Help. I spent the day on my boat in the California sun. The Old Spice underarm deodorant was on the dashboard and melted its full contents into the Volvo defroster vent ductingh.
HOW do I get that Out? I tell you that it is too much to handle. It even scares the dog away. Serious advice please,
Chuck from Fresno

Had a similar problem myself at a music festival where my friend was using my dashboard as a work surface and accidentally dropped about a joint's worth in to my heating duct...it was less than 5 minutes to get it out (glovebox side) but now the our inside joke is that I always drive with the heat on...
--
*Jakob Lunden* 1984 242 DL, transitioning from beater to classic, 1979 242 GT improving with age, 1968 Saab 96, impulse purchase

If on the driver's side, remove the instrument cluster, if on the pass. side remove the glovebox. Along with removing the underdash pads this will give you pretty good access to the ducting.

Maybe it's time to change to unscented deodorant? According to Old Spice, females should be lining up to get into that car! Guess you have a male dog.
--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F, dtr's 83-244DL B23F, 'my' 94-944 B230FD; plus grocery-getter Dodge minivan, hobbycar 77 MGB, and a few old motorcycles)

The best thing, maybe, to do is to hope that it melted only into the ducting. The duct hoses go down from the dask vents, then bend almost horizontally to go the box for the blower motor etc. So, if you're lucky, it only melted so far, and NOT into the blower motor box. My suggestion is to remove the lower covers under each side of the dash, or the one side where the stuff has leaked. Then disconnect the ducting. This is fairly straigtforward, but kind of a pain in the butt since you are working in a cramped space, upside down, on your back and in the dark. Also, some of the large duct hoses are forced together with a lip and channel connector on each end, which can be tricky to line upagain. Some of them also have a small metal staple to secure them otgether, which is yet anohter incremental pain. Then, you can either clean them out, or, if you have acces to a parts car or a pick-n-pull, replace with new ducting. It's doable, but requires a air degree of patience to fiddle and fit them back together.

Mike

Work after dark, use a flashlight or drop light. Sunlight contracts your pupils such that every time you try to see what's what in the dark up under the dash you need to wait for pupil dilation.

Disconnect enough to see where the defrost vent is connected to the dash underside by rubber thingies (technical term) through a galvanized metal panel. You might be able to leave the duct to the dash vent and the floor vent connected to the defroster vent. Makes things easier if you can.

The rubber thingies are designed to get thinner as you pull on them. Problems are (1) rubber might be old and hard and brittle, be careful, and (2) Pull with a pair of pliers or Vise-grips.

If they work, the center part of the thingie gets skinny enough to just slip out of the keyhole shaped hole in the metal panel.

Wrest the duct off the blower turbine housing. There may be some weather strip in there for a seal. You will demolish the staples. When reinstalling, I get a short pan head sheet metal screw on my electric screwdriver to hold the ducts together.

If the stuff is in the duct - hooray. If it flowed on into the blower turbine housing, you must choose between smell and huge job. Maybe there is a countervailing smelly stuff to add??

If the stuff is in the ductwork, I would put the whole thing into a freezer for 30 min or so and see if it can be chipped out is large pieces.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

PS: I may have some surplus right side ductwork in BGVPD. Let me know if you need it.

ROFLMAO, that is the funniest thing I have seen in a Volvo forum, EVER. I would have to say that short of disassembling of things and physically cleaning it out you will just have to turn the heater/defroster on full blast and walk away from it. Let it idle for an hour+ and see what the results are. Sorry for your misfortune but it is pretty darn hilarious.

Mark

Try some of the steps in this website http://cleanflametrap.com of course you dont have to replace any blower motor