The far passenger vent on our 09 Premium Luxury XF stopped working recently. So I pulled off the dash to see how it works. Here is a pretty simple diagram showing how to get access to the vent motors.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/cr..._side_vent.pdf

It is pretty simple and self explanatory, just take your time.

Once I had the dash apart I was able to look at the motor, which was still functioning. What broke was a plastic piece that is circular in shape and slips over a cam that rotates the vent. This circle piece had a miniscule notch in it, less than 1 mm. The plastic is very thin here and broke, allowing the notch to come out of the indention and just free wheel over the vent cam.

You cannot buy just this small part, you have to buy the whole assembly. I was quoted $327 and part number is C2Z16107.

Instead I got some plastic epoxy and simply epoxied the plastic piece straight onto the cam on the vent. This should be a permanet fix.

Sorry I did not take pics but it is pretty self explanatory once you look at it. Hopefully this saves someone over $300 for just a 50 cent plastic part.

 

I'm so proud of you.

 

I had my vent stop working the other day. The dealer originally fixed it when it was under warranty. I don't recall if it is the exact same vent or if it was another one (one of the two near the display screen in the center of the dash). I'd imagine it is the other one now.

I drilled through the plastic ring and inserted a screw. After test fitting I noted that the head was too large so I carefully ground the head down on each side. I reinstalled and now the vent works again. Pictures are attached. One shows the plastic gear with the screw inserted and the head ground down. Another shows the metal tab acting as a stop for when it's open and then again when it's closed.

Tip: You can't swap the motors from one to the other. If you do they will be closed when they should be open.

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...=155524&page=1

 

I need a new vent/motor assembly for my 2012 XF Portfolio model. I found one on eBbay for a 2009. Does anyone know if it will fit a 2012? It's fairly cheap so I guess it isn't a total loss if it doesn't work.

 

Yes they are the same.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I will grab the one on eBay and have my body shop guy put it in for me. I hate taking stuff apart. Just when I think it is a simple task, it ends up a nightmare.

 

As cools as the vents are, they were also one of the reasons I'd always dreaded the day my car came off warranty (which it did in late July), specifically because I always figured they'd be expensive to fix. Thanks for the info.

 

So I finally decided to tackle the vent that wasn't working properly. I purchased a used vent on eBay for 48.00. I followed the steps I found on this forum, to disassemble the dash and remove the vent. I must have looked at the diagrams 50 times before trying it.

I was armed with a set of trim tools and the proper torx sizes for the screws too. A whole lot of bravery was on hand also.

I took my time and removed each piece carefully, making sure I didn't use too much muscle or scratch any parts. I had soft towels to rest all the trim on, that face the driver and passenger. Everything came off without incident.

I then just replaced the entire vent/motor assembly. It is only held on by four screws. Before I put it all back together, I tested the unit and it worked perfectly.

I then worked backwards and replaced all of the pieces and it all went back just fine.

Total time was about 45 minutes. Now that I have done it, I feel it would be quicker the second time.

The dealer quoted me 1200-1300 to do the same work I just did. Not sure how they figured that cost. I never asked for detail, since I wasn't going to pay for it anyway.

I did consider having my local body shop do the work, but I am a bit of a DIY person and wanted to try it myself.

If you are handy and don't mind taking your time, this is an easy job.

One of the key things I found makes it easier to reassemble the dash, is to remove the clips from the trim and put them back in the dash, before you push the trim pieces back on.

 

Sadly this is why dealers earn the tag of "*******". There are "recommended" times to replace parts but dealers aren't required to use them. Never, never, have I witnessed a dealer quoting recommended times for a billable fix unless it was ridiculously high. Granted that some of the recommended fix times are optimistic but not to the extent the dealers take advantage of altering them.

 

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