Passenger side vent noise

[Earing2008]

Hopefully this is an easy one......

Does anyone know how to properly remove the passenger side silver vent cover/cup holder? When I get on rough roads I hear a vibration behind the cover and I want to investigate further. I don't see any bolts and I don't want to start pulling blindly.

 

[Trynian]

Lift up on it and pull the bottom out.

 

[bbyer]

Two "ears" at the top.

Yes, Trynian is correct re pulling from the bottom.

This is one of the few bits that removes fairly easily and without a lot of force.

There are a couple of fixed plastic ears at the top to the plastic rectangle and a couple of straight out legs with those LR metal clips at the bottom of the rectangle. It is the lower metal clips that release first when you pull out wards at the bottom of the assembly. You then vertically rotate the assembly a bit and pull then a bit down so the upper ears clear the slots at the top that the ears insert into.

If you need a convenient place to hide small stuff, you can use your imagination; hope you find the rattle.

 

[Earing2008]

Thanks guys, that makes sense to me. I'll dive into it tonight and let you know what I find. I'll try to post pictures to help others out.

 

[EIGHTLUG]

Hopefully this is an easy one......

Does anyone know how to properly remove the passenger side silver vent cover/cup holder? When I get on rough roads I hear a vibration behind the cover and I want to investigate further. I don't see any bolts and I don't want to start pulling blindly.

Are you talking about the air intake on the passenger side front fender or the cup holder on the passenger side below the A/C vent? I'm confused. i believe you're talking about the A/C vent but it seems like everyone else is talking about removing the air intake vent on the fender.

 

[bbyer]

Cup holder and AC vent inside

I was talking about the rectangular plastic surrounding the round air vent and rectangular cup holder combo on the passenger side, inside.

To remove the outside engine air intake grill on the right side of the vehicle, (passenger side in LHD vehicles), stand with your back to the fender and put your hands behind your back, fingers grabbing the horizontal grill bits and lift upwards and tip the bottom out.

Yes, back to the fender, bum touching so to speak. That procedure seems to work the best as opposed to looking at the grill and trying to lift and rotate.

 

[dragan]

Hi Earing 2008 did you ever site the problem with the rattle on the passenger side van? If yes, then what was the problem? I think I hear a rattle sometime from the same spot so before I remove my vent I'm trying to see if you found the problem in your car and how did you fix it? Thanks.

 

[Earing2008]

Dragan,

I was able to remove the AC vent and inspect the assembly but I was not able to determine the source. If you are still having the problem I would suggest taking the vent cover off, set it aside in the garage, and try to replicate the noise. I have yet to do this but need to as the noise is hard to replicate (random nuisance) but its a sure way to narrow down the source. I was sure it would be the cup holder but unfortunately it is completely incased in a plastic box therefore I can not inspect it.

It is definately easy to disassemble as bbyer explains. Just pull out from the bottom and then carefully pull down/out to release the two ears at the top. Good luck!

 

[Earing2008]

Well my OCD finally got the best of me and I pulled my right side air vent off again for inspection. In the attached picture I found that the main culprit is both the front face cover (bottom center) and the cup holder cassette (bottom left). I'm going to try putting a little dab of RTV on the face plate to hold it in position and I'm going to try some graphite lubricant on the cassette mounts and see if that helps. I'll post an update in about a week with results.