The ball has come out of the plastic cylinder that surrounds it. The cylinder is still in the dashboard. Has anybody faced this problem? Google isn’t coming up with anything for a half-in half-out situation.
I would just continue with a pry tool or similar. They are designed to split (but not in situ obviously) have a look at the other one to see how it fits in the fascia hole. Should come out easily enough. Failing that, you need to remove the fascia piece that the vent sits in do you can push from behind. Only issue there is, there are two retains screws in the holes I have some nylon/plastic trim tools with a 90 degree bend at one end, something like that hooked over the back, a sharp tug and you should be good to go!
Barrie
Use a couple of right angled Allen keys to pull out the remains. Will need a sharp tug. This is why I don’t recommend people to extract the eyeball vents by pulling on the eyeballs themselves.
Thanks, both.
There’s nothing to hook onto as hown in the photo, the edges meet totally smoothly at the back. The solution was to pull the bottom of the tombstone away from the dashboard, which just gives enough room to hook something like a wire coat-hanger behind the cylinder so you can pull hard enough to remove it.
What do you suggest? Since what I did will work with the eye still in the cylinder, I’m tempted to do it from the start next time. Or is that the better method?
Well done getting that casing out. It seems you had to dismantle to get to it as the prying/levering suggested did not work.
I may have tried to break the case out or use a hacksaw blade to cut it through in a few places.
Perhaps I have been lucky but got away with a stout showlace fitted as widely as possible on both sides to give an even pull.
Do you know what went wrong when you tried this - perhaps it pulled unevenly or do you think the material was too fragile?
The other side worked so the job went half right initially:-)
The vent bezel had already been broken off at some point in the past, leaving the clips behind. The bezel sits in place fine for aesthetics but pulling on the eye removes eye and bezel, no cylinder.
I’ve always used two longish allen keys, hooking them to the sides at 3 and 9 o’clock. Never had an issue. Pull and pop.