Something rolling around

[kelvin 660]

It's strange that Tesla don't fit grills when the pay so much attention to the HVAC system!

 

[LiamPope]

Thought I'd follow up on this and hopefully it helps some people. Always found it hard to follow people's descriptions of where to look and what to do until seeing it for myself. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a picture. Front seats fully up and forwards (watch where that headrest pokes!). Looking in from rear passenger footwell, carpet rolled back...

So what do we have? At the top of the pic slightly left of centre is the black plastic AC vent. This must be the vent people are talking about. Yes stuff can get in there pretty easily. I had a cluster attack of about a dozen pea sized seed things my kids brought from childcare and dumped on the floor, and several got in here. There is almost a trough just inside this vent where everything will collect, so it's easy to hoover out.

But if you have a sound like something rolling all the way from left to right in your car over a second or so when you give some lateral acceleration, it probably wont be stuff in the black plastic vent. Before you pull back the carpet you'll see that it's a pretty sloppy fit around the vent piece - stuff can easily get between the carpet and the vent and into the space below. Beneath the vent where the wiring loom can be seen in the pic is essentially the floorpan. Most of my stuff was in here. It goes all the way from left to right of the car, hence things can roll all the way left to right. It's easy enough to hoover out - use a long thin nozzle to poke a bit under the centre console and lift the wiring loom to make sure you get everything.

Below that floorpan area in the pic are two hollow channels - one smaller one with a small oval hole in the top, and one wider one with two large oval holes. It's pretty unlikely stuff has gotten in here as the carpet covers the top holes pretty well and stuff would have to climb up from the floorpan area, but not impossible I guess! If you think you have something in these channels it'll be harder to get out! Attaching some sort of hose to your hoover as suggested above might be the only way!

I haven't tried these vent covers yet for stopping more stuff getting in there. My concern is they cover the vent but don't block the gaps between the vent and carpet, so stuff can still get in the floorpan area, but I might try some.

Hope this helps someone!

 

[Kenners]

Thought I'd follow up on this and hopefully it helps some people. Always found it hard to follow people's descriptions of where to look and what to do until seeing it for myself. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a picture. Front seats fully up and forwards (watch where that headrest pokes!). Looking in from rear passenger footwell, carpet rolled back...

View attachment 947186

So what do we have? At the top of the pic slightly left of centre is the black plastic AC vent. This must be the vent people are talking about. Yes stuff can get in there pretty easily. I had a cluster attack of about a dozen pea sized seed things my kids brought from childcare and dumped on the floor, and several got in here. There is almost a trough just inside this vent where everything will collect, so it's easy to hoover out.

But if you have a sound like something rolling all the way from left to right in your car over a second or so when you give some lateral acceleration, it probably wont be stuff in the black plastic vent. Before you pull back the carpet you'll see that it's a pretty sloppy fit around the vent piece - stuff can easily get between the carpet and the vent and into the space below. Beneath the vent where the wiring loom can be seen in the pic is essentially the floorpan. Most of my stuff was in here. It goes all the way from left to right of the car, hence things can roll all the way left to right. It's easy enough to hoover out - use a long thin nozzle to poke a bit under the centre console and lift the wiring loom to make sure you get everything.

Below that floorpan area in the pic are two hollow channels - one smaller one with a small oval hole in the top, and one wider one with two large oval holes. It's pretty unlikely stuff has gotten in here as the carpet covers the top holes pretty well and stuff would have to climb up from the floorpan area, but not impossible I guess! If you think you have something in these channels it'll be harder to get out! Attaching some sort of hose to your hoover as suggested above might be the only way!

I haven't tried these vent covers yet for stopping more stuff getting in there. My concern is they cover the vent but don't block the gaps between the vent and carpet, so stuff can still get in the floorpan area, but I might try some.

Hope this helps someone!

Posts like this is what make this forum so great. Super helpful. Thanks