My vent just to the right of the stereo head unit is dead; flipping the switch up & down doesn't do anything. I'm pretty sure the audio that did my Carplay installation messed up the vent but it's been a while and don't want to deal with them anymore.

Is it easy to troubleshoot why the vent is blocked? Or would it require disassembling massive amounts of stuff?

 

Been a few years since I did mine, but I believe you’d have to remove quite a bit of stuff. From the shifter console cover up to and including the head unit. The head unit attaches to that frame that contains the vents and their open/close mechanism and you’d have to probably take that whole thing out. I’d try shining a flashlight into the working one and watching how the open/close mechanism works, then do the same on the broken one. Maybe you could finagle some pliers or a coat hanger through the vent to clip something back together? Or just use them to “break” the thing open permanently if you don’t want to disassemble the entire center console?

Good luck...

 

Ack I had a feeling it'd be like that after watching some vids of the head unit change a while back. What was the deal w/ your blockage?

 

I never had a blockage. When I say “did mine” I mean replaced my head unit, not fix the blockage. But in the process of doing that, I had to move the vents and dials from the old head unit to the new frame piece that fit the new head unit. In the process of doing that, I noted that you could inadvertently disconnect the dial from the door/flap that it controls if you weren’t paying attention. I bet that is what they did when they replaced your unit. The dial is disconnected and the door is in the closed position.

https://www.acurapartswarehouse.com/...tl0-g01zb.html

That is a diagram of the part. The side of it contains the pieces that connect from the dial to the door. To do it proper, I think you’d have to take all this apart. But I think you could also jam something through the vent to force/break the door open. But it would be permanently open. But I suspect that’s better than being permanently closed?

 

Forgot to follow up but this was genius. All it took was to open the panel in the back of the vent. Long screwdriver to poke it open and no jamming necessary, can also push on the side to re-close the panel.
Looks like there's a back panel purposely designed to disable that vent or something.