REPPLACING BROKEN passenger side A.C. vent?!?!?!

[Monte70]

Hi Guys,

I drove my 2021 mach E through the car wash and the cleaners broke my passenger side a.c. vent while wiping down inside of dash. Does anyone know what procedure of how to replace the A.C. vent?

Thanks Anthony

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[MachEMaster]

Hi Guys,

I drove my 2021 mach E through the car wash and the cleaners broke my passenger side a.c. vent while wiping down inside of dash. Does anyone know what procedure of how to replace the A.C. vent?

Thanks Anthony

I would take it to the dealer under warranty. The vent shouldn’t break during normal operation, or a wipe down cleaning.

 

[Monte70]

I would take it to the dealer under warranty. The vent shouldn’t break during normal operation, or a wipe down cleaning.

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about that, but it seems everytime i goto dealer for the car everything is a project, time consuming even with the simplest tasks.. I already bought the part, and rather slap it in myself and call it a day!!!
THanks Anthony

P.S>. The car wash broke it either wiping it down, or they hit the vent w the vacuum cleaner in a hurry.. Either way, its sad because car is brand new w not even 5000 miles.

 

[MachEMaster]

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about that, but it seems everytime i goto dealer for the car everything is a project, time consuming even with the simplest tasks.. I already bought the part, and rather slap it in myself and call it a day!!!
THanks Anthony

P.S>. The car wash broke it either wiping it down, or they hit the vent w the vacuum cleaner in a hurry.. Either way, its sad because car is brand new w not even 5000 miles.

Maybe @Murse-In-Airy could chime in. It looks like the Green Goblin interior is heavily modded. Anyone who did that much work, would know how the dash and vents go together. Good luck.

 

[MachEr]

Remove screen assembly, remove the "fabric" upper trim above vents, remove the 2 screws behind screen holding lower trim below vents and remove, you then need to pull back the top part of the center portion behind/below where screen was (this may be difficult without removing the 4 screws, 2 of which may be hidden by console area),remove 3 screws holding lower trim below register on and remove, then remove the 8 bolts for the register assembly and remove/replace it

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I took some trim pieces off and covers them, most of my other stuff is AOSK overlays that I painted then covered parts of the interior. I can tell you how to pull the big screen off, but AC vents I didn’t touch. I’ll have a look at the WSM and see what I can find.

Nevermind. Looks like @MachEr beat me to it.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I guess I can hope it’s one of the outside vents instead of one behind the screen. ?

 

[Monte70]

Remove screen assembly, remove the "fabric" upper trim above vents, remove the 2 screws behind screen holding lower trim below vents and remove, you then need to pull back the top part of the center portion behind/below where screen was (this may be difficult without removing the 4 screws, 2 of which may be hidden by console area),remove 3 screws holding lower trim below register on and remove, then remove the 8 bolts for the register assembly and remove/replace it

[/QUOTE
Thanks for wonderful reply!!!! This is exactly what i needed, the full color schematic. Im forever grateful my friend. Is there anything special i need to do via the passenger side airbag, precautions etc.. or is it just stripping the plastic dash parts?
The screen does not have to removed correct?

Thanks Anthony

 

[Monte70]

I took some trim pieces off and covers them, most of my other stuff is AOSK overlays that I painted then covered parts of the interior. I can tell you how to pull the big screen off, but AC vents I didn’t touch. I’ll have a look at the WSM and see what I can find.

Nevermind. Looks like @MachEr beat me to it.

Thanks for reply!!! Oh snap!!! Do i need to remove the screen to swap in new a.c vents? Can it be done without removing?
Thanks Anthony

 

[Monte70]

I guess I can hope it’s one of the outside vents instead of one behind the screen. ?

Yes, it is vent on extreme passenger side next to window.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Thanks for reply!!! Oh snap!!! Do i need to remove the screen to swap in new a.c vents? Can it be done without removing?
Thanks Anthony

The bolts in the photo are hidden behind the trim piece underneath the vents. So that and the fabric trim on top will both have to be removed. That trim piece under the vents extends behind the screen and around the start button. So to remove the trim, you will have to pull the screen.
Removing the screen is a bit sphincter puckering, but not difficult at all.
Once you have the screen off, the trim below and above the vents off, then replacing the vent assemble will be pretty easy and obvious.

 

[three.jax]

My '21 Passenger side AC vent broke also. The wife was pointing it away from her face, and it just broke on the inside edge of the vent. So frustrating. The car is in for warranty work (again), and they are saying it's not covered. I am Escalating the issue to Ford, but not hopeful. Very unhappy with the number of trips to the Service department. Will update on the results of the appeal.

 

[AC123123]

Remove screen assembly, remove the "fabric" upper trim above vents, remove the 2 screws behind screen holding lower trim below vents and remove, you then need to pull back the top part of the center portion behind/below where screen was (this may be difficult without removing the 4 screws, 2 of which may be hidden by console area),remove 3 screws holding lower trim below register on and remove, then remove the 8 bolts for the register assembly and remove/replace it

Would love to see a video of this process on YouTube.

 

[JonathanEzor]

Would love to see a video of this process on YouTube.

Sorry, but I was too busy saying "please don't break, please don't break" to myself to shoot video when I did this the other day on my soon-to-be-sold 2022 GT--amazingly, it worked!

I printed out @markboris' amazingly helpful instructions and diagrams from this thread, took everything *very* slowly, and managed to replace the vent piece with only a tiny bit of bending on the edge of the metal trim piece by the speaker grill due to injudicious prying methods. As people have said, you remove the screen by popping off the panel below it and carefully unplugging the wire, then undoing the two bolts holding on the screen (that and replacing them was by far the most awkward part of the whole process, since you have to lie across the floor and look upwards to see them), pull the screen off the dash, unclip its two connectors (the red one was more difficult than the black), then remove the various dash trim pieces (upper, lower and the metal screen between them) to get access to the bolts holding the vent assembly in place. Remove the vent assembly, put the new one in, and reverse the steps.

My relief when the screen lit up properly could not be measured.

Thanks to all who contribute DIY great tips to this forum! Oh, and *no* thanks to Ford for designing a vent assembly where a single louver coming out of its socket on one side requires this level of deconstruction. Why couldn't the damned thing just have snapped back into place!

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