Hi guys! After charging a completely drained battery, got a lot of errors when I scanned my Pan S 970. All good because I just cleared all of them out.

But the most annoying part is there's suddenly NO AIR coming out of the CENTER RIGHT FRONT AC VENT! I used a flashlight and peeped inside and discovered that the mechanical automated flap inside refuses to turn when AC is turned on and/or the dial above the vent is adjusted to open or close...nothing happens! I tried poking it with a long screwdriver to force it to open but it won't turn or budge. I also tried playing around with all the settings available for the climate control including air circulation, vent open and close, etc etc bla bla...but nothing happens.

I'm about to dismantle the dash and get in there to force the darn thing to turn but before I do more damage than good.... i thought of sharing this with you guys since you might have experienced something similar ...perhaps? Let me know your thoughts please. TIA guys!


FRONT RIGHT CENTER VENT FLAP IS CLOSED ALL THE TIME (there's no dark space dark space on the left side of the flap? This flap also swivels counter clockwise to open and clockwise to close. It remains this way even if you turn the AC full blast or play around with all of the climate control settings!


FRONT LEFT CENTER VENT FLAP IS OPEN (see the little dark space on the left side of the flap? That means it's open. This flap swivels counter clockwise to open and clockwise to close. It starts to open when you turn on the AC and gradually opens up more when you adjust for stronger airflow.

 

Can you remove just the vent like many have done when they've pulled the PCM out to install the Isudar board?
Lot easier than dismantling the dash.

 

Will do that! Thanks @970gts ! Found a video on YT on how to just take out the vent. Will update you when I'm done.

 

Any theories why this vent / flap refuses to open up?

 

Helpful instructions: DIY - Air Vent installation and removal on a Porsche Panamera How to - InsaneGarage.com
Having the removal tool will make getting the vent out much easier. Cheap copies available on Alibaba, but the Porsche tool isn't that expensive.
Many have been above to remove the vent without the tool though.

Guessing there's an obstruction blocking the vent from moving.
There are little linkages that connect the flaps to the control that may have been dislodged.
Probably will be obvious once you have the vent out.

 

Air vent tool is a must otherwise be prepared for a world of pain! I first tried to make my own using a coat hanger as some have advocated. Didn’t work for me. I then bought knock off air vent tools (I bought 2!) from AliExpress. Cheap, well made, and worked like a charm.

I pulled my air vents a few years ago to do the PCM HDD to SSD swap. I remember the flap mechanism popped out of place and it was an easy fix to pop it back. It was very obvious as @970gts stated. Hopefully will be the same for you.

 

Thanks @970gts @vkb123 ordered the tool from ebay...i hope i dont break anything or do more damage

I was wondering what if the servo motor is toast amd there is really no obstruction, can I just take out the flap completely or put something in between the space to leave the flap at open position permanently? I don't really care about the 2 climate zone features anyway...i just want my vents to blow air all the time when i want them to. Is that an extremely bad idea?

 

Don't get ahead of yourself wondering if it could be this or that. You'll see what the problem is once you have it removed, and hopefully how to fix it.
Worse that can happen is that you replace the entire vent. Used ones available on Ebay.

 

Agree. Don’t even try to remove the air vents without the proper tool. You will just end up breaking one of the retaining clips. Lot of used air vents available on-line and will be a simple replacement if yours is deemed to be defective.

 

Got it! Got my removal tools on hand! Thanks guys!

 

A lot of purist Porsche / Panamera aficionados would probably be pissed at me for sure with this update. My advanced apologies guys!

I was able to take out the front right center vent easily with the aid of the tools. Took me about 5 mins to do it.

The vent flap is stuck! Servo motor may be toast.

Now unfortunately, the vent flap's servo motor was really stuck. I tried to force it open using a long flat head screwdriver and ended up breaking the flap at the base where the servo motor is. The flap was made out of a very brittle plastic with rubber seals on its sides BTW.

Accidentally broke the vent flap! Plastic is very brittle.

So I just took out the whole vent flap using a long nose pliers since it was fractured into I think 4 pieces - 1 big chunk and 3 small broken pieces.

The broken vent flap.

I now have free flowing air on all vents! Hoooray! That was the primary objective anyway.

Free flowing air!

HOWEVER, I know what some of you would probably say.. .I should've bought a replacement servo motor or did some piwis coding / servo testing etc first before jumping the gun. Didn't really have time to do all those.... sorry. I have a long road trip this weekend.

The passenger side is the most important seat in the car...that's where the wife seats.... and she'd hate not having AC on her side. I think I'm happy. ....I think .

Thanks again for all those tips guys. I'm done for the day...got what I wanted. Didn't break anything else except the freakin flap!

 

Glad the removal tools made the job easy. Wish I had them when I removed my vents.
Sorry it seemed like the servo motor locked up and you broke the flap while trying to free the vent.
So long as your wife enjoys the air for your trip...great!
No guarantees that PIWIS or coding would have fixed the problem.
Grab a used replacement from Ebay when you have the time.
Installation should be a piece of cake!

 

You do what you have to do sometimes