I was replacing the yellowish map lights with those neat LEDs from RX Strakes. After I removed the bulbs, I put them on the dash. After finishing the installation, I reached for the bulbs, and I as I was reaching, I said to myself, "That's a damned STUPID place to put those bulbs because.." And, as I thought this, I touched the bulbs and guess where they went. Yep, you guessed it. they rattled merrily down the defroster vent. Now, whenever I turn a corner, i can hear them rolling along the vent.

How can I get these two bulbs out of the defroster duct? How hard is this going to be? How many hours of labor would it take to get those bulbs out?

DAMN!! I need H E L P because I am SO FRIGGIN' S T U P ID

 

I have the same predicament... I drop a bunch of pennies, dimes, and nickels down the defroster vents...

What happened was that I was vacuuming my carpet and threw all of my change onto the dash... I totally forgot that it was there so I started up the car, and started driving... then when I stepped on the brakes, it all slided forward and fell into the vents...

 

wow. Thanks for teaching me a lesson w/o me doing it myself

 

Bummer. There's a little nick nack bin in the dash on the left side of the steering wheel. Would have been perfect for that task.

 

Thats where my switches are for my interior neons/LED's

 

Glad I'm an object lesson in what NOT to do, but how the hell do we fix this sad situation! And, at worst, how much will fixing this cost? BTW. there is supposed to be a cabin air filter for this car. Where is it.. How do you access it. Can we fix this through the filter.

 

The filter is located behind the glove box.

1. open glove box
2. disengage glove box strut
3. either let glove box open fully or just remove it
4. you'll see the filter location in the white box.

 

Someone dropped a wedding band down theirs a few months ago, and had a thread on it. They did get it out, but I'm not sure if they said how in the thread. That sucks! Good luck getting it out. We have enough rattles with this car to drive us crazy without something like that happening!

 

wire hanger and double side tape. mirror and time.

beers

 

See my idea in response to your post in the rattle and hunt thread. It might work?
You might try a combo of what I said along with Swoope??????


Note to self.......................Do not use dash to hold items at any time!

 

OK, now we're getting somewhere! I have to work the next four nights, so I won't be able to get to it until Wednesday. i probably won't even be able to get on the forum until then, so please don't think I've solved this, given up or traded the car in.

Thanks for the help, ideas and suppport. BTW, WHY was the wedding band off the finger and on the dash?????? HMMMMM?

 

expensive but surefire way, magnet on a stick. i think u can buy em from some places.

stuff like this
http://www.drillspot.com/products/34...c_Pickup_Stick

 

my fragile tab from the center console is down there. havent bothered with it. no problems yet. but thats not a light bulb

 

Whenever I take a corner, you can hear them rolling merrily across the dash. Magnets won't work because they are all glass...sigh!

Again, thank you all for your ideas! So, how do you pop the defroster vents out of the dash. I kind of get the feeling this whole car is kind of "Snapped together."

 

Reading the first two posts made me smile

Hopefully this doesn't grow to be a huge task for you :/

Good luck!

 

first take out the windshield..

second wire hanger and tape trick.. you can try gum, but it is not as sticky any more.

beers

 

The magnet method might work since the contacts of the bulbs are iron/steel, or at least the ones I have on my desk are... but you might need those rare earth magnet because they are stronger.

I would alos like to know how to pop the vents though...

 

Me too- I was expecting it to be another I-tried-to-drag-race-and-screwed-up-my-clutch, so this was rather refreshing. Don't have any advice, but of all the things you could have done to the car, this is not so bad- and we've ALL done stuff like this, so I completely feel your pain. Hope you get them out soon

 

This might sound crazy but it just might work. What goes in, has to come out right?

Try taking duct tape and taping up the length of your dash leaving a small hole on one end. Use a portable vacuum with a hose or a shop vac to vacuum them out. Any goo you have left on the dash from the duct tape sealed so tightly should come off using Goo-Gone.

 

yep,

legit stupid questions get answered! go figure.

i think the op should have to wear a special helmet while fixing the problem.

what are the odds?

beers

 

I say the OP goes on the NW Forum drive with us on the 29th... While flying around corners the centrifugal force with blow it right outa the vent

 

On a similar note, I once dropped some metal piece down the defrost vent of an old car. My solution was attaching a magnet to a string and dangling it down. Worked fine because all parts were plastic.

However, I tried the same trick on a recent car when a metal screw fell down the vent........must have been a lot of metal down there because now I have a screw and a magnet down there. But I think the screw is attached to the magnet attached to some metal part so luckily there is no rattle,

 

There's a lot of truth to that as funny as it may sound. I know first hand. On an off road excursion at Road Atlanta, I picked up pea gravel in my dash vent from traveling sideways through a gravel trap. Most came out on their own over time and showed up on my floor mats. There were a couple pesky little sob's that just would not come out. One day while tracking at another location, I was in a long, high G, left hander that pitched the pebble to the right side of the vent and it popped out, rolled over the glove box area and onto the floor. I was so excited about it coming out and finally not having that rattle every time that I made a turn that I kept it and plan to mount it somewhere in my car as a reminder.

If you don't track then maybe it's time to find an SCCA Autocross group and do a couple sunday events. The G's that are required to do it are not for the street though so don't do it on public roads.

I truly sympathize with you and I do hope you get that little puppy out soon.

 

This is kinda why I suggested a can of compressed air and see if they could be blown towards or over to the side vents??????

 

oh man, this thread is awesome! sorry to the original poster but at least it wasn't as stupid as ' I tinted my FRONT windshield and car got towed'

LOTS of great advice here on how to get those darn things out. The cabin filter is quite easy to get to (seriously takes 90 seconds), just follow Laythor's advice.

I'd go for the wire hanger and duct tape technique. If possible have a friend spraying compressed air at the same time, maybe you can 'guide' them towards the tape.