Interior vents The two center vents on my 1999 Durango are missing and a item was dropped down the vent holes. This item fell down deep enough to eliminate air from flowing out the floor / feet vents. Any suggestions?

If you have a sunroof, that may be your issue. I had a similiar problem when it would rain. After a good rain, water would pour from my front side pillars when making turns, which allowed me to see how water got on the floor.

SOLUTION:
1. Open sunroof, stand up so you can fully see sunroof tracks.
2. In the right/left front corners of the the sunroof tracks are small vent holes (locate them). All sunroofs have these holes in the event of minimal water leakage.
3. Take a 2-3 ft strand of solid wire approx 18ga, insert into vent holes to clear out any type of debris, or build-up. (the dealer wants to charge you $$$ to send your vehicle to another facility to do water test for leakage)
4. Last, take a decent sized squeezable cup filled with hot water (not too hot to hold cup), enough to slowly pour is into sunroof track/vent holes. This will ensure you actually pushed any debris down the vent tubing.
5. If you cleared any build-up from the vent holes, you should see water puddles on the ground, or just have someone watch for leakage near the back of the front wheel well.

Hope it works, I performed this same manuever on my wifes 2009 Jeep Patriot, and filled some corner gaps in the tracking with silicon ($2.89 small tube), when the dealer wanted $150 for leak diagnostics. "Really"

Good Luck

Gr00vie Lou
04 Dodge Durango HEMI
VaBch, VA

Remove the vent cover to expose the raw opening of the vent. Do not change your selector switch, opening up internal junction points could cause the item to fall further into the system. Place the hose of a shop-vac into the exposed opening, and using a rag, plug up the remaining open spaces around the hose. You should be able to remove the item at this point by simply turning on the vacuum. It may take a couple tries of turning off and on again, depending on how complex your duct system is, and how deep the item has fallen. But, you'll get it eventually. In your case, the item is very light in comparison to the relative surface area that with react to the vacuum, so this should do the trick.

No easy way, leave it there.

Usually this is a problem with the blend doors under the dash. You either have a vac leak, a dead motor, or a faulty door.
The control opens and closes the doors to direct air thru the heater core and evaporator core along with directing air thru the vents.
When a problem occurs, the default position is the defrost vents to make sure the windshield remains clear.
You can do an internet search for "repair durango blend door" for more info.

my issue at the moment is that the linkage (control arms) have come apart. it looks like there's a part missing from between the two control arms. there's a small electric motor with one arm and another arm that controls a flap somewhere that shifts the air flow between floor and up top. both of these control arms have a square hole in the ends and i don't see a way for them to be reconnected. so i'm assuming that there's a part missing.

How important is this battery? To retrieve it you have to take the dash completely apart. this is a 6 to8 hour job for some one that has done it before.
Randy

had this trouble in a dakota it was a blend door in the heater unit. had to remove entire dash to repair

don't insert nozzle in fill hole so deep. It is not getting the air it needs to vent out while your fillinh the tank. Also start off slow on filling the tank, so that the air will start coming out while gas is going into your gas tank. like is said, the tank isnot venting fast enough, to let the gas come into the tank.

has someone dropped something in the defrost vents on top on the dash???

if your durango has auto temp control the likely problem is the atc power module has gone bad...the system defaults to heat