VW Vanagon T3 Heater Flap Retainers

The retainers that hold the heater flaps in position on the Vanagon. No longer available from Volkswagen at any price.

When they fail the flap stops holding its setting, which on a T3 means the heating either does not arrive or does not stop. Neither is trivial in a vehicle people actually live in. Vanagons are camped in, driven across continents, and relied on in weather where a stuck heater flap is a genuine problem rather than a comfort complaint.

The retainers sit deep in the heater box, so replacing them is a job you want to do once.

Fitment: Vanagon T3, 1980–1991. Air-cooled and water-cooled models differ in the heater arrangement — tell us which you have, and note whether yours is a Westfalia, since the auxiliary heater changes the ducting.