Fitting "Defender Demisters" what am I doing wrong?!

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Margo Ledbetter

Margo Ledbetter

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Location
cambridgeshire
Hi folks, I set out with great intentions this morning of getting a couple of 'simple' jobs done and failed spectacularly in both! In frustration and at risk of being proven thick I'm back to ask what I'm missing? I bought a pair of the aftermarket "Defender Demisters" from the company of the same name. The blurb says they should fit Defenders from 1983 onwards and that fitting is easy as all you do is remove the existing screws from the vents, pop these on top and reaffix with the longer screws provided.
Well, I have tried every which way and can't get them to fit. The holes would line up for the screws, but there are two plastic lugs underneath at a slight angle and they simply don't locate. My vents have an inner channel which looks to be plastic and a little bit weathered and worn, but I'm not going to be able to get those lugs to sit inside them without some serious force and twisting. Has anyone else had this problem? Mine's a 1987 90 pickup. I've got a couple of photos but at the moment the site won't let me upload them.
???
 
Without seeing pics I can only guess. copy paste, drag an drop. Phones are a problem.

Pick the vent up in the middle so it bends a bit so the lugs go under???

J
 
Haha! Dragging and dropping worked with the photos! Right, with the screws removed I can lift off the existing vent fascia and whats left is a raised vent channel in the middle. I don't think this comes out? I gave it gentle tug and it seemed quite firm. The issue is that this channel is a parallel slot and the lugs on the demisters are set at an angle which are too wide to simply drop in.
 

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There are two lengths of vent - short and long ... I can't tell you the exact lengths but the 'newer' versions are longer.
I think it was 1991, possibly (as @tottot says) 1993.

With the screws removed the plastic bit should/will pop out .... the screw holes should then line up.

Having just looked online - it seems the vents don't need to be removed ???
The new vents should just line up and the new screws clamp them down...

So now i'm as confused as you are .... (the 'joy' of landrover ownership)
 
Last edited:
tottot said:
I think the blurb should have said " from 1993 " as there was a change in vent type when 300tdi arrived.
Click to expand...

As above. l fitted a pair of these to my TD5 and they slotted straight in, so you've likely got the wrong ones for your Land Rover.
 
My 90 is 1986 and has the shorter vents.

I made my own side-window demisters years ago, still working fine.
What I did (when the dash was stripped down) was drill into the large vent-box under the dash and run 20mm corrugated tubing up to each side of the dash and drill a hole through so the air flows onto the side windows thereby not affecting the windscreen vents at all (which wouldn't have been a problem anyway as I have a heated screen).
Not a 5-minute job but easy enough to do (made easier by the fact I was fitting my galv bulkhead at the time so that would date it to 2013).
 
Thanks guys, there's a number of websites selling these so its a shame none of them bother to mention the different types of vents or indeed show images to differentiate between them. The screw holes line up fine, its just these offset plastic lugs underneath that seem to be fouling everything.
 
Margo Ledbetter said:
Thanks guys, there's a number of websites selling these so its a shame none of them bother to mention the different types of vents or indeed show images to differentiate between them. The screw holes line up fine, its just these offset plastic lugs underneath that seem to be fouling everything.
Click to expand...

Maybe they are for the shorter vents .... mind you, if the screw holes line up, perhaps they are the right ones (i'd suggest) ..... and it's these plastic lugs are wrong.
I think if it was me i'd try and remove these offending appendages.
They could be faulty, as it shouldn't be this hard !
Here's thier mobile number ... 07975 722131
 
Thanks Mik, I'm sat here scouring images of other Defender dashboards on eBay to see if I can spot any different vent sizes and really haven't seen anything. I'm very tempted to just judiciously adapt the offending lugs with some clippers. I'll have another go tomorrow with a large cup of coffee and see if there's any way I've missed to crow bar these in.
 
Margo Ledbetter said:
Thanks Mik, I'm sat here scouring images of other Defender dashboards on eBay to see if I can spot any different vent sizes and really haven't seen anything. I'm very tempted to just judiciously adapt the offending lugs with some clippers. I'll have another go tomorrow with a large cup of coffee and see if there's any way I've missed to crow bar these in.
Click to expand...
Early dash tops are a few inches shorter on the vents.
Off to the shed later & will measure both types.
 
It's not the length of the vent that's the issue, its the actual width of the slot. For arguments sake the slot width is 10mm and the offset lugs that look to drop into it are nearer 20mm. Given the age of the vehicle it's possible the plastic vent conduit may have warped a little, but its jolly hard plastic and I'm not sure wedging a wide blade screwdriver into it to force it open to get the lug in isn't going to just crack it. I'll have another closer look tomorrow and see if there's any way that inner conduit might come out? -I'm not talking about the top fascia that the screws hold down, the issue may be the narrow rectangular inner channel conduit that sits slightly proud of the overall slot hole.
 
FITTED!!!!!
It turned out to be a case of sheer brute force. The issue was the actual vent conduit, so the bellmouth shaped plastic conduit inside. I don't know if the photo shows it clearly, but this had bent slightly out of shape and the plastic was really really hard. With the fascia removed the new units dropped in perfectly; but behind the conduit causing it to compress even more so it'd just restrict the airflow. Solution seemed to be to work a wide flat screwdriver blade into the conduit where the lugs needed to drop in until it was widened enough to be able to forcibly push them in. So, fitted and screws in. At the moment the units are bowing up slightly at the end as the conduit is still trying to expell the lugs, but I'm hoping them may settle down with some heat coming through them,. If not I'll consider some additional screws into the bulkhead. -I'll see how much hot air hits me in the face the first time they're used!
 

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