Side vents removal info for 348 please

just hook your fingernails under the sides,wriggle and pull towards you. It should pop right out. Mine do. Mike.

 

Very easy. There are four tabs on the back of the vent. On my picture, you can see the one on the upper right (this is the left vent), which can be released by tilting the louvered section upward and pushing on the tab with a flat screwdriver. At least on my own 348, that's the only tab I have to release, then the vent pulls off, although it can be a bit of job to pull it loose if the plastic has gone "sticky". There are no screws.
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They are simple to remove... but be careful. Breaking one is an expensive proposition: The center one is only about $200 (roughly). The side ones are near $400 each.

(I post junk like this because everytime I begin to poke into my 348, I get out my price book first. I ask myself a simple question: "Can I afford to break this thing-a-ma-jobby, or am I messing with it simply because I'm bored?")

 

Bringing this thread back from the dead I know. Anyhow, what about the center vent, is it easier/similar to remove? Any posts showing that?

I need to de-sticky but don't want to break them, wondering if I should just leave them in and us WD40 or goo gone method? I almost got one of the side vents out, but then chickened out on a little more force to likely remove it.

 

My advice on removing the center vent is to remove the instrument cluster (two screws) and push the center vent out from the back. I'd say the same for the side vents-- remove the screw holding the corner dash trim in place (visible when you open the doors), pivot the trim piece out of the way, and then push the side vents out from behind using your fingers. My vents were scarred slightly from people prying them out and one of the retaining tabs on the center vent was broken from someone prying on it. I found it quite easy to push them out from behind though.

Put a towel on top of your steering column shroud whenever you remove the cluster. You probably won't have to disconnect any wires-- just prop the cluster up off to the side far enough to reach your fingers into the opening to press on the back of the vent.

One note on the trim pieces for the dash corners-- it's best to replace the screws before closing the doors to prevent any possible damage from the door hitting the loose trim pieces.

 

Interesting Mike, do u have to do anything with those tabs if pushing it out from behind?

 

I did not have to do any prying or anything else with the tabs on mine. Just pushed firmly from behind and the vents came out enough to grab from the front and pull them the rest of the way.

The center vent retaining tabs were intact (except for the part that was broken due to previous prying) but the side vents had some broken tabs, so your own experience may be different. But after struggling to find a comfortable means of removing those vents from the front, pushing them out from the back seemed really, really easy to me. It's definitely the method I'll use from here on out.

Doesn't take but a few minutes to try and you should be safe as long as you don't force the issue. Let us know how it works for you if you decide to give it a shot.

Good luck!

 

I tried passenger side and see what u mean, much easier and came out with part of the tube back of the vent. Much less likely to brake it like I think a previous repair chipped some tabs on mine also. Don't suppose this part can be sold separately? Looks like a thin part on the side broke also, but it would still work if I can get the darn part back into the rest of the vent. I think when its no longer sticky may be easier, but has anyone been able to snap this part back? It's a squeeze to fit back in because of the short nubs on the other side.
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Here is the part, what a mess. I'll try the driver and center tomorrow.
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Man, those are indeed sticky. Guess I should be glad someone already mostly de-stickied mine, instead of just disappointed that they didn't properly finish the job.

As far as I know, those vents were only available as an assembly and are now long NLA. Painful to think how many otherwise good ones were tossed in the trash due to being sticky back when you could order new one$. Now we're left rebuilding these things, at least until someone starts 3D printing them.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through rebuilding mine, which were broken and missing parts. Here are some suggestions based on what I've learned so far:

Work on them one at a time unless you need another one for reference. I'm doing all of mine at once and the rebuilding part has turned into more work than anticipated. If all you have to do is refinish them, I can see doing more than one at a time, but if you're building parts it gets overwhelming. I wish I'd just left the others in the dash and only pulled them when it was time to work on them.

Save every single little part or broken piece, because those can often be reattached. See my post from earlier this evening under the 355 "clamshell" thread. The broken piece on the side of the center portion can be made by hand from ABS and glued into place such that it will work just fine, as long as you are patient and don't mind spending a good bit of time on a small part. You would need to make it wider than the tiny strand of plastic that was there in order to be able to fabricate it, but I think that with a Dremel tool and a hand drill you should be able to make a perfectly usable repair. ABS is cheap off of eBay and the correct glue isn't too expensive (PM me if you want the source) so all it takes is time.

I completely disassembled mine and soaked them overnight in a covered tub of rubbing alcohol (I used 70% and it worked fine for me, but you might need 91% since yours are still really gooey). Scrubbed them with small brushes the next day while wearing double or triple layers of vinyl gloves. You’ll probably need to go through that process three times.

Alcohol also works great for removing the goo from the dash and inside the ducting-- that section of dash covering is vinyl, so alcohol doesn't hurt it.

I've had to do several repairs on mine which may or may not be applicable for you, so I'll skip the details other than to say that they're more repairable than you might think. The main thing is to be patient and take whatever time is required if you are serious about making them look and work right again. I doubt there are many people who would pay me what I'd charge for the work I've done on mine, but if the finished products turn out as good as hoped for at this stage in the process, then they'll look as good as new when they’re finally back in the car.

Toward that end, if you have a caliper handy would you be so kind as to measure the diameter of the circles to either side of the on/off wheel, as well as the wall thickness of the hollow circle? I'm going to try to have those duplicated one way or another and would like to get them as close to original as possible. I've asked another FChatter for those numbers but I know he's not around his car all that often so this could save us all some hassle. If it turns out that I'm able to duplicate them in a way that can be shared, I'll send you a set for your trouble.

Hope this helps. Ask specific questions if you need more info. I know I'm not the only one who has rebuilt these things, so there's some good help out there. In fact, I was wondering if a particular method of repair would work when someone here posted a pic of his repair, which was done very similarly to what I was contemplating. My whole rebuild process really picked up steam once I'd seen someone else's success.

Good luck!

 

I cleaned mine in place for fear of this. But now I have been working with plastic and I'm learning how to weld plastic. Not so afraid anymore but they don't need it. I did break a brand new phone vent clip though. Maybe I could find the clip in there?