Hi guys,

I don't know if this has been asked before but the vent that is at the top of my dash that blows the air onto the windscreen is broken at one side, I didn't bother about it before but now that I have put 17" wheels on my car it has began to rattle now with the slightly bumpier ride

How can I fix this? Super glue? ... Is there anything of importance under there that I might need to get to in the future?

Cheers dudes!

Wont be anything to do with your wheels, its a common fault.

It has probably warped due to the hot weather, mine did it every time i turned the heater on. Had it replaced twice and it still happens so i just wedge a demister pad there and it doesnt bother me any more.

Im sure someone glued it down, search the threads

Thats wha i do. Demister pad ftw! Lol

i took it out, cable tied it to hold it straight instead of bowed and put on top of dash in baking hot sun, then bent the clip slightly where it had been sticking up. After a while i cut the cable ties off and pushed it back into place, still a slight bow in the plastic but was a lot better than before

No I didn't mean the wheels caused it, It's been there since I got the car lol ... But it vibrates and rattles more since I put the bigger wheels on lol ... I'll give those ideas a try

Thanks guys!

oh man i get a rattling from behind the dash somehwere. but it only happens every now and then. so ive ignored it lol so you say something is broke in my windscreen vent?

You can normally see the windscreen vent when it's broken as one side will be unclipped and poking up have a look though dude.

Matthewr1990 said:

oh man i get a rattling from behind the dash somehwere. but it only happens every now and then. so ive ignored it lol so you say something is broke in my windscreen vent?

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Yes, most likely the dashboard vent. Ours occasionally sounded like someone had shoved a load of ball bearings behind the dash, it was awful. Our one sat flush and didn't stick up at all but still rattled.

I replaced the thing and all was well for about 6 months but it rattles again now but thankfully not as bad as before.

I've tried silicone sealant on the bottom and sticky backed foam pads, neither helped. Such a rubbish design Removing and refitting sometimes buys a few weeks of silence.

doubled sided sticky tape holds mine down

Mines been broken since I bought the car a month or so ago. Just fixed it myself by pulling the old one out, and clipping a new one in its place (e-bay £30). I've pasted a load of plastic glue onto the clips and the base of the vent in the hope that it won't pop up again.

One thing that I did notice on the old unit is that some of the clips had broken off, not warped or unclipped themselves but actually snapped off the underside of the vent. I'm guessing this is because of the stress put on the plastic heating up then cooling etc and then with the whole thing wanting to warp upwards at the edges it just gives way. I don't know how long my new vent will last but its glued down pretty good at the moment, I think I will just try to lay off the de mister as much as possible or at least use it on mid setting instead of high.

Superglue doesn't work :-(

justanotherdave said:

Mines been broken since I bought the car a month or so ago. Just fixed it myself by pulling the old one out, and clipping a new one in its place (e-bay £30). I've pasted a load of plastic glue onto the clips and the base of the vent in the hope that it won't pop up again.

One thing that I did notice on the old unit is that some of the clips had broken off, not warped or unclipped themselves but actually snapped off the underside of the vent. I'm guessing this is because of the stress put on the plastic heating up then cooling etc and then with the whole thing wanting to warp upwards at the edges it just gives way. I don't know how long my new vent will last but its glued down pretty good at the moment, I think I will just try to lay off the de mister as much as possible or at least use it on mid setting instead of high.

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Our one seems to be a little different in that it just rattles but doesn't pop up but it doesn't seem to be an issue with not being attached properly, the thing just doesn't sit right underneath.

My final thought was a layer of felt so that it wasn't a plastic on plastic contact but then I'm concerned that it won't attach properly.

I was really keen to get this sorted for my gf as other than that rattle I've sorted all the niggles but as she has lost her parking space at work now I'll be running around in the GP and my car is being sold so I'll make do with the demister trick which also fixes rattles

middo85 said:

Wont be anything to do with your wheels, its a common fault.

It has probably warped due to the hot weather, mine did it every time i turned the heater on. Had it replaced twice and it still happens so i just wedge a demister pad there and it doesnt bother me any more.

Im sure someone glued it down, search the threads

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Yep, I superglued mine last summer and it's stayed put. (touch wood)

Kerr1992 said:

Superglue doesn't work :-(

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Try superglue gel rather than the runny stuff. It's worked fine so far for me.

Just had my friendly local garage fit a new vent on the dash-top. Mine in common with many was lifting up on the driver’s side.

I had the fitter do it in the hopes he might have an idea as to how this vent could be permanently fixed down, but no such luck. He was surprised it had broken the solid plastic moulding in two places (pieces that hold the metal clips in place) and commented on how much force it must have taken to break them. No logic to it either. The very far clip had broken on the driver’s side and a middle clip on the passenger side.

Struck me that in the “good old days” when Fiat heaters rarely got much above tepid this probably wouldn’t have happened. But it also seems that a simple modification by Fiat to change the design slightly to beef up the plastic in the areas that hold the 5 clips would not be unreasonable to expect?