??? I have the dual zone also, but I get NO AIR(well heat anyways since its cold here), from the B-Pillar side vents, but have a little something flowing from the rear middle ones if I keep the fan speed up front anything past #4bars on the fan speed graph, and the settings for "vents" engaged of course. If defroster(winshield), vents and floor buttons are all engaged simultaneously, air circulation in the rear centre is significantly diminished, unless I up the fan speed to at least 75%. With ONLY the vent button selected on the front dash, and nothing else selected, the rear center vents are blowing. Nothing crazy mind you, but they would be doing the job of warming up(or cooling off in summer) the rear passengers. Side B-pillar vents, 0 air.

As I said before though, concerning the side B-Pillar ones, I get 0 air. Nada, dead, nothing. Well actually, that is a lie :---) . I THINK that I feel something cool on my fingers. More in the form of a draft. Sometimes it feels like air being sucked in, as opposed to being blown out!! Weird! So something is happening there, but I can't figure out what. Any way you slice it though, nothing functional is being blown out. Why is that?

 

It's like Yeti said. Have a look at the path that air needs to follow to get to the B-Pillar vent. It goes from the fan in the centre of the dash, all the way to the sides AND INTO THE FRONT DOORS!!! From there it goes out the back of the front door and into the pillar, up to the vent.

After seeing that, I didn't expect much flow from those vents with my 2C-Climate Control. The pressure drop is huge. Path of least resistance is out the other vents.

If I close ALL the other vents and put the fan on full blast, I can feel an asthmatic draft coming out the B-Pillars, but under normal circumstances (Temp set at 22°C in AUTO) there's basically nothing. My rear seat passengers have never complained though, as the rear centre vents are sufficient.

One thing you can do is to check the condition of the rubber seals where the duct goes into and out of the front doors. The rubber seal on my RHS outlet from the dash (into the door) was deformed and it leaked a bit of air. After replacing it, it didn't make a huge difference. The air flow is now the same as on the LHS.

Also, for winter, check the condition of the ducts under the front seats that lead to the rear passenger's footwell. One of mine was broken when I bought the car, meaning very little air was distributed properly from there. Since hot air rises, it's better to heat the cabin from the footwell than the dash vents.

 

You make mention of Yeti, where is his post in this thread?

Yup, the duct under the drivers seat leading to the rear passengers footwell was completely out! I'll inspect the condition of those rubber seals you were talking about, and even how well they align with each other tomorrow.

Great post by the way!