Everyone has those niggly little jobs that they want to do. Whether it’s around the house, the garden, or in my case on the car.
This was my own fault a while ago, I was a bit too forceful and broke the vent connection, but never bothered fixing it. I have now, because it was on my list and I wanted to fix it because it was annoying me
This is more of a quick write up for anyone who has had issues with the heater vents on their Audi A3, whether it’s the directional slider to redirect the air, or the little flaps. If the flaps become disconnected internally, directional flow doesn’t work properly on the Audi A3 heater vents, or they become sticky and only move in certain directions
I dismantled mine fully (much easier than working inside car, was very fiddly). Then reassembled it, and took some pictures along the way for anyone else who is having heater vent issues with their Audi A3
Please note this isn’t a how to. It’s just an on the fly collection of some pictures I took as references photos to help others doing this heater vent repair and need to do it themselves.
Removing the Audi A3 heater vent
The heater vent in the Audi A3 isn’t held in by clips. It’s more just some jagged teeth which friction fit it into place. You can remove the heater vent with a plastic spudger behind it. Or simply using your fingers to prise the heater fron the dashboard. If you find an edge of the vent, and just start prising away, once you get part of the heater vent raised. You should be able to remove the heater vent by wiggling it forward to get it out.
This is what the hole is for the heater vent in the A3. No clip placements, you can see the mark that was left in the whole where the teeth pushed into holding the heater vent in place.
A close up view of the dash with the heater vent removed. Looking at the picture the higher portion is at the top, so you need the small side at the top to keep the vent flush with the dash (more on this later).
These are the teeth that hold the heater vent in place. As you can see, nothing really holds it into the dash. So you can be a bit rough when pulling if needed. As long as you lever when part away from the dashboard, the rest should wiggle out
What causes the flaps to disconnect on the Audi A3?
Sometimes it’s too much force, which pushes them past their limit, it ends up disconnecting them from the back by going past their limit. Once they’ve become disconnected, the only option will be to reattach them back onto the clips. I did that by removing from the dash, and disassembling, here’s some photos to help out
You can aide dismantling and removal of the heater vents by popping out the silver control ring. Mine actually came out when removing a couple of the central flaps by puling upwards. You can also remove it by prising it out with a thin tool.
Just another angle of the cover ring
The front flaps of the vent click into a metal spring that’s simply held into position through nothing but pressure and force. This metal spring itself is loosely fitted into the Audi A3 heater vent. There’s a small hole in the center that aligns with the movement guide, then it’s just a case of push fit the vents back onto the A3 connection
I’ve removed the silver retaining ring, and front flaps in this photo. You can see everything is just push fitted into place
The heater vent pieces, each part can be removed and reinserted, they click into place and have little grooves and notches
This is what the flaps are connected to behind, there’s a small piece of notched plastic. The front flaps block you getting access, and they tend to move a lot. I ended up removing the front vents, fixing the rear, then reattaching the front.
Some steps to note on repairing the heater vent flaps
I don’t have pictures of this part, but I’ll note them down anyway.
- The silver retaining ring fits in a certain position, make note of the notces and slots
- If your vent is disconnected at the back through too much force, it’s easier repairing from the front
- If your removing your flaps, one of the rear flaps has a cut out. This cut out aligns with the direction set on the front, the rear of this has a fork, this fork goes into the flap with the cut out. The gap in the cut out is to allow the forks to move side to side.
- The spring for the front will be loose and wobbly (also only fits in one way when up over). The springs gain more tension as you fit the flaps
Final assembly of the heater vent
Fully reassembled and repaired. All the flaps were back into their grooves and reattached
I mainly thought I’d show this image for clarification with the Audi A3 heater vent. When it comes to refitting the vent, it needs to be inserted into a specific orientation. I’mnot 100% sure on this bit because I wasn’t paying attention when I removed / fitted it. However, it can be established by the front fascia dot marking. I *think* the short portion goes at the top of the dashboard. If you check the fascia and make sure the silver dot points towards the right when it’s closed, this will show you the correct orientation to fit it into the car. You should be able to work it out from this point
Heater vent open positionAs above photo, this is the vent position when “open”, so make sure when fitting to the dash it’s inserted with the dot marking at the top and you’re good.
This is the dot making for a closed vent. With this dot marking in this position, you should be able to work out the correct way to insert the vent back in
Heater vent is still letting air through when closed, or doesn’t close fully?
If you have the heater vent removed, then look at these cogs. It’s basically just a simple gear mechanism. Mine wasn’t closing fully I discovered this after trying to take it apart through this method before I dissassembled my heater vent from the front. So this is an easy fix. If your heater vent isn’t closing fully, simply pull upwards on the upper cog, and move the teeth closer to the end of the quadrant. You will understand how it works simply by turning the fascia a few times open and clsed. You don’t need to dismantle it to fix this bit, just simply pull upwards to disconnect it from the cog below, then reattach further back. Easy fix.
