Firstly, I have to admit that I use the A/C rarely and I prefer 4-50 ventilation (windows down, drive fast ) so this issue may be in my head.

That said, had the family out the other day and it was pretty hot, kids snoozing in the back so I put on the A/C, cranked it to max on the fan. Sounded impressive but there wasn't much airflow out of the vents. Some for sure just not as much as the noise would lead me to believe. Didn't seem to make much difference if I was blowing through top, middle, bottom or some combo.

At one point my wife opened up the glove box for a pen and it seems that there was now some airflow around the cabin! Again, not a huge difference but enough that we could feel it blowing out of the glove box. As a test I pulled out the little pocket next to the radio and stuck my hand in. Sure enough I felt some air blowing around back behind the dash.

Is it possible that my ducts have come loose or are some how broken or "leaking"? Is there any easy way to check this or will I need to be spending a weekend removing the dash to get at the guts behind? Anyone even seen or heard of this happening before or am I making up yet another problem to fix on my '99?

 

hah that is weird..is your vents all the way open? thats all i can say

 

Yep, at least what I can see. I'm sure there is some diverter in the back that could be stuck somehow. If anyone has a location I can check it.

 

hmm you could try looking @ the cabin filter and see if that is not clogged or anything. If you dont know how to rewove the filter here is DIY video
Also if lest say the filter and the surroundings does look clean, if i were you i would put my hand inside the filter cabin while the A/C is running and see if my hand can feel any air. If not that problem could be "before" the filter .And if i think there is enough air blowing then i would assume its "after" the filter. make sure you have a flashlight it can get spooky and dark in there..lol

Or the blower fan might be running slow??

 

I did just change the cabin filter yesterday but didn't think to check the airflow there, good idea. The filter was pretty dirty and nasty but it didn't seem to make a huge difference out the vents. I'll check in the box and see what I can see...or feel.

 

Did you ever find a solution to this problem. My 2000 s80 seems to be making a lot of fan noise but only medium air flow coming out on high. I changed cabin filter about a year ago.