Irish350

iTrader: (14)

So my first thought is: 'do a search, people do this all the time' but i didnt find much.

I just got my aeroforce 2 1/16" gauge in and I wanted to temporarily put it in a vent hole. Went to lowes, got a coupler, got home and tried using a kitchen knife on the top of the vent, pushing downward while pulling on the vent itself (carefully).

after 15 minutes and much egg-handling i still wound up with a cracked vent (the center shaft with the adjusting slider) and a cracked bezel. Im not overly worried about it, cause this vent was missing half a fin before i got the car, but I need some insight here, cause im moving the drivers side vent to this hole to replace it, then the gauge will go on the drivers side. Part of the problem is that my AZ dash has expanded ever so slightly so the bezels are overlapped by the pad, but I need to know the RIGHT way to pull out the vents so when im tiptoeing around that and how fragile these are i dont have to worry about my technique too.

me><bezel

black_sheep454

iTrader: (9)

I took a few small straight screw drivers and slowly went around them finding the tabs and carefuly pried them out

transsam

iTrader: (5)

Me too Sean. Go figure right?
I broke one and got a set. My fear is scratching the soft dash material when I install the new ones. I still have 3 left inside and want it to get 'em out smoothly.

YURVIEW

iTrader: (127)

i didnt have any luck either. was ever so delicate, but the damn thing shattered anyway. just fragile from years in the sun i reckon. good luck.

DagoMatt

iTrader: (1)

Does anyone know where to buy new vents? I need a new one for my 2001 WS6. I have one that is broken. I tried to use a small screwdriver to pull it out and it cracked the outside of it. Is there a certain way to extract these vents?

Spd-Kilz

iTrader: (35)

I was the same as you. I broke the first one that I took out.

FORTUNATELY, this is quite helpful that you have one out. Now that one is out you can reach in one vent, and push out the other two vents.

NB: Push out the vent & bezel as a whole assembly.

Irish350

iTrader: (14)

ah, yeah if a whole vent was out itd be a bit easier, but its just half of one of the fins thats missing (and now that vent itself is cracked..). Im not opposed to ripping this one out but 1 i dont wanna mess up the dash pad (more worried about it cracking horribly than scratching.. its like a dried sponge), and 2) i dont want to break the vents other vents which are in perfectly good condition.

@matt: havent gotten any yet, but i know there were a bunch on ebay when i was looking for ***** and such.

so now we wait for all those cool doods who already did their gauges, ive seen plenty of install pics.

Raleigh TA

iTrader: (13)

Subscribing, I will be swapping all 5 of mine out soon.

black_sheep454

iTrader: (9)

I got lucky by getting the first out without breaking then I could tell how to get the rest out better

Irish350

iTrader: (14)

wouldnt happen to remember how many tabs/their location/ etc?

DagoMatt

iTrader: (1)

Let me know irish

DagoMatt

iTrader: (1)

Okay, I just pulled out my vent and bezzel. I had a vent with 1 fin broke. As soon as I started to pry on the vent it broke. Very fragile from the years in the sun. Then I used a very small flat head and very gently pryed all the way around the bezzel. That broke too. When I got it out there is only two flanges holding it in, On the top and bottom. No need to pry anywhere else. I found the whole assembly on ebay for $15 each so I ordered 2 to be safe. I took some pics of the bezzel for reference.

Irish350

iTrader: (14)

that helps a bunch. Let us know how those ebay replacements are.. maybe they wont be as fragile as all of ours seem to be?

Irish350

iTrader: (14)

well, that sucks... bezel is cracked in at least 3 places. vents are noncom. I did get some helpful pictures for the masses though.. here you can see the top and bottom clips, this is the part that needs to be depressed (knife between the bezel/vent). Like matt said, top and bottom only for these guys:


here is just the bezel. For one thing youll notice some fins around the edges, which also hold it in, and you can see how mine broke. I pushed in a knife, and between the bezel edge getting pushed up and down, and the tab itself being pushed toward the front of the car (trying to get that downward motion on the part that moves) the top and bottom cracked the same way.



and heres how my attempts ended for now (just shoved it in. gauge was gonna go on the drivers vent).. On top of not wanting to explode the other vents (this one really ate ****) the coupler i got wasnt the fernco part everyone else was using (3001-22), so its ID/OD are both too wide (too big for the bezel, the gauge is loose). back to the drawing board.

DagoMatt

iTrader: (1)

I just looked at the broken parts I had. If you want to reinstall the vent fins into the housing make sure you put them in correctly. the tabs on the side of the fins have a large and a small end on them where they clip in.