E9X Replacement Vent Tabs for Aircon

[BurntSoup 10]

I couldn't find any mention of these here so thought I'd share. Reading around and from my own experience it seems that the little tabs which you use to direct the airflow on the E90/92/93 are not long term reliable.

After a while the plastic 'legs' which direct the horizontal side to side movement snap off from the main tab and the whole thing falls apart. It looks like the design is ultimately a bit weak and after X years fails as the plastic becomes brittle. Both a dealer and a local service department I use said the fix was a replacement air vent unit circa $270 + fitting. At the time only one had broken but I hardly use them so didn't worry too much. Then over the last year the other 3 in the cabin all suffered the same fate.

Anyway, google found me a USA based company selling an aftermarket product simply called 'vent tabs' (www.venttabs.com). Reviews were positive and they were only ~13 USD each. Postage was horrendous but even so getting 4 new ones was much cheaper and faster to fit. If a number of people wanted them you could share on the international freight.

Took around 5min to fit the lot. Visibly you can't tell them apart from the originals unless you are about 10cm away and knew what you were looking for

The design is not as fancy as the OEM ones (which have an extra pivot point in them) but they appear to be much stronger and look like they will last. They are slightly stiffer on the horizontal movement than originals but you hardly adjust them that frequently and a spot of lubricant of some kind that was plastic friendly would probably make them smoother.

Anyway, hopefully this helps someone.

Photo attached in my E92 M3 for good measure. Tab on the left is new after market one, tab on the right is the broken OEM one just sitting there before I swapped it out.

Cheers