AC Vent Trim Piece
 

My friend's kid was sitting in the back and she kicked the plastic trim piece in the rear middle AC vent, which you use to manually change the direction of the air blowing out. The trim piece luckily just popped out and is not broken, but I am having a tough time putting it back. It is in two pieces. One piece goes inside the vent while the other pops in from the front. The problem is you need to apply equal pressure from the back as well as front so that the inside piece fits into the outside one.

Anyone faced the same issue (I would think it will be fairly common because of so many of these pieces with atleast one on each vent) and fixed it?

Thanks

I had the same issue and took it to the dealer. According to the paperwork, a technician had to undo the center console side strips to partially remove the carpet in order to gain access to the vent. But, in my case, the tech left a small tear and a scratch on the side strips (leather or vinyl) which the dealer had to fix. Go figure.

Same thing happened to me (although the vent tab wasn't kicked.) Dealer said it would cost $700 to replace/repair mostly because of the labor involved taking the rear console out, but it was covered by warranty. They also made small gashes on BOTH sides of the console (driver and passenger sides) near the bottom while they were working on it.

Now I have a similar issue on the center dash air vent tab- it goes in Friday for a fix.

Happened to my X5 as well when I bought it from the dealer. Will go in for the fix as well as part of the warranty.

700 bucks to install that trim piece :wow: I am sure a bent screw driver or metal piece can do the job. I might just try it before I take it to the dealer for them to put gashes on the rear console.

Here you guys go. Hope this helps and maybe saves you 700 bucks!

Thanks for the guide, I will give it a shot if I cannot fit in the trim piece by other means.

I have no talent for this sort of thing- mine is in the shop today getting the front one fixed (under warranty). Of course- I hope I don't get any more gashes anywhere. I pointed them out to the SA, we'll see if anything happens.

Update- picked car up yesterday afternoon- no charge for the front center vent repair (covered by warranty), and they are setting up an appointment with their leather guy to fix the two gashes on the sides of the rear console from the previous rear vent repair. Very pleased with how this worked out.

Fixed the trim piece myself, without opening up the rear console or leaving any scratches/gashes.

- I put the back portion of the trim which goes inside the vent first. You have to be careful that the "V" in the back slides into the vertical slat in one of the vertical plastic air deflector blades.
- I then cut two small pieces of steel wire (similar type as used for hanging pictures/mirrors) and wrapped them around the back trim piece, under then over the horizontal air deflector blade.
- Now gently pulling on the wires I pressed the top trim piece in till it snapped and locked onto the rear piece. One has to be careful and pull on the wires only when pressing down the top piece so that minimal stress is put on the horizontal air deflector blade.

Phew, that saved a trip to the $ealer and potential scratches to the rear console.