In rec.autos.tech, on Fri, 20 Oct 2017 11:25:52 -0500, Paul in Houston
TX wrote:

micky wrote:
In rec.autos.tech, on Thu, 19 Oct 2017 23:55:30 -0500, Paul in Houston
TX wrote:

micky wrote:
I have to remove the air vents above the radio in the middle of the dash
tomorrow, on a 2005 Toyota.

I tried today several times and the bezel or whatever bent without
breaking, but the thing popped back where it was originally.

I'm worried about cracking or breaking the plastic. Today was 68,
tomorrow will be 71 they say.

Is it better to do this in warm weather? I can turn on the heater and
warm up the plastic, if that will either make it less likely to break,
or more likely for the rectangular plastic plugs to slip out of their
rectangular plastic sockets. 3 at the top and 3 at the bottom, left,
right, and middle.

I should more closely but I think or I assume the console and the box
below the radio have the same kind of plugs and they came out easily,
twice. The box doesn't even require any extra pulling, in the videos
I've seen and in person. No harder than picking it up from a table. So
i don't know why these are so hard. More sunlight on them?

Odds are your vents are ABS. Most car plastic is a range of ABS.
Heating won't have much effect until it gets to 220F and above.

LOL I don't think the heater gets that hot, but I did measure it once
and I'm not putting my cellphone in front of the air vents in the winter
time.

Cold won't have much effect either, until it gets really cold.
UV and oxygen degrades it and makes it brittle.
12 years is long enough in a car for ABS to become brittle.

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. But I guess warming it won't help.

Good luck.

Thanks. I was able to plug something in by reaching in from the bottom,
but now I have to unplug it and so far I can't seem to push down the
"latch" and pull out the plug at the same time. Not enough room to put
in two hands and trying to use one hand on the "latch" and push it out
with a long screwdriver hasn't worked.

There is a small ridge around the "top" of the plug, and the screwdriver
keeps slipping over it. Maybe I need a chisel that will stick better in
the corner. Probably too short, so maybe a longer piece of metal I can
sharpen. I'll try that tomorrow.. If nothing works, I have to take out
the air vents and the radio.

Can you use part of a hacksaw blade? Grind to fit.

I found a bent "flat" that was scrap I'd saved from something, and I
sharpened it and it seemed pretty good -- I could push some -- but it
still kept slipping off.

So I started in on the air vents and they bent quite a bit without
breaking. I had to do one at a time on the bottom, and then the top
together, So it came out finally, i took out the radio, and I still
could't get the plug out withou one hand. Twisted a screwdriver to push
it out while using the other hand to hold down the latch.

It will probably go faster if I have to do it again.

Thanks.