When Tim bought his 'A' Class from the car auction one of the last things on his mind was the broken air vent situated on the bulkhead/dash.
However after some 15 e-mails to me his car was well on the road to recovery and the air vent replacement was the next job in line.



The only problem was how does one remove the old to replace the new?
Well as the old unit was damaged anyway it made sense to simply remove the horizontal flaps where is was then possibly see how it was fixed.











This revealed that on each air vents there are four retaining clips, these cannot be seen when the unit is complete and in situ but were easily spotted once the vent was taken apart, he was then able to see the retaining clips, 2 at the bottom and 2 at the top
These look like flat squares and can be eased up to release the vent, in Tim's photo you can see he has raised one of the clips.













Also you can see Tim is using four small screw drivers to ease the clips top and bottom at the same time, not an easy task. (I found it was easier the raise the two lower clips and then ease the vent away from the bulkhead with a broad bladed screw driver from the bottom, the unit then came straight out without touching the top clips.
Trying the manage four screw drivers at once, reminded me of trying to remove the ignition module cover over the plugs, an almost impossible task without the correct tools) but Tim managed.









He then found that with all four clips raised he was able to release the vent from the dash assembly.














New vent assembly and all he had to do was fit it. Word of warning (If you are fitted either of the outside vents take car to ensure that the air ducting tube stays in place when you remove the vent, if this becomes detached as it does quite easily , then you will need to replace it prior to refitting the new unit Failure to do so and the air will not be directed through the vent and you will with out doubt have just one more rattle!)

Before considering the job done do test the vent, when closed air should not pass when open the directional horizontal and vertical bars should direct the air flow to the area you. The rubber vertical wheel at the side of the vent controlling the flow of air.










So is this Tim's renovation project complete? I do hope so, my in box can't take the strain and he of course is not the only person in the World seeking information to solve the mysteries of the mercedes 'A' Class. I can receive up to 10 questions a day some of which are complex and require long answers.

I would there like to remind readers that I do have a CD available with masses of information on it a lot of which is not on my site, I would therefore ask owners who have problems to research the index/site in the first instance and also if they have multiple questions/problems like Tim then please purchase my CD which is reasonably priced at £5.50 and will answer a lot of your questions I will post world Wide. Postage and packing, see rates on mypage 1.


Thank you Tim for the photographs




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