The other day my wife tried to adjust her vent on the center console A/C and the little "button" came right off. I thought maybe we can snap it back in but it appears to have cracked a piece of the plastic.

So my question is, can this part be replaced? If so how can it be done? Hopefully doesn't require a tremendous amount of disassembly. Anyone have any ideas?

I've attached a photo. The red outline is the one that is still there, the right side shows it missing - so we need the right side repaired/replaced.

 

The wheel at the bottom broke on my 2016. They had to replace the whole vent as a unit.

 

Thank you. I searched the online parts catalog and noticed it is sold as one unit.

So has anyone ever removed one? How do you do it without breaking other expensive parts?

 

They're actually rather simple to remove. They are held in by 4 spring-metal-clips. If you shine a maglite into the louvers you can see the heads of the clips - they look like a "C" sticking out of the side.

You can buy a Ford tool that is supposed to catch them on both sides - you need two of the Ford tools, or you can do like most mechanics, bend up a piece of wire to have a small hook on each end - fold it into a U shape, hook the hooks through the hole in the C's - and pull it toward the center of the vent.

That releases the clips and the vent pulls right out. Just be sure to disconnect the wire going to the switch on the **** on the bottom (it opens the top-dash vents if the face vents are closed with the ****.)

I'm sure there are tutorials around with photos since you have to remove both sides to get to the bolts holding the PCM in place.. and people like to remove their PCM's for various reasons.

 

Thank you! I'm going to order the vent soon. I'll look through the archives and see if there are any tutorials that can help guide me. Appreciate the insight!

 

Excessively wordy and long for what it is, but here's more than enough info: