Ben951S

I will try to get a picture up later tonight, but humor me. This stems from picking my car up from the body shop... who also broke my arm-rest and other things...

Center Air Vents. On the driver side center vent, the Left-Right adjuster/slider V is not holding onto the pole that would move the vents left and right. There does not seem to be an easy way to get them back together. I do not want to break the left to right vents (using a tool, you can move them from left to right).

You cannot come from the bottom or the top, as the pole mounts, top and bottom, are bigger than the V.

I can only imagine this happened if some one whacked the climate control towards the driver side, the vents are further left than normal, but able to be brought back... I can't believe these guys.

If I can fix it myself without endangering breaking anything, I will, or I will add it to the list of damages.

Ben951S

Here are pics!

The bar on the left, at full left position. You can see the 'V' if the slider here too



Pointing out the bar.

JohnKoaWood

Center vents?

CAREFULLY pry the outside edges (closest to the odo reset button, and direct opposite if both vents are like this) to pull the center horizontal flap out, and align everything to press it back into place..

I just did this on my 951 piece to verify..

Ben951S

JKW. Just the one vent (drivers side, center) is like this. Can you restate your instruction? My interpretation is: Pry outside edges closest to the odo reset button, and the horizontal plastic flap the runs the length of the vent will 'pop out'. When it does, center the left/right adjustment nub, with a centered air vent and pole, and then pop it back into place, lined up, and it will recapture the pole.

Now the question is, if a shop caused this condition, do I try and fix it (it's presently 32F outside) or just tell them how to? I'm leaning towards the latter, but that seems like a winner in terms of directions/success rate.

CurtP

What you're trying to do is pop out the horizontal piece that has the slider (the forked piece that isn't in the correct position), lift it towards you enough so you can engage the fork, then snap it back in place. It's pretty straightforward and you don't need to use any tools. Funny enough, I happen to have mine sitting on my desk because the flap door on mine was broken and I just gave it try. It literally takes about 20 seconds to do the whole process. I would recommend letting the car get up to temperature and run the heat through that vent for a while before trying it so it's a little more pliable.

YOU should fix it, not the shop. If they didn't care enough to try to be careful with your car in the first place, what makes you think they'll give a **** trying to fix it? That trim piece is still available new, but it's over $500. They will do just about anything not to have to replace it, but I'll wager that there's going to be a bunch of tool marks all over it from them monkey ****ing it. And more than likely, they'll just deny that they did it in the first place.

Ben951S

Thanks CP. Good idea on the heat. Does that middle horizontal part actually 'come out' (read: separate from the frame on the ends), or just pull on it hard enough (with fingers) to bow it, line up the column, and release it in place, between the V?

Ben951S

Fixed. Pictures added for future searchers/curious.

Dead center, peg comes out....


Two holes on the other side, be careful, one in the back is thin/weak...



What you get...



Thanks for the help guys, glad I could do this so easily and not have the shop mar it up.