Well, you guys were correct... I called Weber today and they said my lid is of course no longer under warranty. They also said that they didn't have the dark GREEN color left anyway, so they would have to sell me a BLACK lid for $54. The lady helping me was very knowledgable and friendly, I just don't think there was much she could do. In the end I'd rather keep this lid anyway as it has the original vent (code) on it.
On a side note, I got some work done to the old girl tonight, so lets look at some grill pron.... (sorry for the poor cell-phone pics)
First off was the burner. Why did it produce a small whispy orange (not blue) flame that wanted to blow out if you looked at it the wrong way? Well, thanks to the info on this forum, I knew how to pull it apart and what to look for. Here's what I found.
Here's the orifice after I removed the burner. It was "just a bit" dirty!
All cleaned up...
Then the ignitor. Again, horribly dirty...
And cleaned up:
And the results? SUCCESS!! Now THAT's a blue flame!
I spent the next hour scrubbing off the crud and grime inside the grill. After almost an entire can of Easy Off, it looks a lot better than it did. I also drilled out the vent rivet so that the vent can be straigtened out and reassembled as a working (tight) vent instead something that spins like a roulette wheel...round and round.
The next time I get a chance, I'm going to try to fix/reinforce the charcoal grate (welder) as it is badly warped from the heat. Also, I need to put some larger stainless bolts holding the handle on. The little screws the previous owner used aren't going to cut it.