Replacing rusty rear number plate light strips

[JAM35F]

Hi, used to be on here a year or so regularly until the recession forced the sale of my 1.8TQS. Am on the hunt for a new one but all the ones I've seen amongst other issues are suffering from rusty number plate plinths on the bootlid, both avants and saloons.

My old one had no rust here and I'd worry about it spreading to the lid itself. Is it anything to worry about?

Can the plinth itself be removed and replaced easily?

Or can it simply be removed, rubbed down and resprayed by myself?

many thanks in advance, James

 

[jcb]

only facelift cars had metal light strips, unlikely to spread as the door is steel and the strip is Aluminium,
TBH it is p1ss easy to fix, couple of bolts and few things to unclip and the strip comes out, bit of sanding, flatten it out, prime, paint a couple of times and you are done,

the bonus is that because it is a seperate panel and is slightly curved you can get away with an aerosol paint job that is not a perfect match in colour and you wont notice. did mine and it worked a charm,

 

[JAM35F]

thanks for the quick reply, was it the number plate strip on a saloon or avant? I assume both have similar ish fixings?

Any issues with the boot lock when spraying - is it easy to remove/replace without messing up any central locking etc?

 

[jcb]

Peice of P1ss
It was an Avant
lock unclips lights unclip, electronic handle door release unclips.
two 13mm (IIRC) bolts hold light/release housing
two screws to remove lights (to clean them)

there is a foam backing between door and strip which you may want to replace but once I had painted it you can't tell and I just whacked some left over draught excluder in there to stop it rubbing the door paint.
cost less than a tener and you can drive around with the strip out if you need to. (in an avant at least as you can open from the inside manually....saloon may be tricky!)

 

[JAM35F]

thanks for all the info, it's really appreciated. Sounds an easy job, exactly what I wanted to hear!

 

[olds_kool]

look out for door handles and little triangle bits on rear doors, they seem to go the same way on facelifts

 

[JAM35F]

Had the door triangle problem on my last TQS, never seen rusty door handles. Are they easy to fix or replace?

 

[jcb]

door handles are plastic on the facelift, paint begins to wear off. you remobe them by holding it open and inserting a small screwdriver into the square hole at one end.
It is just the faceplate that comes away allowing painting.
never done it but have the ETKA drawing to see how it is attached

 

[olds_kool]

mine aren't plastic there cast metal and aren't easy to remove, must of changed them to plastic on later ones?

 

[Broken Byzan]

MIne are alloy too. I have removed the whole thing by sliding the bracket thing across on the inside and releasing the rods inside, the whole assy comes out.

I can see how the handle/cover plate should come off, but i have struggled to actually manage it as yet,lol

 

[jcb]

not convinced mine are metal but I may be wrong!
cover plate snaps onto the main assembly, litlle square hole in the end gives access to the tab inside according to ETKA, that is why I thought they were plastic as alloy tabs would break rather than bend and release

 

[Broken Byzan]

maybe the backing bit is alloy and the flappy moving bit is plastic, i perhaps should have paid more attention when i drled them....LOL

 

[PaulJC84]

My rear plinth is making the bootlid bubble where it rubs at the bottom corners. I have been tempted to take it along to Audi but have never bothered as I will probably get told to ****** off.

 

[ian52]

I went to audi with mine and got told to jog on but others have had it done under warranty. They wont do the trim just the boot lid i think. My door handles and rear triangles are needing done too. I just did the boot and trim myself.

 

[aragorn]

i had the TQS into audi recently in an attempt to get some bubbling on all four doors fixed under the bodywork warranty.

They got the bodyshop folk round to look at it, and he agreed that it did seem to be some sort of defect, the paint on the lower sections of the doors was thinner than the rest of the car etc. They put a report into audi, and they came back saying it was a paint defect, and so is only covered for 3 years, not 12.

WTF!

The warranty certainly wont cover trim, so things like the door handles and boot handle wont be covered. My door handles are bubbling and one is thru to the metal. the door triangles have already been replaced, and the boot handle has a very small patch at the corner that looks like the start of corrosion, so i should probably remove it and fix it before it gets worse!

 

[PaulJC84]

I would be happy if they sorted the boot and I could get the trim done myself. I think they would tell me where to go.

I may give it a shot in a couple of weeks.

 

[ian52]

Just keep at them and point out others have had it done. Nearly every facelift b5 i have seen for sale has rust on the boot at the corners of the light strip.

 

[jcb]

don't bother with edinburgh audi.

they wont cover anything related to trim parts.
he actually got very ****** off with me when I mentioned that I knew the ins and outs of the various warranties and examples of cars that had been done under warranty in other areas.

c0ck!