# V71 flap motor replacement



## abooaaishah (Aug 6, 2012)

Hi all,

01274 - Air Flow Flap Positioning Motor (V71) 
defective or incorrect basic settings

tried the adaptation but it didnt work
block 17 reads:
minimum position blocked=44 
max position opened=38

ive searched the forum as to how to replace

some people saying it takes a day and is complicated
some have done in 20-30 minutes

for those who did it in 30 mins have you written up a walk through?
apparently the v71 motor is easily accessible just below the plenum cover

i found these images but i didnt really find them useful as i couldnt see anything that looks like the replacement motor i purchased (4D0820511) below the cover when i had a quick peek
any help would be very much appreciated
abooaaishah

http://www.corners.plus.com/downloads/heatermotors01.jpg
www.corners.plus.com/downloads/HVACservos-01.jpg


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## invisiblewave (Sep 22, 2008)

Yes, I wrote it up, but I don't have a link. It's easy. Remove windshield strip (this is the hardest part of the procedure), remove nearside wiper mechanism, remove metal frame (4 bolts), remove 8 small screws (two hard to spot), pull plastic housing off, then the V71 is right in front of you. I've done it twice. You can actually see it without removing anything.


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## abooaaishah (Aug 6, 2012)

thanks mate
how long does it take? do i need anything beyond a screwdriver?


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## invisiblewave (Sep 22, 2008)

Took me about an hour. There's no job I can think of on the Phaeton which only requires a screwdriver. If that's all you have, take it to the dealer and have them do it.


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## abooaaishah (Aug 6, 2012)

invisiblewave said:


> Took me about an hour. There's no job I can think of on the Phaeton which only requires a screwdriver. If that's all you have, take it to the dealer and have them do it.


lol i have more than that!
i just wanted to make sure doesnt need any specialist tools before i start taking things apart
actually what i dont have is anything that will pull off a wiper arm
hmm


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## invisiblewave (Sep 22, 2008)

Wiper mechanism just needs a socket. The only other things you need are something to raise the windscreen strip and torx for the metal frame on top of the plenum housing.


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## RocketVol (Oct 7, 2014)

I can second Martin's words and his write up on the work, and it's because of him I now have mine done and working perfectly! 

Martin, after over a year of pressing the "recirc" button to get air, I used your advice to change mine out this weekend and it was just like you said. No real issues and the plastic strip was the trickiest part, and actually getting the plastic strip back in was the hardest part of mine. I had to do one more step, as the used (from Ebay) V71 motor's driveshaft was in the wrong position to be installed. If you have this problem do not turn the motor by hand, it will mess up the location sensor inside. You have to run 12V to pins 4 and 5 and it will drive the shaft to where you need it. Reverse the polarity to change direction.

My wiper arms were stuck on the post so I needed a standard wiper arm popper up thingy. $7.00 from Amazon and worked great. If yours are stuck you could probably use vise-grips to pop it lose.

The failure mode on mine was that the inlet flap would randomly move from open to closed and then finally stay closed. Looking at the position values you could see that the indicated position was bouncing all over the place and never matched the commanded position. After installing the new motor the numbers are solid. No adaptation required with the new/used motor, it knew where it was and just worked. 

John


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## invisiblewave (Sep 22, 2008)

There's a trick to getting the wipers off! I thought mine were stuck, too, but you just push down on the springy bit to get the splines square on the shaft and it lifts off. The other trick with the wipers is not to put them in the service position. Just leave them in the rest position, if you do happen to find you're off by a spline, it's simple to undo it and move it. Interestingly, the three motors I've bought, including the used one I just put in the dash, all had the motor in approximately the correct position. Everything they operate can also be moved, so you don't have to attach the motor when the flap is in the closed position, just fit it wherever the flap is and let the adaptation sort it out. The full adaptation procedure is unlikely to complete, because by now there are two types of Phaeton owners in the US, those with several failing flaps and those who tell porkies!


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## RocketVol (Oct 7, 2014)

Spot on on the 2 types of Phaeton owners! On both of mine I now have an intermittent V113 recirculation motor, but it doesn't really affect me and I am not inclined to dive that deep into the HVAC system to fix a sometimes flaky motor! I just pray that one of the important ones that is buried deep in the bowels of the car doesn't die. I will now fix V71's all day long, but the others....shudder.....

I didn't run the adaptation after changing the motor, am wondering if it will really benefit anything.

When I reinstalled the wipers I did it in the parked position and it was a lot easier. For anyone else doing this that is a great tip.

John


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## invisiblewave (Sep 22, 2008)

Yeah, I think my V113 is also showing up on the scan, along with one of the footwell motors. I agree, I don't think the adaptation procedure actually does anything, the individual flaps adapt themselves anyway.


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## abooaaishah (Aug 6, 2012)

for future reference:

"Having finally decided to remove the windshield strip to get to the V71, thought I'd post my experiences. It turned out to be much easier than I'd expected. I couldn't see a lot of risk of windscreen breakage, and it mostly needs persistence to lift the corner up. I was able to do it with the standard, cheap plastic trim tool set. It took a while, you have to get the tool positioned correctly so it's pushing up on the plastic, and the strip snaps into place in the groove at about 6 different points, including near the ends (don't forget the spring clips as well, three of them). On mine, the vertical black trim pieces at the edge of the windscreen were slightly impeding the raising of the plastic strip, so I just bent the bottom tab on them back a bit. After about 20 mins of wiggling and pulling, the end came free, then you just work your way along pulling the rest out. Replacing is the opposite, and you can feel it snapping back into place at various points. That bad news is that it didn't help with access to the V71. We removed the wiper mechanism (easy) to get to the two screws holding the plate on top of the air intake flaps in place, but still couldn't see any way of removing the piece with the intake flaps and the V71 mounted on the side. My guess is the way to do it is by removing the brake fluid reservoir, unfortunately the dealer also appears to have broken the flaps on mine, so I'm not sure replacing the flap motor will help anyway."

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?8720217-HVAC-whistle-above-100km-h

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2230494-How-to-remove-the-Plenum-Chamber-Cover-(pictures)


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## abooaaishah (Aug 6, 2012)

Well finally got it replaced. Got the mechanic to do the job
I had to do a basic adaptation to clear the codes but the flap motor seems to be working OK now. 
Only problem is there’s now an annoying whistle coming from the centre of the front hat rack when the AC is in auto mode
If I point all the air forward and the wooden covers slide up it goes away. 
Any ideas? It’s starting to irritate me.


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## JCJ (Nov 26, 2013)

Left defroster and chest vent. Can anyone describe what these are? Will these include the vents in the top of the doors?


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