As we all know this is a common failure on the A4 - caused by the damper becoming stiff over time and placing extra strain on the hinge. A new glovebox is in the region of £150, but the hinge can be repaired.
Firstly remove glovebox consists of three bolts along the top, and two underneath, and then disconnect light at plug - No pics sorry but it's a doddle!
The removed glovebox will look like this:
Turn the glovebox upside down and remove these pins. This is infact ridiculously hard! It took me ages to wiggle them free using molegrips and a screwdriver as leverage. It is possible to mend the hinge without removing the lid, but I wanted to make sure I had good access to do it as strongly as possible:
It chews up the pin and surrounding area a bit, it looks bad here but can be tidied up, and the whole area is out of sight anyway:
And this is the broken hinge:
I made a bracket from an old kitchen door hinge, but any suitable piece of metal will do. Its a bit fiddly to bend it the exact shape, but worth persevering:
I chose to glue it and screw it to be sure:
Glovebox refitted:
The culprit behind all this is this damper, the pictures show it in position both closed and extended.
I chose to take the damper barrel apart and inside is an O ring which governs the resistance inside the barrel. Using a Stanley knife I trimmed about 2mm from all round the outside. This allows it slide much easier but still offer some resistance. At the very least ensure it's been well lubricated (Credit to Marc1 for that tip).
Firstly remove glovebox consists of three bolts along the top, and two underneath, and then disconnect light at plug - No pics sorry but it's a doddle!
The removed glovebox will look like this:
Turn the glovebox upside down and remove these pins. This is infact ridiculously hard! It took me ages to wiggle them free using molegrips and a screwdriver as leverage. It is possible to mend the hinge without removing the lid, but I wanted to make sure I had good access to do it as strongly as possible:
It chews up the pin and surrounding area a bit, it looks bad here but can be tidied up, and the whole area is out of sight anyway:
And this is the broken hinge:
I made a bracket from an old kitchen door hinge, but any suitable piece of metal will do. Its a bit fiddly to bend it the exact shape, but worth persevering:
I chose to glue it and screw it to be sure:
Glovebox refitted:
The culprit behind all this is this damper, the pictures show it in position both closed and extended.
I chose to take the damper barrel apart and inside is an O ring which governs the resistance inside the barrel. Using a Stanley knife I trimmed about 2mm from all round the outside. This allows it slide much easier but still offer some resistance. At the very least ensure it's been well lubricated (Credit to Marc1 for that tip).
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