The little clip on handles that control the direction of the air vents on my 2007 Prado have come apart one by one in the last 2 years. Now all 4 are broken making it a pain to change the direction of the air coming out of the vents. Has anyone else had this problem. Toyota dealer says I have to replace the whole vent assemblies as they don't sell the little clip on handles separately. Seems ludicrous to me. Any ideas? Thanks.
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air vent directional clips keep breaking
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I've got the same problem so if you find any let me know. Btw, how much was the whole vent from Toyota?2007 GXL V6 - ARB Bullbar with LED lights, snorkel, extractors, 2 1/4" dual exhaust, K&N filter, dimpled/slotted rotors, headrest dvd players, Ebay Satnav/reverse camera, GME 3100TX, Tigerz11 Side awning on custom brackets with Maxtrax mounts, 300W Invertor, ARB Underbody protection, Lightbar and STZ 265/70 tyres.
Wish list in order I'll get them: Sliders, 2" lift, E-locker, Winch bar with winch.
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Originally posted by ausokee View PostThe little clip on handles that control the direction of the air vents on my 2007 Prado have come apart one by one in the last 2 years. Now all 4 are broken making it a pain to change the direction of the air coming out of the vents. Has anyone else had this problem. Toyota dealer says I have to replace the whole vent assemblies as they don't sell the little clip on handles separately. Seems ludicrous to me. Any ideas? Thanks.
I ended up replacing all four of the fronts at the same time. Fricken wasnt cheap, an oil drop / filter service, four vents plus replacing the seals in the passenger little glass panel costed $1k.
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Originally posted by ausokee View PostToo much trouble to replace them, so it was out of the question anyway.
1) Remove bottom silver panels
2) Remove side silver panels with air con vents
Once off unclip the air con vent (if it doesn't fall out in step 2 anyway, mine did).2007 GXL V6 - ARB Bullbar with LED lights, snorkel, extractors, 2 1/4" dual exhaust, K&N filter, dimpled/slotted rotors, headrest dvd players, Ebay Satnav/reverse camera, GME 3100TX, Tigerz11 Side awning on custom brackets with Maxtrax mounts, 300W Invertor, ARB Underbody protection, Lightbar and STZ 265/70 tyres.
Wish list in order I'll get them: Sliders, 2" lift, E-locker, Winch bar with winch.
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Same thing happended to me, bought a second hand vent, which looked brand new, from a parts guy in QLD, Southside wreckers. I think it cost $60 incl postage to WA for a vent.2004 GXL V6 Auto, 2" Dobinson/Bilsteins, Rola Alloy Rack, AJ's Side steps, Safari snorkel, Sidewinder dual battery, SSB agm battery, Milford cargo barrier, Tigerz11 awning with Korr LED lights, Ironman Underbody Protection, IPF 900XS with 55w HID kit on Sovereign bar, LED Reversing/Work light, Uniden CB, Diff & Transmission Breathers, CouplerTec rust protection, BFG 265/70R17, Tekonsha brake controller and tows a 2011 CUB Daintree LE.
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Got told the same thing, had to buy the whole vent unit.
Stupidly expensive, when everything else still worked, but
I still had the clip(s) turns out (with a lot of fiddling and bad words) that mine weren't broken as such, just they had come apart :-/
After much hand origami I managed to pull the whole vent unit out (not hard) and then put the vent directional clips back in place- snapped back together, they kind of 'click' together, and then prayed to the gods and held my tongue the right way and got it all back in correctly.
This was no mean feat, as I also had mr 2yo 'helping' me that day.
I've seen several Pradies where the vent directional clip has come undone, but not one (yet) where it has actually broken.
I hope this is the case for you!!
Cheers
Ralph2005 Diesel Funbus Driver
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Thanks, Ralph. I did try gluing them together in place and it worked for a while, then they came apart again. It's tricky but you can put them in without taking the vent out. I had one actually break and three just come apart. There's no way I'm going to buy new vents and reward Toyota for putting out a dodgy part and then not allowing their customers to replace just that part. Cheers.
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No need to buy the whole vent . Those little things just unclip .I use a sharp pearing knife .There is a rubber seal in between them . Pointy-nose pliers to clip back on . The wreckers just give them to me as long as i do the work to get them out of a wreck . I jam a bit of tissue paper in the vents while i am installing just in case i drop it . Dont want the thing dropping down into the vent pipe .
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If this helps anybody I have ordered. Received and fitted the Clips only and cheap
Parts from USA but here in 6 days
http://www.venttabs.com/
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With a little bit of cunning and patience I have repaired 2 broken vent clips on my 2010 Prado VX. The tiny lugs that clip the two parts together had broken off so clipping them back together wasn't going to work.
The two parts of the clip were slid into place within the vent, held carefully and then having threaded two lengths of cotton thread in behind them the cotton was pulled tight and tied, holding the clips together within the vent. I used tweezers and pointed nosed pliers to do this.
Then two small black cable ties were threaded into the vent and around the back of the clip and pulled up as tight as possible, holding the two parts of the clip firmly together. The 'tail' was then cut off the cable tie.
Because the 'knot' on the tie looked untidy and prevented the vent from closing it was slid around to the back of the clip, out of sight, using the pliers.
I did this repair 12 months ago and it has been very successful, it just took lots of patience and careful manoeuvring to achieve it.Last edited by Labu-ndi; 12-04-2017, 08:33 PM.
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Originally posted by Fletcher120 View PostThere is a rubber seal in between them . Pointy-nose pliers to clip back on .
It's not obvious how it should sit in there. It has three raised square sections on one side of what is a rectangular rubber piece.
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I've just ordered some of the US tabs Allshare55 mentioned (many thanks). The vent seems easy to remove, looks like it would be much easier to install the new ones if you could pull the vent head apart. It _looks like_ there are two spring clips at the top that hold the front grille on, and just depressing them would spring the front grille off leaving the rear one exposed. Anyone tried it? All this talk of threading them through the grille has me worried (fingers aren't getting any nimbler).
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