Aloha, I have made the last 2 posts here in "Opening Time" as they were not electrical, or oily in nature......
Please advise if they should be elsewhere?

Yesterdays fun was replacing the right side blend motor. having read Rave, and the tips and tricks from the old .net site,
I went with the drop the glovebox, cut the duct, drill a hole for hidden screw method, and was able to get it changed.
I spliced the wires at the HVAC plug, for ease of access.
After installation, and taping the duct, I tested it for function, and found that during the process of shifting the ducts, I
dislodged the pipe that runs across to the RH side vent! No way to get it together from beneath!
SO, I thought to simply remove the Passenger side Air bag.....Looks easy with the 4 torx screws and a plug.........
Just gotta pop off the trim above the glove box.....Yea! Right!! Using Jos Guese's instructions from .net, I tried to gently but firmly get it to pop loose. It would not budge!.
In doing this however I noticed that the whole mess is a bit flexible, in that a padded airbag case is nestled in a padded dash.
Thus, the tip of the day for anyone trying to get the bloody airbag out is to use a thin, flat pry bar (Stanley Wonder Bar) and gently lever the bottom edge of the airbag up over the top of the trim strip. It actually pops out easily.
Make note of the clear lexan spacers on the lower front of the airbag to be sure they go back where they belong. Replacement is reverse
with the top edge going in first, then just gently prise the trim back to allow the 2 tabs on the airbag to drop in to the slot.
With airbag out, it was easy to fix the duct work although, I never worked out where the odd 100 mm wide U shaped convoluted spring clip came from???? It just fell out as soon as I started messing round with the ducts....
You also gain great access to the blend motors from above!
Note: Be careful when putting the air bag back that the glove box release cable is correctly routed, and not pinched under the forward left attachment point of the bracket.....If you do, you will need to drop the glove box, remove the airbag again, and shift the cable......Just saying.....
Easy 2 hour job........next time! 4 hours for the first go. I would have also done O rings at this time if I had thought to get some beforehand.
Cheers!

Yep - I haven't taken one of those trims off in years to do a dash out job - I use a couple of plastic pry tools to pop the airbag out aswell. Far easier than trying to pry the trim off, as usually when they come out at least one of the pins snap off and they don't glue on very well, and the trim is never the same again! So definitely the way forward to do doing it...

You only get the glove box cable routing wrong once though.... lol

The U clip thing is what holds the outer ducts in place - they should have plastic lugs on them which the springy U piece clips between them and the dash plastic to hold the vents in. On mine at least one of the lugs on the vents have snapped off over time, so the U piece doesn't have anything to spring against, so it just falls out. I got rid of mine on at least the drivers side - but the vent and ducting is all taped together (and i think the last time it was apart, I used some self-tappers aswell to hold all the ducting together, and then taped them aswell to keep as much air inside the ducting as possible!!

Glad you've got another job off the 'list'... :)

Guys, for clarity, I am I reading that you remove the glovebox (and its surround?), then up behind you can see 4 torx screws to remove, take them out and the electrical connector, then get your trim removal tools and attack the bottom edge of the unit from the front of the dash above the wooden trim, pry it up and out. Is that correct?

Marshall8hp wrote:

Guys, for clarity, I am I reading that you remove the glovebox (and its surround?), then up behind you can see 4 torx screws to remove, take them out and the electrical connector, then get your trim removal tools and attack the bottom edge of the unit from the front of the dash above the wooden trim, pry it up and out. Is that correct?

Yep. Glove box and surround out - couple of bolts at the bottom, and then screws around it. Disconnect the latch release (it's just clipped in) and remove that.

Then 4x security bolts holding the airbag in (I believe they are E10 or E12 - which basically inverted torx - the head of the bolt is a star). Disconnect the airbag wire, and then yes a couple of trim tools to get the airbag up and out with the trim in place. I use plastic ones so they don't scratch the trim - also one ones with fancier trim - like mine with piano black - I put a line of masking tape along the top of the trim, so any rubbing was done on that rather than the lacquer.

Sometimes the airbags come out quick and easy, if the trim is a little bit loose - some I've done have been an utter pig - but they've always come out eventually!

Many thanks!