Glove Box Locked!

[Avant_Dave]

Since having an ipod in the car I'm using the glove box more these days which will now not open in either locked or unlocked position! Can anyone tell me how to get glove box open with least fuss and damage... Thanks.

[reallyfree]

Just happened to mine too (A4 SE TDI 2003). Locked it, then unlocked it and now lever just just pulls forward with no resistance. Nothing broke or snapped - cant understand it, must be a common fault.
Dont fancy taking in to a dealer - can anyone help?

[reallyfree]

Bit more searching - found this...
http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=22695&highlight=glove

[RickT]

Text located from above thread.


open the passenger door. at the end of the dash there is a panel that comes off with a small screw driver, take off panel to expose the glove box and in the top right there is the catch for the glove box, press that in with the screw driver and you glove box should open. you then undo the screws on the top of the glove box until it falls out, then you can unscrew the lock fron the right hand side and replace.
its simple enough you just need 3 hands to put it back together.


Also... there are 2 screws on the bottom of the glove box if you want to remove it completely..

Rick

[Avant_Dave]

Thanks, it worked a treat. Now just gotta find out why it didn't wanna open in the first place!

[RickT]

Thanks, it worked a treat. Now just gotta find out why it didn't wanna open in the first place!


Nice one!.

Let us know the outcome once you have sorted it,

Cheers

Rick

[reallyfree]

Just got my new catch but cant seem to remove old one from glove box. I have the box out completely, removed the single torx screw to right of catch. Even using a small screwdriver to hold back plastic catch (part of box) it is still solid. Any ideas?

[gregk81]

Just got my new catch but cant seem to remove old one from glove box. I have the box out completely, removed the single torx screw to right of catch. Even using a small screwdriver to hold back plastic catch (part of box) it is still solid. Any ideas?

I persevered with trying to fix my '03 A4 glove box and got there in the end... it wasn't obvious. The catch on mine had stopped working, clearly the springs inside had gone. Firstly I removed the entire glovebox by removing the side panel (that faces off to the closed passenger door) and then removed the entire glove box by removing the three screws holding it at the top (open glove box to get to them) and the two screws underneath holding it in at the bottom. This bit was fairly straightforward and the whole unit comes out, just remember to disconnect the wires to the glove box light and any other optional extras fitted.

Now for the tricky bit... getting to the levers and springs that operate the glove box mechanism. You don't need to remove the lid (in fact doing so is difficult because the retaining pins are firmly seated). The lid is made of two parts, a smooth to touch plastic inner and a dash textured material outer. These two parts are glued together (no screws). The way to get it apart is by cracking the glue apart. I started by using my fingers on the hinged edge of the lid to prize the two halves apart. There is a LOT of glue used and you will need to hear lots of cracking, do this very carefully. Once I'd worked a little space free, I used a flat piece of plastic (freezer scraper) to help pull the two halves apart. After a little persistence and fearing I'd damage the outer, the two halves came apart cleanly:

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The inner half contains the fragile looking double spring mechanism (one on each side) that pushes the plastic rods out to keep the glove box closed. On mine, the plastic mounts for the springs on the inner part of the lid had broken off. I remedied this by using a bent hacksaw blade to cut slots in the remaining part of the mount so the springs could be reattached in the new grooves. Reattaching the springs was quite a fiddly job, be careful not to deform them:

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Do this for both springs - I expect both will be broken - and grease the moving areas as required. Now you should have a working mechanism and you are ready to reattach the two halves of the lid. You will see from the following close up that the two halves of the lid are attached using a lot of glue:

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Apply Loctite super glue or similar liberally over all the previously glued areas on the lid inner. You'll find that you use a significant amount of super glue! Once happy with the liberal coating, press the outer lid on to the inner ensuring that that the catch/lock mechanism is correctly seated. Apply pressure all round by hand and leave with pressure to dry:

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To be safe, I left to dry for a good 2-3 hours. Then just reattach the glove box unit to the car, recruiting a spare pair of hands if you can to help hold it in place while you screw it in.

[reallyfree]

Thanks for your detailed reply. I should have closed this off as i have now resolved the problem.

In my case the internals in the lid were fine, it was just the catch. I did nearly resort to splitting the lid in two to get at it though.

The catch should have dropped out after removing the single torx head screw, but the factory tightening of the screw must have pulled out the moulded in nutsert just enough to foul the hole on the lid. Realised this only after brute force trying to get it out!

The trick would have been insert a rod/screwdriver down inside the hole and push firmly down on the nutsert to push it back where it belonged into the catch moulding.

For what its worth the Audi parts guy said he had sold a few catches recently indicating they are starting to go on older higher mileage cars. I can see from the old catch it has a long plastic arm which broke at its weak point, so for others reading this i suggest gentle treatment pulling one's catch, should help to extend its life into old age!