(i swear i wrote this and submitted it but not it's not there...)

update 3:

elapsed time: about 7 hours

thoughts: Finally got the dash off which is an obvious hurdle, but now it seems harder to find bolts holding things.

questions: there is a frame piece perpendicular to the main cross-frame that holds the dash. It's right above/behind the steering wheel. The front seems riveted on to the main cross-frame and I can't find out how to get to the back that has the bolt. How do I get this off?! *see pic*





update pic:

 

Wow, nice progress. Did you end up draining the A/C system?

I'm especially curious how this goes for you because I need to try fixing my heat soon. My core is fine but I'm pretty sure the culprit for me is the blend door flap. It's either not turning or the foam has disintegrated as I've seen in some reports. Any chance you could take a closer picture of the flaps that are visible in the bottom image? I'm not even sure which is the main blend flap, I assume the one on the inside?

 

Getting it drained tomorrow morning. $200 for a tow when I could have just driven it when it wasn't in pieces. THAT was a mistake...

I can take a picture tomorrow night when I go back in.

And yeah I don't know much about the flaps or the HVAC box really so hopefully someone else can help you troubleshoot. My issue was clear because it was the pipes coming through the firewall. Though I should mention that now I can see the outside of the core, it's also leaking so good thing I'm doing this anyway.

 

Does this picture help? Not sure if it's only stating the obvious.

I think you're supposed to remove all the fuse and relay panels, but looks like yours are still attached maybe? Perhaps you can only get at that nut from the back once all that stuff it out.

 

I've done two of them. A 96 Quattro and a 2001 Avant. In neither case did I completely remove that aluminum frame. The early B5's didn't have that steering column brace, the later ones have it. In the case of the 2001 shown here, I didn't even pull that frame all the way away from the car.

 

That sorta helps, it just tells me I need to get under and get that bolt but I still can't find out where.

So you're saying if I can find every location the HVAC is attached to the car I should be able to just slide it out under the cross-member?

 

It's been a while since I did that 01 B5, but it sure looks like that's what I did. In that case, a frozen heater core broke the HVAC box so I had to swap that out also. But in that case I did not pull that frame as you can see in my last post. On my 96 I did not completely remove the frame, but angled it out. In that case you would have to remove the steering column brace you're talking about, but as you can see the early B5's didn't have that brace. Either way, I did that job without pulling that frame all the way out of the car.

And in neither case did I pull out all the fuses as someone else mentioned.

 

Well I'm kinda hoping I don't have to pull that whole piece out. It looks like it would save me a lot of hassle.
Ill go back in tonight and take some pictures of the flaps then try and get underneath the HVAC box and slide it out. I also still have the black frame that holds the climate control and radio in there. I thought I could get away with leaving them but it seems like thats not the case.

 

I just found a very cool video that might apply. I never thought to search youtube for the VW Passat, but this popped up in a google image search for "audi evaporator replacement". The Passat is basically the sister car to the A4. It appears to be a very close match, but of course the devil is in the details, a few small differences here or there and it might not be a total match:

 

Looks like I'm about at the 1:50 mark so I just need to remove all the bolts from behind the audio/temp ctl and remove the top vent thing and I'll be good to go.