I'm pretty sure it is some kind of black foam that has deterioated, but I'm not sure where to start. Anyone seen this or know what to do? It's a 1998 Mustang GT.

 

not sure what to tell you but the are pieces of foam tape behind the vent, never heard of them blowing through the vents before. if it's not to annoying i would just wait until it ran out. sorry i couldn't help.

 

Thanks for the reply, Chad! I wouldn't worry with it myself, but it is my wife's car and she ends up accidently sitting on the pieces and then they end up staining her clothes, which, needless to say, isn't gonna work! I had a feeling there was some sort of foam material just inside the vents as I've worked on older vehicle A/Cs before and have seen those foam vent seats. I was just hoping no one replied back with something like, "Oh, that's the seal around the blower motor...", something that would cause me to have to dismantle the entire dash to fix. I am going to get on it this weekend and see what happens and take some pics.

 

That stuff IS from the vents. I've had my center vents out before and there is a foam liner on the vents that helps seal them when you close them. When it gets old it starts to fall apart and get blown out the vents. Mine did it for a while until all the stuff went away. You could also buy new vents but I have no clue on the cost. I would think pretty expensive since the vents are integrated into the center dash and side dashes.

 

if its bad, id just take the vents off and scrape it away or spray some compressed air in there and get as much out as possible.

 

Thanks for the replies! Lots of helpful stuff.

 

just remove the vents and clean it up, it happend to me

 

Same thing on my 2000 gt but bits are brownish and kinda sticky!

 

It was the foam around the vent open/close baffle. It is made of some sort of organic foam (probably soybean based). Why you would use that in an A/C application of this kind is beyond any explanation I can give. It obviously deterioates, but does this to the point of decay, changing its composition after so many years. I would imagine that Ford probably doesn't use this crap anymore. I just took all of the baffles out and cleaned them completely of any foam and reinstalled. They still work flawlessly and don't spit foam-turn-greasy syrup glue anymore.

Oh, also, I fixed a rather annoying squeak today! It was the brakeline mount near the rocker panel. Rubber was grinding against rubber and it sounded like a bushing going bad! It simply greased it and ta da!

The only bad thing is that now that I have no more gunk and no more squeaks, I can hear the right rear rotor going bad...I guess it never ends, but it's better than paying a car note!

 

that used to happen in my 98 sixxer. It would always get in my eyes and ****. Sooo annoyinng.