Foam insulation in vents?

Does anyone know why I would have pieces of foam insulation blowing out of my air vents when I crank on the AC?

Because it happens to everyone apparently - the foam in the duct just disintegrates. I have it in mine as well.

Same here. It took 11 years before it started. There are a few videos out there regarding correcting the problem. I'm trying to just wait it out, hoping eventually it will stop. Not a great plan for sure but neither do I have any interest in spending thousands of dollars tearing the dash apart.

Yep, you can try to vacuum it out periodically so that it doesn't blow in your face. Eventually it will be gone. Mine went through an annoying phase, but it seems to have all gone away, now.

There's a fix documented on ******** forum, whereby the two, foam covered HVAC flaps are accessible from the front trunk after removing the heater core. Minor cutting is involved to remove the upper hinge on the outermost flap. I just completed this repair yesterday on my 2008 Boxster S. It was painful to replace the foam on the innermost flap in situ, woking by feel in a most awkward position, but it is doable. Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Any chance you have mice? I know they like to chew on things like that.

Not a problem with mice. It's essentially the same crappy foam deterioration we see with our headliners falling down. Local independent shop has corrected the problem a few times and wants $3200 for the fix. They pull out the dash, ducts and heater cores to fix.

It seems like anything that uses any type of adhesive is Porsches kryptonite due to the Euro rules prohibiting them from using anything that isnt water or soy based. This is why the headlight coverings, door panels, vent foam, headliner, wiring sleeves, windshield adhesives, etc all turn to goo and fall apart with time, and Porsche seems to be powerless to stop it from happening for many years now from one new model to the next

So all EU makes suffer from these maladies? I haven't followed BMW for a while but I don't recall these type of complaints. I just bought a Mercedes Sprinter based RV. I hope I won't be fighting these issues with it. Costs 3 times what my 2010 C when new. Luckily the headliner was installed by the US up-fitter, so hopefully I won't have it draped on my head while driving.

its mostly just annoying... as I've posted in other threads, its tolerable until you inhale or swallow some that you really get pushed to do something about it! in my case it was producing foam on a regular basis over 18 months... with a light interior like sand beige or light clothes potentially causing stains doesn't help as it disintegrates upon touch into some grey goey sticky substance.

I barely have it happening now and I consider it just a nuisance as well, but the blend door has been affected by it enough now that I have to direct flow to the floorboard as well as the dash in order to block flow to the defrost vents. Probably won't be a bother in the rare winter weather down here in the tropics, but blowing that cold air on glass in the summer is irritating with the condensation it will create. By the way, I don't know why I assumed that the Air Conditioning in an old Porsche would be mediocre because it's not. I'm amazed how cold the system works at wth just medium settings. A really nice surprise and I'm very pleased. Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

I haven't seen any sign of foam in the vents - but I can't actually shut off the defroster/defogger vent, even using the system in manual mode and selecting just the chest and foot level vents. That really is annoying as heck, last night coming home from a meeting it was around 85F and probably 70% humidity - I was driving with the top down. I had to use the wipers on intermittent mode to keep the windshield clear enough to see out of. I bought the car about 18 months ago - my suspicion is that the foam had already gone away by that point and the blend doors are now only partially functional.