Heater vents

Q

The windscreen heater vents on my 2016 Berlingo are positioned on the dashboard, below a storage trough where the dashboard slopes towards the windscreen. The trough is used to hold small items, keys etc. Problem is, there is no grille on the vents and such items can slip down the dashboard incline and disappear into the vents. I have lost at least one valuable key this way.

Can you advise me of a way to retrieve such items? I have had a mechanic look at the problem but he could see no easy way and suggests taking out the heater but that seems like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

Sean Mone

A

The only easier route that may allow you to access the lost items would be via the pollen filter housing. On your Berlingo the pollen filter is housed to the offside of the heater unit and the filter is removed by unclipping the small door just above the clutch pedal. It is possible that this may give access to the section of the heater box where the lost items have gathered.

It will at least give you another direction to attempt to fish objects from the heater without going to the extreme measure of removing the heater altogether.

Access where the vent ducting from the front screen enters the heater is quite limited but it may also be possible to retrieve any objects at this point.

One problem is that the route of the ventilation ducting is not direct and any lost items may get caught between the top vent and the heater unit.

As a preventative measure it may be possible to fit a strip across the dash which may stop objects from rolling downwards towards the gap of the vents. Something like the self-adhesive weatherstrips used on front door frames may, if placed across the width of the dash, be sufficient to block the way off any such objects.