Rats/Squirrels Nest in Air Ducts - How to Access?

I had an issue where air was mostly only blowing out of the foot vents and defrost. I went under the passenger side dash to replace the blower motor resistor (to fix another issue) and noticed I had a rats/squirrel's nest in some of the air ducts. I removed what I could with my hands and noticed when I removed some of the nest that air was now blowing out of the face vents again but only partially.

I'm wondering if I can get in behind the dash to clean out the rest of the nest from the air ducts and if air would fully return to the face vents.

I've also noticed that if I set the AC switch to just come out of the face vents, most of the air is still only coming out of the floor. So maybe this is another issue completely?

I don't think it's a vacuum issue since I'm still getting air out of the face vents. Just not as much as I feel like I should. I think there's still a good amount of the nest in there. I'd like to access the ducts and clean it all out if possible. Is that possible?

macleanflood said:

I'd just pull the entire dash and HVAC box. You'll be able to split the box and really get things cleaned up and inspect wiring and vacuum lines.

It's that or drilling a couple of careful 1" holes and hoping you can suck everything out.

-Mac

Click to expand...

That's kinda what I'm thinking as well. Am I able to access the HVAC and pull the ducts without removing the steering column?