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all Ls400 air vents seem to be suseptable to breaking these days but some seem far worse then others. the 98-00s seem to suffer the worst from this. if you have a 98-00 then you have either already found out the hard way, or have never tried to move them. im overly protective of my air vents and kinda freak out of people try to mess with them. cause all it takes is one good tug and they are done. snapping shattering etc. they all do it. its unavoidable and doesnt matter if the car was a garage queen and babied its whole life, they still stick and jam up.
thinking the reason behind it is that the entire dashboard is completely exposed to UV from the sun, constantly, and after 20 years im guessing the plastic either fuses itself together or just gets brittle with age. either way its annoying.
ive looked around and havent found any real solution to fixing sticky air vents aside from replacing them, which makes no sense cause anything youll find in the junkyard will probably also be stuck or broken.
its an old part that dealers really dont carry anymore either so thats not an option and if you can find a new OEM replacement, expect to shell out some good money for it unfortunately.
anyone come up with a solution to this annoying issue it seems like all 98-00s have? im going to start some experiments on these to see if i can figure out how to unstick them.
LMAO! I'm the same way. Don't even look at it! My wife purchased a cell phone holder and we put it in our RAV for traveling. The first time we used it I said, "you know this can't be used in the Lexus, right?" Those center vents go for over $100 on eBay and are few and far between. Maybe you could take a small paint brush with a little oil on it and lightly brush the mechanisms that operate the vertical and horizontal movements of the slats. Too much oil would attract dust and lint, so just a little would be required. Glad you mentioned this, I might pop mine back out this evening and do that. When I read that the LS430 has oscillating vents my first thought was, "how long do they last"!
My 98 Celsior's center air vents were broken into pieces recently. As I saw those broken pieces carefully, only vertical members that support horizontal members were broken. What I suspected was the oil used there was not quite OK with plastics. I wanted to purchase a new one but it was not available quickly.
I decided to make vertical members myself using a thick ABS sheet which was about the same thickness with the original. Collecting broken original pieces, I made a drawing and made a similar one with the original cutting the sheet using an ultra sonic cutter and making holes using a drill. It was a time consuming job to assemble pieces but now those vents are working quite OK. I also used some Shinetsu silicon grease to lubricate holes aiming the smoothness and no damages to plastics.
May be I should upload some of those photos when I did the job. Those must be somewhere in my PC but I can't find them quickly. I will find them and upload here soon.
then i think we can all agree that its all the 98-00s not just my personal experience with the 3 that ive owned along with every single other one ive ever seen here in florida.. theres got to be some sort of solution for this. i think a 3d print mold would be a great idea.
girlfriend gets in the car. ac is too cold so she grabs the vent slider to shut it. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" too late.... lucky me i had a spare i was able to pop in, also frozen but not broken at least.
people dont know no better and i feel bad when i lunge at them like a rabid dog if they go anywhere near the vent shutters.
I try not to mess with other peoples stuff anyway, much less their cars. My wife's nephew did that once with my radio and I let him know quick. Some people are really hard on stuff and there's a lot of plastic in cars.
I try not to mess with other peoples stuff anyway, much less their cars. My wife's nephew did that once with my radio and I let him know quick. Some people are really hard on stuff and there's a lot of plastic in cars.
they just dont know no better. hell i didn't either the first time i flipped the shutter closed on my black '99 and shattered the vent to a million pieces. lucky i had to learn the hard way on a car that was totally clapped i paid $200 for. still sucked. they shouldn't be this fragile. guessing its just the heat and direct exposure to sunlight for 2 decades. just like the 3rd brake light cover. try to remove one without it shattering like glass...
You are correct, they don't know better. My wife occasionally has to remind me that for most people a car is just a means to get from point A to B. My Lexus is always covered, but the black RAV sits out in the direct sun. I crack the windows every chance I get when it is hot out. I also use the sunshades that pop open, which are easier to install and it has the privacy package on it. Cars get extremely hot inside when they sit in the direct sun or otherwise. It always amazes me that the computers and electronics survive it.
Attached below shows broken original vertical members or should I say elements with my drawings. Red arrows show broken part each. These vertical members/elements support 5 horizontal members/elements. When these fail, horizontal ones are corrupted.
I still have difficulties to explain things in English and I don't know which is suitable to call these as members or elements but to see is to believe. The photo tells you everything.
It may be a good idea to use a 3D printer. It took me a half day to make these by my hands and assemble the vents.
Attached below shows broken original vertical members or should I say elements with my drawings. Red arrows show broken part each. These vertical members/elements support 5 horizontal members/elements. When these fail, horizontal ones are corrupted.
I still have difficulties to explain things in English and I don't know which is suitable to call these as members or elements but to see is to believe. The photo tells you everything.
It may be a good idea to use a 3D printer. It took me a half day to make these by my hands and assemble the vents.
I had them 3d printed. Guy did it free of charge Years ago
Do tell. How did it work out? Do you still have the measurements?
I was missing one of them (the piece with the holes that support the fins)...so I brought the other one. He just flipped it in his 3d software and printed.
05-20-19, 06:16 AM
those fragile, jammed, center stack air vents...
My wife purchased a cell phone holder and we put it in our RAV for traveling. The first time we used it I said, "you know this can't be used in the Lexus, right?" Those center vents go for over $100 on eBay and are few and far between. Maybe you could take a small paint brush with a little oil on it and lightly brush the mechanisms that operate the vertical and horizontal movements of the slats. Too much oil would attract dust and lint, so just a little would be required. Glad you mentioned this, I might pop mine back out this evening and do that. When I read that the LS430 has oscillating vents my first thought was, "how long do they last"!
Years ago