Unfortunately, it’s that simple. A ring slid off my finger this morning and right up to the bottom of the front windshield, then slipped down into those vents… Is there any way to access/recover this ring? Is that ring going to be screwing anything up in there?
Yeah, the Car Care Nut on YouTube has a video of a teardown of the entire dashboard assembly to get at something dropped down into the vent system that got into the diverter assembly. It was an involved, complicated process. SM-S936U ?
Probably worth a shot with a video endoscope to locate it, and then possibly extract it with a flexible claw tool. Both of these tools are pretty cheap these days.
The video endoscope will often come with an assortment of hooky things you attach right on the camera end.