Before driving back to Brooklyn, my 2013 Toyota Corolla’s center console began rattling something fierce! It began as an occasional annoyance, but it quickly became insistent and unavoidable.

The rattle, of course, manifested while I was driving. So, I began holding and pressing around the center console that I had recently disassembled a few days earlier to try to identify the culprit of the noise. I figured out that the sound came from the air vent assembly at the top of the center console. Impatient, I rapped and then banged on it with my fist. One ill-placed strike busted the air vent assembly’s top in a spray of plastic puzzle pieces. The picture above shows them carefully reassembled. Of course, the rattle was amplified by this destruction, so I ripped out the top of the assembly and made the long drive with the top off. When I got to Brooklyn, I ordered a replacement (sans clock assembly as it was significantly cheaper) on eBay. When it arrived, I installed it and restored the interior look of the car.

Above, you can see what the air vent assembly looked like when I drove back to Brooklyn. I completely removed the top so that it wouldn’t make any rattling during the long drive.

To begin the replacement, I pulled the silver plastic covers from the top of the center console. These pull off directly toward you and are held in by plastic clips. Using a thin plastic shim helps you get a hold on these. On the right side, you can open the top glove box to make their removal easier.

This is a close-up of the broken air vent assembly before removing it.

As I pulled the air vent assembly out directly towards me, I unplugged the cable from the back of the caution lights switch, because this would need to be re-installed in the new air vent assembly.

The caution switch is held in by two plastic clips–one on the top and one on the bottom. If these hold tight, you can use a plastic shim to depress the clip from the back and free the top and then bottom of the switch so that it pulls out easily.

Since I had a clock in the old air vent assembly, there was a corresponding plug on the same run as the caution lights switch cable. I used a twist tie to secure it. I pushed this cable between the two air vents so that there would be minimal possible movement by them once I put everything back together.

This is the replacement air vent assembly that I purchased on eBay for $21. Unlike my old console kit, it doesn’t have a place for a clock, which is fine for me. This saved about $20. Also, it doesn’t include the caution lights switch, which is also okay as I will be reusing my old one.

The first step for reassembly is installing the caution lights switch in the air vent console assembly. I ran the cable through the hole of the air vent where the caution switch goes, plugged the cable into the old switch, and pushed the switch into the hole. Unfortunately, the hole for the switch was slightly too large and the switch’s plastic prongs wouldn’t catch and hold it properly. I solved this problem by cutting small pieces of masking tape and putting two layers on top of each prong–top and bottom. Then, I pushed the switch in and it held securely in place.

The penultimate reassembly step was to line up the air vent assembly with the air ducts and clip receptacles. Perhaps because this was a new replacement, it was very tight to push back in. I took my time and checked and double checked the alignment as I worked it into place.

Eventually, it clicked on both sides and was flush with the radio below and dashboard above.

Finally, I pushed the center console’s side covers in place and double checked the caution light switch to make sure it was working.

I think it looks better than new now–at least that one part!