Under-seat vent

[dmurphy]

I don't know if this is common elsewhere, but here in the Northeast (I guess it's a bit of an imported Italian custom) - some folks like to throw a few coins into a new car, as a "good luck" kinda thing.

I specifically asked someone not to do this, but they ignored me and did so anyway when I turned my back.... and managed to score a bullseye hit right into the floor vent under the driver's seat.

There's been a dime in there rattling around for the last 2 weeks driving me absolutely batty. I finally got a combination of painter's tape and a flexible piece of plastic to fish around in there and got it out.

Which leads me to ask .... where does that vent actually, ya know, go? Where does it tie into the HVAC? If that dime - or worse - were to travel "upstream" through the vent, where would it end up? I'd hate to think we'd have to drop the battery to remove a cheap piece of plastic vent to fish something out!

Seems like there should be some kind of cover over the outlet of the vent to stop stuff from falling in there... I suspect in a few years, anyone with kids is going to have a combination of M&M's and pepperidge farm goldfish rotting away in those vents.

Seems a silly design... and yes, a silly "tradition" too. Especially when I asked them NOT to!

 

[LoL Rick]

The parts catalog shows the duct so you can get an idea from that.
https://epc.teslamotors.com/#/systemGroups/47379

 

[dmurphy]

The parts catalog shows the duct so you can get an idea from that.
https://epc.teslamotors.com/#/systemGroups/47379

Thanks Rick! I pulled that up ... what it doesn't show is just what a "scoop" that vent is. I mean, it's flush with the floor and really looks like a vacuum inlet for junk. Even some kind of grate in front of it would be helpful.

The question I guess is what has to get pulled out if that piece of ductwork needs to be emptied of detritus. Any way to get it out from above, or does the battery have to drop? Somewhat of an academic exercise, but I'm trying to learn all I can about this Model 3 jigsaw puzzle.

 

[Burrito]

is this a northeast thing? my last few cars family and friend did that and i was like wtf. this car someone already tried and i gave them a dollar not to lol jk but told them not to. my kids have a strict no eating in daddies car rule now. i cant tell you how many goldfish i vaccummed out of my last car before turning it in

 

[LoL Rick]

Thanks Rick! I pulled that up ... what it doesn't show is just what a "scoop" that vent is. I mean, it's flush with the floor and really looks like a vacuum inlet for junk. Even some kind of grate in front of it would be helpful.

The question I guess is what has to get pulled out if that piece of ductwork needs to be emptied of detritus. Any way to get it out from above, or does the battery have to drop? Somewhat of an academic exercise, but I'm trying to learn all I can about this Model 3 jigsaw puzzle.

The duct is inside the cabin, so definitely not necessary to drop the battery. It's hard to get a 3D sense from that 2D picture, but it looks like the 2 ducts probably join together and join to the HVAC system under the center console. If you really needed to get them out, you'd probably be looking at seat removal and then center console removal. Not fun, but not insurmountable. Or you could do just what you did. Or maybe find a small diameter hose and connect it to the vacuum cleaner.