When angry, wait. Lesson number one.

I got one of those vent holders for a phone, really nice piece with a swiveling Richter mount. Well, the clamps that slide around the vent louvers were extremely tight, and I ended up knocking the direction vanes out of their little divots in the plastic (they just flop around in there when that happens.)

Out of frustration, I popped the entire vent out which allowed me to fix the vanes back into place and install my phone mount, but during extrication I broke the right/center side post mount that allows the vent to swivel smoothly up and down.



Yeah. Sad.

I imagine this has earned me several hours of punishing work fixing it, but I hold out some hope that it can be repaired without too much pain. I notice on the fiche for the car, Honda has listed some kind of individual part number for what look like the posts themselves (listed as '13' here):

Part Detail

But looking at the broken mount I don't see anyway for that piece to be removed, it looks like it's just molded into the sub-structure ('11' on the fiche). Which is fine, but the mounts for the substructure are hidden behind the dash, making me think the dash must come out (or maybe just the radio?)

My searches didn't come up with anything but I know this has to have happened to some of you, so enlighten me on how you got it fixed. Thanks!

 

1) Buy "11" and replace the whole piece

2) Superglue the tab back on if you didn't lose it. Superglue hold plastic very well since it "melts" it together. As long as you don't get angry again I would think it would hold ok.

I think "13" is actually the "female" part of that tab that goes on the vent itself.

 

Thanks for your reply.

I do still have the tab, was thinking of superglue but it has never ever been able to withstand moderate pressure when I've used it in the past. Still worth a shot.

I take it piece 11 requires other parts to be pulled?

 

I would assume you'd have to take off whatever dash panels are covering the left and right sides of that piece as there seems to be screws behind there holding part #11 to the greater dashboard.

If you try superglue make sure you reattach it consistent with how it broke off so the plastic mates perfectly, or as perfectly as possible. I've super glued plastic pieces together that actually broken other places before the glued portion broke, but i'm sure that dash piece is made of pretty thick plastic so you may be right, but worth a shot rather than disassembling half the dashboard and potentially breaking other tabs in the process.

Good luck!

 

Yes, the orientation is going to be a problem... ugh, I feel like this part could have been designed as user serviceable very easily without any extra cost (slot in/slide in vents).

 

No joy on the superglue. I had one shot but looking back I should have stuck the broken off bit in the vent, applied superglue, put the vent in place then used a screwdriver to press the piece against the side from the inside, hoping they were lined up. The stress of pushing the vent back into place is just too much for the superglue to hold against, even when flexing the plastic.

After some research, I *think* piece 11 can be swapped out by taking the radio out. At least I hope so. I'll update this thread when I get it fixed.

 

I fixed it by pulling the entire assembly from behind and replacing it. What a huge pain.