Hope everybody have a great holiday weekend. We have a bit of a heat wave here in the north east today. First thing I did when I jumped in the car was turn on the AC and adjust the vents. That's when I noticed the chrome trim on 2 of the vents is chipping away. Not a big deal, just wanted to see if anyone has had this problem. Any ideas about what to do about it? Sorry for the bad iphone pic.

 

i cant see the crack -_-

 

My chrome trim on the 320 was chipped too.

Andy

 

Check now


So...it's a 320 problem...lolol

 

.

Andy

 

no its not just 320.. I have mine cracked and almost all out of chrome too... not really a biggie..

 

I wonder if anyone has come up with a creative solution for this problem?

 

when I bought mine (at an auction) I noticed one of those "chrome" vent trims was missing altogether. I was already having a bit of "successful bidder's remorse", having missed the black one, but my broker quickly went down the sold line to a car that had been purchased by an out of state bidder and returned with the piece. Moral of story: it's a replaceable part. Good luck finding a part number though.

 

Nice, pass the buck...lol..Good to know the part could be replaced, now to find it. Do you remember what it looked like? Is it just the knob or the whole vent?

 

Neither; just a plastic tab with chrome colored tape on it. Slide yours out using a little eyeglasses screwdriver. Maybe you'll decide to paint them all or CF wrap!

 

haha, you read my mind. That is why I was asking....

 

I think you need to change your dash to repair that.

 

I had this problem too, but this was replaced under warranty when my AC stepper motor went out and the entire dash was removed.

 

yeah.. this sucks, i got three tabs chipping away slowly and one round trim around one of the vents

 

Wow interesting to see this post, I was looking for a post on this exact thing last week and came up empty. I have the same problem with 2 vents. I found that the A/C vents are replaceable; www.parts.com You can search there for your specific year and model and they have the corners vents for like $25 and the center a bit more since it is 2 vents together.

I would be more interested in finding the chrome tape and opening the tab and replacing it. Kind of sucks to replace the entire vents for such small flaws. Let me know if you find a chrome tape somewhere.

 

I saw the part on parts.com also. Did you order it?

 

No I didn't cause I wanted to see if I could find the tape first and DIY instead of spending over $50 for vents that really don't have nothing more than a cosmetic defect.

I am going to look for the tape though, hope i find it. Maybe I'll get creative and re-tape with something else

 

I was hesitant about ordering it because from the pic it looks like the actual vent inside and does not include the knob

 

mother f'er! I was reading this thread on my Blackberry while in the car and now I see that I too have one peeling! Where on parts.com are you seeing the vents? I see them HERE, #14, 15, and 16, but isn't that the whole vent, not just the "chrome" tab? I guess I was lucky, as mine was half-peeled, with the chrome tape hanging on:


I took some of my wife's clear nail polish and painted the plastic under the loosened "chrome", then stuck it back down.

A little bit over at one end was gone, so I put it in reversed, so that that part was nearest the door, and I can't see it that easily.


I will say that when squeezing it back in, the "chrome" tape that would have been on the bottom of that tab squeezed out, as I didn't paing that down, I guess.

 

So it's holding down good now? That is the reason I haven't order, it looks like just the duct in the pic

 

amazing the crap you find when Googling these things:


on eBay....

 

I came across those before but they are ugly!

 

How's THIS? Silver leaf for under 8 bucks.....

 

Hmm. that's interesting. If it's self stick I may buy it. Wonder if there is anything else like an actual chrome tape. I'll look around when I get a moment.

 

too bad none of us is a machinist, make it outta metal.