Shopping for a clean
Cayman
, ran across an early
987.1
with this option:
CDN - Air Vent Slats Painted Ext Clr
I'm not impressed. Anyone know how hard it would be to get standard un-painted vents and replace them? I'd keep the painted ones for originality, but I couldn't look at them every time I drove the car. Just too gaudy.
The round, cylindrical vents have a tab slide release actuated through the vent. One the tab is moved the entire assembly slides forward. Once you know where it is the job is quite simple, the parts might be expensive, reseller of parts might be a good call.
My local
Porsche
specialist said that these same vents are NOT that easy to take apart, especially when the car is older. I don't know why, but bottom line when they replaced mine, they had to tear it apart to get it out. Given that you don't like them, I guess this doesn't matter... but I suggest just being prepared for that possibility.
I'm surprised to read that schwinn. The design is elegant, if not for the factory service page the dealer provided me with the part, I would have never suspected the unit disassembled that way; never saw that design before. The fit to the sleeve was great so how it would seize over time is the curious part of the story.
Having BTDT more times than I'd like to - R&R of the dash vents is a royal PITA. There are two clips in the bottom of each of them that have to be pulled up to unlock the bottom of the vent.
At the same time
there is a clip in the top of them that is supposed to be released by pulling some plastic down.
The bottom ones stand a good chance of having recessed themselves down into the holes they stick through in the bottom of the vent. That makes them difficult to impossible to get to. The top one remains a mystery to me, it looks nothing like the illustrations and on two of the vents doesn't actually appear to exist.
ALL of this fiddly stuff has to be done going between the vent outlet slats - horizontal and vertical at
the same time!
The bottom clips line directly up with 2 of the vent slats adding to the possibility of damaging the vent while trying to remove it.
Once everything is released you have to grasp the outer ring with your fingernails and wiggle it out. Chances are you'll have some broken nails way before the vent is out of the dash. Once it is out of the dash it's still electrically connected - the light for the wheel on it. That connector is a PITA to remove too.
Why Porsche made these such a PITA to remove is beyond me. It's like the Pentagon papers are hidden in the dash vents.
While you have it out - I'd suggest bending the metal bits for the bottom clips so the tabs used to release the clips stands well clear of the vent inside, making them perhaps a bit easier to R&R in the future.
I have a tool I use for the bottom clips - it's used for removing some sort of Ford trim, but I got it to remove vents in my Cayenne (which is only slightly less difficult than the 987) - it's sort of U shaped steel rod, about 1/8" diameter rod, with the ends of the U legs sharpened with a hook in them to catch the hole inside the release tabs. Trying to do it as the manual shows - with 2 screwdrivers, then another screwdriver for the top one is simply absurd. And I've never succeeded in releasing the top clip - but in 2 of the vents it doesn't do anything anyway.
Good luck! Take photos!
All 3 have to be released at the same time AS the unit is pulled out. I'd fogeddabout the top one. It doesn't seem to make a lot of difference in difficulty.
there is a post from racergreg that I thought was quite useful. combined with Don's excellent post above, should help.
Dash vent removal on a 987 Boxster - how?????
The dash vents in my Boxster 987 are all messed up. 3 out of 4 of them have no link between the individual vanes. the pieces linking them together are disconnected and long gone. I have to replace them, and there's lots of them on eBay cheap. The problem is getting the old ones out. I've...
www.planet-9.com
OK, if I do buy the car, I know that they can be replaced, although getting the paint-matched ones removed without damaging them might be fussy. Not 100% sure about the car itself just yet, as I'm uncertain how well Speed Yellow will suit me after owning it for a while.
