Center air vent knobs. Weird issue

[Dieselxx]

This morning had a weird issue. Was backing car out of garage so I could get another car out and center it in garage to work on. As I backed up stinger to end of driveway and put in park noticed a faint burning smell, but thought nothing of it.

Left car out there all day while working on other. It wasn't until later when going back in the stinger I noticed the vent control knob was melted. This is the furthest one to the right. Don't think this is heat related as I would have expected this in July from the sun, not today. It was overcast all day and cool here in Toronto,so I ruled out the sun and something inside the car magnifying it enough to melt.

At the time of starting the car in garage I believe the ac was ON. Not sure if that attributed to it or not. I tried playing with the settings on the hvac, ac,sync, recirc, fresh air, heat to see if I could make it reoccur.

Attached are pics of the knob as well as one that is in good condition. As you can see the center black piece is recessed around the plastic/aluminum surround, but the melted one seems to have melted from the inside outward. Very baffled.
I don't see any electrical wiring in the vicinity and the vents are manually operated closed or open with a flap. I'm stumped.
Is this a dealer visit and possible warranty or will I be denied as if I broke it somehow. Not sure how to take these knobs off if possible and replace myself or the whole vent has to come off? Kinda worried about an electrical gremlin now too but I don't see how that's possible.

Only thread I could find that is similar but deals with cracking vents not burning, is this one

Dashboard ventilations damages?

Hello everybody, I have a question regarding the 3 round ventilations that we have in the dashboard. I just realised today something that looks like a break/crack in it which I could not understand how it would have happened, then I found out the same on each vents. I've never noticed this...

stingerforum.org

 

[nhcowboy28]

Your vent knob melts after smelling smoke....and you question If this warrants a dealer visit.........

 

[Dieselxx]

Your vent knob melts after smelling smoke....and you question If this warrants a dealer visit.........

With all the horror stories of dealers and warranty denials, I'd probably much rather rip up the dash myself lol. I don't have much faith in Kia dealers.
I don't see any electrical there either.

The old lady drives the car, maybe she did something she's not admitting to lol

 

[MerlintheMad]

Something HOT made contact with that plastic. Look at the "groove"; it raised black plastic on either side of it. This wasn't hot from the inside. A curling iron instantly comes to mind, or somesuch nonsense. Anyway, that's the angle I'd pursue. There's no way that Kia is going to warranty damage caused by an accident.

But I bet that replacing those knobs isn't a big expense or requires tearing into the dash either. In the meanwhile, just apply an X-acto knife to trim the rough/raised plastic away and maybe a small jewelers file to smooth it down even more. You'll probably hardly notice a thing.

 

[Dieselxx]

Something HOT made contact with that plastic. Look at the "groove"; it raised black plastic on either side of it. This wasn't hot from the inside. A curling iron instantly comes to mind, or somesuch nonsense. Anyway, that's the angle I'd pursue. There's no way that Kia is going to warranty damage caused by an accident.

But I bet that replacing those knobs isn't a big expense or requires tearing into the dash either. In the meanwhile, just apply an X-acto knife to trim the rough/raised plastic away and maybe a small jewelers file to smooth it down even more. You'll probably hardly notice a thing.

I'm just going to leave it for now, the only other thing I can think of is there was a car vent air freshener clip there a few months ago that I threw away. They are known for melting plastic. But surprised I never noticed it before that. Don't drive the car much but it's entirely possible I guess. Maybe the smell this morning, was me just trying to connect dots.

To replace those vents need to take whole dash piece apart starting to from glove box. Not too bad to do, maybe a future project if I get sick of looking at it. Or swap one of the rear vents which aren't as noticeable to the front.