I was going through the process of replacing the side vents on my 2010 TDV8 with gloss black genuine Range Rover units when I came to a grinding halt. No matter how hard I pulled as per the Landrover instructions (from the top of the vent rear) or as instructed by PowerfullUK (from the bottom of the vent rear) I could not release the vent from the body panel. I was either going to destroy the vent and/or bend the body panel in which it is fitted to.

I did the usual web search and come up with a solution for the problem from rangerovers.net

You can access the top clips of the vent from the aperture in the fender where the bonnet hinge resides.

Both top clips can be released from this opening very easily (see picture 1 below)

I used a plastic pry tool (200mm long - see picture 2) to release the 2 top clips of the vent (see picture 3).

Note the original vent has 3M double sided tape at the rear of the vent (see picture 4). Even the new original Landrover vents dont come with this tape, so you will need to find a source for this on the replacement vents.

I have replaced quite a few of these vents on both pre-facelift and facelift variants and have never had a problem removing them and have never come across any partly retained by double sided 3m tape, original factory fitted or aftermarket.

Cheers
Col

I too had problems removing mine and had to go from the gap in the top. I followed the powerful instructions to start and broke one of the vents which is why I went from the top. They didn’t have and don’t need any tape on them, the clips are that strong. I also had to swop the back part of one of the new vents for my old one as both vents on my car are used rather than one real vent and one dummy. 2012 5.0 SC AB
Mods:
TPMS
Genuine LR DRLs
Remote Boot close from key fob
2016 Discovery 4 Mirrors AKA RRS2
2014 L405 Surround Camera retro fit (WIP)
2013 RRS Dual View Screen fit (Complete)
2016 LR4 RSE
2014 LR4 Homelink
2016 FFRR Electrochromatic Wing Mirror Glass

70 plate Focus ST (Current)
1942 VEP Ford GPW Jeep (Willys) (Current)
1943 Whites M16 Halftrack (Current)
16 plate Eurofighter Typhoon, 2 x Eurojet engines with 20,000lbs thrust each. 1380mph

Must be a pot luck thing. As with Col, no problem changing mine out for poweful uk ones.

The 3M tape is there as a spacer and for anti vibration so it doesn't wiggle and jiggle plastic against paint and wear thru. Certainly on mine the rear end of the vent can touch the paint without the tape in place and the vent could be moved around quite a bit when installed.
If you have them installed without it I would recommend taking them out and putting some on there. They will over time wear a bare spot thru your paint and become a rust issue down the road.