I have just pulled my rear passenger air vents out as the left one had come part and it was not operating the vanes left to right. I could see the parts were still trapped in the vent so i managed to get it out and onto my bench. There I managed to strip it right down to its various parts and after a struggle managed to get it all working again and put back together. After refitting to the car, I noticed I have the same issue with the front passenger vent, albeit this time 1 part is missing completely. I have not as yet attempted to extract this vent as I can't find any info on how this comes out, so I wondered if it would be possible to fit new tabs from the front with it in still in the dash?

 

I have spent a bit of Googling for replacement air vent tabs and it seems that there is an American company that makes replacement tabs that can be fitted without removing the entire vent, only problem is that they don't make them for the Superb, so that got me thinking. Has anybody used any other tabs on a Superb vent, ones could be fitted with the vent in situ?

 

Shop Air Vent Parts for Cars, Trucks and SUVs | Vent Tabs

Edited 13 June, 20232 yr by Graham Butcher

Is it the direction tab that is missing, Colin? 

@Graham Butcher

i replaced whole part, which were ordered from Ali

-> https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/426372-rear-passenger-air-vent-part-number/?do=findComment&comment=5332587

 

I have fixed the rear vents, I now have problems with the centre dashboard vents. The left one moves the slats up and down but the left and right movement not working. I have the piece for that and the tab front but not the small bit that connects them.

 

Hence the venttab link, they make these (sadly not for Superb), as a single piece that just clips onto the slat that seems ideal as concept. If only it was possible to find something like it, now more need for expensive complete vents to replaced.

Also I have been searching everywhere for those tabs/clips only thing I found was the ones for octavia on aliexpress, would they be the same as the superb ones? This is the link Octavia vent clips

9 minutes ago, Silthrax said:

Also I have been searching everywhere for those tabs/clips only thing I found was the ones for octavia on aliexpress, would they be the same as the superb ones? This is the link Octavia vent clips

I think that they are suitable but the video is misleading, it gives you the impression the thing is a single unit and able to be fitted from the front when it is 2 pieces. I might well be able to be fitted from the front, but it would certainly require the whole vent to be removed from the car and held in the position in order to snap the 2 parts together, with the added problem that the rear part is also hinged.

 

I would have expected that VAG might have placed an order with that American company for them to design and make loads of 1 piece preassembled tabs that could just pressed onto the slats. It certainly save them loads of time in the factory from having assemble the parts for their own tabs.                                                                                                                                                                

Might be worth dropping the pollen filter out to see if the bit that is missing has fallen down the air duct and got trapped there?

10 minutes ago, skomaz said:

Might be worth dropping the pollen filter out to see if the bit that is missing has fallen down the air duct and got trapped there?

Thats true, I might have a go later. Only problem being last time I tried this I was unable to release the clips.

Edited 14 June, 20232 yr by Graham Butcher

6 hours ago, numskull said:

Is it the direction tab that is missing, Colin? 

No, that bit is there along with the tab/handle its that bit that connects the 2 together that is missing.

I have come across a seller on eBay claiming to have some tabs that look as if they might be a replacement part that does not require to to extract the entire air vent to replace / repair a broken tab. I looks like it slides over the vane and clips onto it in a similar fashion to the American maker I referred to in my original posting.

 

Here is the listing 16Pcs Car Air Conditioning Vent Center Dash A/C Outlet Louvre Blade Slice Clip | eBay which claims to be suitable for all Skoda's and with other VW group cars. Has anyone any experience of these at all? I accept they may well have slightly different appearances to the originals, but if they fit and do the job OK, you could always replace all the tabs so they all look alike?

Oh Graham, for heavens sake, just give it a go for £8 then you can tell us if they fit! 😂

33 minutes ago, numskull said:

Oh Graham, for heavens sake, just give it a go for £8 then you can tell us if they fit! 😂

I have already bitten the bullet and ordered them so I'll find out in due course if they do fit or not.

Pls do update us if they work

No problem, I will do that and hopefully it will help others in a similar position 👍

I'm on tenterhooks 😧

17 minutes ago, zeta said:

I'm on tenterhooks 😧

Me too, but I'm afraid we'll have to wait a bit longer yet, their still in China.

Ok here is the long awaited up date on the Chinese replacement air vent tabs, don't even think about it they, will not operate the left and right vanes (the fingers are not long enough), only the up/down ones. On the plus side, I decided to extract the said vent and I think I should rush out and buy a lottery ticket, because the small section that snaps into the tab that holds left/right actuator was there after all. So after a right struggle and some choice swear words I managed to break the complete vent apart and after many failed attempts managed to rebuild the tab.

 

Then began the struggle to rebuild vent into a single piece after many attempts and failures to get it back together with it all working and yet more swearing, I was able to do it ok. I did take a few photos of the various bits and I'll pop them on here later, however I never took any of the real fiddley bits as it was a real struggle and once the tab was in one complete bit again, it was a mad rush to reassemble it before it came undone again.

 

Now I've noticed that I have to pull out the drivers side dash vent as one of the left/right vanes is disconnected from the system 🙄, oh well that's for another day. 

Edited 25 July, 20232 yr by Graham Butcher

On 14/06/2023 at 11:27, Graham Butcher said:

would have expected that VAG might have placed an order with that American company for them to design and make loads of 1 piece preassembled tabs that could just pressed onto the slats. It certainly save them loads of time in the factory from having assemble the parts for their own tabs.   

 

Do you believe that VAG make sub assemblies like that in their own factories?

 

They make next to nothing, perhaps engine & powertrain components in dedicated factories, maybe bodyshells close to the assembly line, everything else comes in from their suppliers on a JIT basis to the assembly line including for sure the heater vent assemblies.

15 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

Do you believe that VAG make sub assemblies like that in their own factories?

 

They make next to nothing, perhaps engine & powertrain components in dedicated factories, maybe bodyshells close to the assembly line, everything else comes in from their suppliers on a JIT basis to the assembly line including for sure the heater vent assemblies.

Nope, that why I said I would expected/thought that they might have ordered some tabs that could have been sold as a service kit to replace broken ones, without having to extract the old vent completely, but I suspect that they think that people would just buy new vents complete at god knows what price and fit those each time a tab get broken by kids etc.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

It certainly save them loads of time in the factory from having assemble the parts for their own tabs.   

 

I must have misunderstood the above and still do.

15 hours ago, J.R. said:

everything else comes in from their suppliers on a JIT basis to the assembly line including for sure the heater vent assemblies.

On the production lines I've visited, the entire dashboard including the HVAC, steering wheel and column is delivered and installed as a single module.

Here at last is the brief write up on the tabs that I sourced from eBay via a Chinese seller that I hoped would be a suitable replacement for the original ones which are assembled from 4 parts which simply snap together, although they are incredibly difficult to assemble as the tab is assembled around the central slat, and you effectively need another pair of hands to hold, guide and press fit the bits together while inserting the hinged elongated prongs at the last minute before the parts snap into position and click lock together. However, sadly the clips are not suitable for use with Škoda air vents due to the tabs having 3 prongs at the back and the Škoda vanes having a strange shape as can be seen in the 5th photo below. If the vane had a profile like the "ideal" in that photo with "C" type bar as drawn and a tab like the Chinese ones but with 2 prongs would have been ideal.

 

Anyway, after extracting the complete vent I took it apart very carefully on my bench, this whole vent is made from 2 identical units but are mirrored and joined to together via a series of clips and a single full width rim piece locks them together to form a complete vent and this vent has to be carefully unclipped and teased apart from the rest of the vent and this has approx 18 clips around it. Then you need to carefully unclip the frame that holds the slats/shutters and this around 10 clips and guides to release and then with gentle pulling should then separate from the main body. On the back of the tab on that vent, you clearly see the two prongs that engage with the vanes for side to side directional control of the air. This is where I discovered that I had got really lucky, the small piece of the tab that connects the large chrome knob and the 2 pronged section that fits the vanes was still firmly attached to the main tab body meaning all I had to do was try and reassemble the pronged bit with the rest again. After much swearing, this was achieved, and then the long job of rebuilding the vent takes.

 

I attached some photos I took during the process, I hope you can make sense of them.

Edited 28 July, 20232 yr by Graham Butcher

Excellent write-up Graham. I hope I don’t have to ever undertake the fix, but this’ll really help if I need to; well done. 

1 hour ago, numskull said:

Excellent write-up Graham. I hope I don’t have to ever undertake the fix, but this’ll really help if I need to; well done. 

Yes it is a very fiddly job to do. I'm pleasantly surprised that I actually managed to complete it without breaking anything for a change, my hands are extra large and there are just so many clips that need to be manipulated at the same time in order to release their grip. These things are only ever designed to be easy to assemble from sub assemblies, they were never designed to be pulled apart again, thinking that if anything were to fail, the dealers would simply buy and fit a complete new vent assembly at god knows what price and bill the end user, ouch ☹️

 

I have now had to remove the rear, centre dash and right dash vents and strip down and repair them. Thank goodness I managed to that and the only cost was these useless Chinese tabs I sourced thinking that they might just do the job.

 

My impression of the OEM vents is that they are overengineered and as such are very easy to break. It seems to be a common problem judging by what others say, indeed, I had 2 in my car that the previous oner managed to break, the 3rd was just a case of one of the vanes becoming unattached from the bar that connects them all together, so they all move as one. Thankfully in the case of the tabs, all the parts that were broken off, were still laying in the vent, behind the horizontal slats and had not fallen down the air pipes 👍

So my Superb is off to the stealer tomorrow for a few issues one of which is a broken rear ac air vent. Stealer is saying that it’s unlikely Skoda will accept this as a warranty repair as he said Skoda have knocked back everyone that’s he’s dealt with. Reckons they just don’t brake. Skoda saying it’s due to brut force. I said it’s been like this since very early on since I had the car from new. Said it’s the inner vent that’s broken not the outer one so how can brut force cause the inner vent to brake but not the outer vent?  Surely Skoda has to prove it was brut force and not just say “oh it must have broken from brut force”?