best1

My six year old son put all his weight on his foot and pushed in the rear console vent. I have been trying to figure out how to remove the trim to try and fix this. Can anyone tell me what is the trick?

Thanks,
Roger

tbanks

you will need some sort of trim puller or plastic wedge to pry out the wood trim from left & right sides then the vent pry's out from the top and its kinda U shaped so you will have to pull it down and towards you
hope this helps

tonyb635

A metal paint can opener works well. The kind that they give you at Homke Depot when you buy paint. it has a 90 degree angled tip that you can slide in behind the trim and pull towards you. there are two clips on either side around about the middle edge area. Just becareful and don't lose or brake them, otherwise, you will have to buy a new panel just for the clips!

best1

The top part prys out real easy but what i am understanding is i need to release the clips at the bottom right and left sides of the wood panel part down by the lighter plug?

tbanks

thats right, thanks Tonyb
forgot about those two clips
a mini flathead should do it!

Blackstealth

I opened up this very piece a couple days ago to fix the lightbulb for one of the sockets...
these diagrams may help u out.

I wedged two plastic credit-card sized cards into the two points, and then pushed outwards.. so for the right hand side, pushed the end of the card towards the right, and for the left hand side, pushed the card towards the left. This essentially acted as a pry, popping the wood trim out with no damage at all.. one of my clips did come off and fell inside the centreconsole wiring but i just re-attached it... no big deal

Took me about an hour to figure it out, but if I needed to do it again I could probably do it in less than a minute lol.

tonyb635

Yeah the card works well too, but just not quite well enough for me. I'm thinking because I was not exactly sure where those clips were and they had never been removed. Honestly, I was shocked in the amount pull force required to get it to release. This is where the paint opener tool really came in handy. When it in finally released the clip looked like a pretzel! No big deal ill just replace it. Wrong! Well yes for 89.00 because I would have had to purchase that entire panel. That really blew me away. I managed to straighten the clip with pliers. Now I can just pop it out with a card. Anyway, the bottom one has to be pulled first then the top.

NoQuarter

yep - the paint can tool is the best. I like to wrap the hook with electrical tape to help prevent scratches. I use it for the center dash trim around the radio as well.

petertn

So no special tool is needed like the diagram shows? Just wedge a plastic trim tool and pry it out with force? I've tried this (though not both sides at same time) and I can't help but feel like I will snap the trim if I apply more force

tonyb635

The metal paint can opener works very well. You can use a card and slide it in where the diagram shows the clips to be located and then use the paint can opener with the a small lip to go in on the edge you have card, then pull back with opener. It's tight the first time for sure. If you bend the clips just reshape them because they are NOT available for purchase.