Fixing Audi A6 C7 cabin air vent (passenger side) … by David HK March 2018

Fixing Audi A6 C7 cabin air vent (passenger side) … by David HK March 2018

Recently I bought a 2013 A6 C7, it is a right-hand drive car, but this instruction should also applicable to left-hand cars as well.  The passenger side air vent open/close wheel has been knocked off and was inside the vent completely, I guessed the previous owner must has been transporting heavy objects such as TV or wood furniture in the passenger seat, and accidentally knocked the wheel off.  Initially I thought the wheel has gone, but upon close inspection, it was inside the vent. :)

<no wheel>

I researched the web, the passenger air vent unit can be pull out without any unscrewing nor the need to open the fuse cover on the passenger side, all we need is a small V-shape hook pick (see pic below), the angle of the hook must be smaller than 90 degree, otherwise the hook may just slip off when you try to pull the vent out.

<hook pick>

If you look inside the vent, on both sides there is a small hole, about 4mm in diameter, this is where you insert the hook pick and pull the vent out.

<hole>

It is easier to pull the hole near the outside first, nearer to the side mirror, once this side out, then pull the other side hole.  You need to be careful not to pull the 2^nd hole too strong, as there is a connected wire to the vent, and the wire is very short, just long enough to get the vent out and disconnect the wire.  So when pulling the 2^nd hole, you need to restraint your force to stop immediately when you feel the vent is out.

To disconnect the wire, you can use the sharp end of the hook pick to insert to the connector’s holding click (don’t know how to describe it in a more meaningful way, but hope you understand what I mean), then the connector should be off.

After taken the whole vent unit out, clean all the dusk with a wet tissue or cloth.  The wheel mechanism unit is designed to be “knock off” without broken it, as underneath the wheel, there is a rectangle plastic plate that inserts into a rectangle "track" in the vent main unit, and on the other end of the wheel mechanism there is a plastic arm that connect to the vent’s open/close “flip”, the connection joint hole is open ended, designed to dislodge the arm upon force impact.  The step is to insert & secure the wheel rectangle plate into the vent main unit first, then connect the wheel arm to the flip mechanism.

Now you are ready to re-insert the air vent unit back to the dashboard, this time, you insert the whole unit parallel to the dash so both clicks are sounded at almost the same time, you just push the vent with both hands in parallel, the force to push is much smaller than when pulling out, and you will hear 2 click sounds when the vent is back in place.

So there you have it, happy driving….