Rear air vent removal

[Mr Fix it]

Has anyone removed the rear air vents, maybe to fix some speakers in their place? If so, how are they fixed in?

I want to take them out, but dont want to damage them as I want to put them back in!

Thanks, Dave

[s4cjo]

Take out the trim panel in the boot, located just above the petrol tank. This is sometimes tight and may need to be gently eased. Once this is removed you'll see the air vent(s) are held in place with a central screw holding a wire retainer, take out the screw...job done.

[davidn]

I can remove mine from inside the car by sliding them as far to one side as they will go which allows you to pull the wire retainer through. It may be that the holes have been enlarged as there appear to have been speakers fitted there at some point so might not be possible on yours. Worth a try though.
Davis

[R&J]

Great Idea,
will putting speakers there also serve to stop the carpet getting dirty.
Does anyone know if we should still have ventilation into the boot.
Rich

[mongoose]

replacing the vent with speakers isnt always a great idea.on my old chimp(95 model) some previous owner had done this and the cabin would pressurise,therefore poor ventilation,slower fan speed etc. but worse was the fact that it caused a really annoying whistle at the top corner of the quarterlights where theres a small air gap.apparently later chimps had extra vents somewhere to avoid this.my advice would be to block off the vents first with tape or similar and then drive the car with the vent fans full on to see if this happens-bloody annoying when its too late!

[ribol]

If the vents are there to let the air out, where does it leave the boot from? The bootlid seems to be a reasonable seal. Maybe the vents are there to stop condensation in the boot and allow the bootlid to close easier. Anyone know which way it works?

Ivan

[Mr Fix it]

Thanks for these pieces of advice. I think i will try "s4cjo"'s tip first and see what I can do. I dont want to block them off, they just look cr*p so was thinking of making some nice ali vents to replace them!

[T1 PCS]

On my 99 model, with speakers in the holes, I get an annoying build up of pressure and often open the window a smidgen to let the air flow. You really feel the difference when you wear shorts and you get that lovely cold breeze up your leg from the air coming in the door vent somewhere by your ankle.

I keep meaning to try and improve the ventilation but don't really know where to start.

Paul.

[ribol]

The only way I can see for the air to get out of the boot is for it to flow forward over the wheel arches. Maybe the air gets out of the boot in this way and goes forward to get out? There really ought to be a vent in the bottom of the boot somewhere to let the air out I would have thought. Unless there is something there I have not seen?

Ivan

[nigel2]

I put in 2 rear speakers and I noticed he car got really stuffy, so I cut a new hole in the centre and put back back one of the vents and it's OK most of the time. Electric hood would be nice though!

[PhilipC]

Mine's like this - two big speakers where the original vents would have been and a single vent in the middle of the panel.

Ventilation is OK, but could be better: there's certainly a cold draft from the door seal "dents" that's only really noticeable when the window's open a bit. Equally, I don't have a problem with misting or similar.

Having said that, I've just had the panel in the boot off to sort out the petrol level sender and I'm not sure the vent itself is the limiting factor. I've got a CD-changer mounted directly behind where my single vent is, and this uses two great chunks of pine behind the boot panel to hold it to the bulkhead. I suspect these will more or less block any flow that would otherwise come through the vent.

In other words, one vent is better than none, but make sure there's somewhere for it to vent to.

[david010167]

Hi Guys, I had a similar thought process about removing the vents and adding speakers to my car. In the end I mounted the speakers in the vent holes on little stilts, this had the benefit of keeping the air flow, allowing me bigger speakers.

My exploits are here if you would like to read a bit more:

www.david.hughes15.btinternet.co.uk/speakers.htm

[Mr Fix it]

Thanks all. Removed the vent last night. The cover in the boot was easy to remove, then uncliped the metal wire spring thing and the vent was then easy to pull out of its hole from inside the cabin.

Cheers
Dave