2000-2002 old style gove box POS door hinge

Well,

I finally joined the club of VDubbers with a broken glove box hinge. So, faced with a choice of spending close to $300 for the NEW style or paying $28.00 for a new replacement door, guess which one I chose???

After doing a search on the VOrtex, I found a thread where someone suggested drilling a small hole at the end of the door "brake"
I don't have the new door yet, but have performed the necessary "dampnerectomy".

For those of you who still have an in-tact door, I would highly recommend LUBRICATING THE PISTON OF THE DAMPNER as preventative maintenance. It will save you from having to remove your center console, glove box, etc, etc.

Here's the basic problem: the door brake is way over designed for the strength of the plastic door hinge. So, with time the piston will cause the hinge to fail.

Here are some pics


POS door hinge


The piston is located on the right side




Piston with door hinge seen from the back side

First, remove the piston Pin that holds it to the POS hinge


You need to squeeze the pin for each hole you go through. First the hinge, then the piston, then the hinge again.


Pry and pop off the white plastic cap. Be careful!


Remove the internal piston and drill bottom with a small bit


[ January 04, 2003, 16:28: Message edited by: tongsli ]

To remove the lock, there are (4) little fingers that hold the tumbler in place. WHen you lift the handle, use a mirror to see up underneath.

Using a pic or dental type tools, pry the fingers away from the tumbler. Once all four are pulled away, the tumbler will come free.

VERY important, insert your key BEFORE removing the tumbler. Otherwise, the springs and tumblers will fall out all over the place!!!



Reassemble everything, attach new door, re-install glove box and center console.

Lito

[ January 04, 2003, 16:23: Message edited by: tongsli ]

Great pics as always, Lito.

A couple points:

(1) The hinge breaks because the dampener "pulls back" too hard on the door putting strain on the hinge. Drilling the hole and cutting the spring releases some of the pressure in the piston so it doesn't pull back so hard on the door.

(2) Lubing the piston with some 3-in-1 oil or graphite before reassembling is probably a great idea.

(3) The Vortex thread: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=309130

-Brian

I forgot to say Brian was my inspiration last night on-line as I was complaining to him. He pushed me to pop off the white spring cap and to drill the piston.

I can't wait to get this installed

The piston has a rubber piece inside that over time tends to dry-out and harden. Lubrication is definately a good idea.

I also noticed that during cold weather, the door would open very, very slowly. Must have been the cold air not being able to escape from the piston.

Mine broke as I was trying to close the door. The piston was "pushing" back on the door and it snapped

Lito

Oh oh, here I come again with questions

Actually, just have a quick one. If I was to try this out on my "intact" glove box, do I need to mess with the key thing, or is that step only for those that are replacing the door (like a tumbler r&r?)

Thanks and great info as always!

Great pics & Info, but I have to throw in my .02

The design of the glovebox hinge is poor to say the least, but in almost all cases, its the tension from closing it that breaks the hinge, not opening it. The spring inside the damper has no effect on the closing of the door, its the piston that does. Just drilling a small hole in the bottom as you described & squirting some lube in there will do just fine. No need to dissassemble, just pull on piston and drill through the bottom. In fact, it seems that the tension from the spring helps to retract the piston, so cutting it does not help, but hinders the hinge while closing.

Volks27, If your hinge is intact still, No need to change locks, That step is for switching a broken door for a new one.

The only other advice I can give is if you do have to take the door off to replace it, mix up some JB weld or epoxy and fill in the cavity on the underside of the hinge. That will strengthen it significantly. But still do the damper mod Lito has described to make sure it doesn't break again.

[ January 03, 2003, 01:05: Message edited by: wingnut ]

My hinge broke and after the dealer replaced it it no longer dampened. New design? Or maybe they disabled the damper?

Replace the lock only if you're replacing the door.

I also thought of the JBweld and reinforcement from underneath, just not sure how much it'll help.

I think Wingnut has a good point about the spring, I'm not sure yet what to say about that part until I get this installed. The reason we thought this might be necessary was to make sure with the new hole that the door actually opens all the way down. If you don't want to cut your spring, don't cut it. I too don't think it's absolutely necessary.

Wingnut, have you tried pulling the piston with just your fingers? Man, it's tough. I do think you can drill the dampner bottom without pulling on the piston.

I highly doubt the dealership replaced your entire glove box. The 2003's don't have the same design. I'm willing to bet they didn't re-attach the "brake". Take the side panel off and you can see what they did.

Lito

PS. Get my new door today and will install this tomorrow.

[ January 03, 2003, 07:07: Message edited by: tongsli ]

My late '02 model glovebox door doesn't dampen. It's the one that SVTWEB switched too.

Nice job as always, Lito. So, if I want to do this mod on my unbroken door to help prevent it's eventual breakage, I can do it all by just removing the side panel?

Thanks,

-Mel

Yes, Mel. Just remove the side panel. Try just drilling the hole on the brake bottom, reinstall and see how it works.

Please post your results?

Lito

Late 2002's and later (and those of us who have the Europwn Glove box) do NOT have a dampner like the US boxes. We have a "Brake" assy. on the inboard hinge simular to a cassette door mechinism. This is one of the reasons that I believe the US cars switched to the European box.. too many complaints about the broken hinges.

Originally posted by tongsli:
Yes, Mel. Just remove the side panel. Try just drilling the hole on the brake bottom, reinstall and see how it works.

Please post your results?

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Will do! Try to get it done this weekend...

-Mel

P.S. BTW, Eric... when the list of mods in your sig. block gets longer than the text in your posts, you have to sell your car... TO ME!!

[ January 03, 2003, 08:08: Message edited by: golfstream ]

Originally posted by tongsli:
Wingnut, have you tried pulling the piston with just your fingers? Man, it's tough. I do think you can drill the dampner bottom without pulling on the piston.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">An interesting thought I had the other night, too: Suppose you pry off the side panel, and open the glove box door so that the piston is pulled all the way out. And then you drill a hole in the end (or side, even) of the cup while it's still on the car. That is, don't dismantle anything. I may try this myself. What do you think?

I hadn't realized that these things break more often when the door is being closed. If that's the case, I agree with wingnut. Makes sense to me. The only reason I'd disagree is if the spring "wants" to close the door, but I don't think this will happen.

That said, I really don't think cutting coils hurts anything.

-Brian

My hinge broke recently on a cold morning while opening my glovebox. I replaced the door and decided to simply remove the brake. It's easy enough to remove the brake without removing the entire glove box and I recommend this to anyone who wants to keep his hinge. The only drawback I see is that the glove box door might break if you let it drop while opening it, so just be careful.

Someone please describe to me or post a picture of what the hinge failure looks like. Jeff

jmur, see Lito's first picture. It shows the glove box door with a piece broken off, i.e., hinge failure. That piece has two sets of holes. The one in the foreground is what the door pivots on, i.e., the hinge. The hole in the background is connected to what we're calling the dampener, which is the piston/spring piece he's showing in the other pictures. When a failure happens, that piece of the door that the door hinges on breaks off.

-Brian

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by tongsli:
Wingnut, have you tried pulling the piston with just your fingers? Man, it's tough. I do think you can drill the dampner bottom without pulling on the piston.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An interesting thought I had the other night, too: Suppose you pry off the side panel, and open the glove box door so that the piston is pulled all the way out. And then you drill a hole in the end (or side, even) of the cup while it's still on the car. That is, don't dismantle anything. I may try this myself. What do you think?

I hadn't realized that these things break more often when the door is being closed. If that's the case, I agree with wingnut. Makes sense to me. The only reason I'd disagree is if the spring "wants" to close the door, but I don't think this will happen.

That said, I really don't think cutting coils hurts anything.

-Brian

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Lito,

The piston is hard to pull out, but doable. I just pulled it out to make sure that I did not interfere with anything inside the cylinder. But after looking at your pics, it is a pretty simple construction, so nothing to damage.

Brian,

Your right, cutting the coil does not hurt anything at all, but IMHO it is an uneccessary step. The drilling a hole in the side idea will probably work as well. Even less stuff to remove. I would suggest spraying lube in the hole as well. My drilled damper was easier to open & close after just drilling, but still stiff. But make sure that its rubber compatible. I believe that WD40 is not and will cause the rubber o-ring to swell defeating the purpose, but not 100% sure about that?

Wingnut,

Man, how embarrased am I that I can't hold that darn piston

A few observations about that darn dampner. During the winter, the cold definately affects it's operation. The air is more dense, the spring is cold and the air is DRY. There is absolutely NO lubrication inside that piston.

I tried first spraying lubrication from the piston side and that helped a bit, but the hole had the greatest affect.

IMHO, this is absolutely a PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE measure. It's like the darn window regulators; it's not if, but when they'll break.

L

I hadn't realized that these things break more often when the door is being closed. If that's the case, I agree with wingnut. Makes sense to me. The only reason I'd disagree is if the spring "wants" to close the door, but I don't think this will happen.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sure, now you make up your mind

L

Originally posted by wingnut:
Your right, cutting the coil does not hurt anything at all, but IMHO it is an uneccessary step. The drilling a hole in the side idea will probably work as well. Even less stuff to remove. I would suggest spraying lube in the hole as well. My drilled damper was easier to open & close after just drilling, but still stiff. But make sure that its rubber compatible. I believe that WD40 is not and will cause the rubber o-ring to swell defeating the purpose, but not 100% sure about that?

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I agree: Lube it. I would not use WD40 for that job, either. WD40 has a tendency to gum up, which isn't a good thing.

I've repaired 2 already.....1st pic....find a flat headed wood screw that will go through the broken piece and just bite into the glove box without comming through the front side of the glove box. Fill that whole area with expoy or JB weld and put the screw in!

I drilled tons of holes and didn't get any difference in how they felt so I sure didn't think the air pressure was doing anything!!!

thanks, tongsli. I fixed the glove hinge yesterday. Then hinge in mine is not totally broken off and still hanging by the corner. I just reinforced the hinge with sheet metal and some metal screws. I drill a hole in the damper without removing the unit and put a drop of oil in the damper itself. now when I open the box the door come down quite fast almost no damper action. I might have drill too big a whole. 99.5 golf stock

FWIW: When the weather got cold, I started to closed the box in five small incremental steps to allow pressure in the pistion to release. Then I just emptied the glove box and locked it.

But, this drilling in the piston is a definate project! thanks.

Ok update:

Installed the new glove box door today. Put in the dampner. The door opens quickly, like TDI168 said, but I know the new door and hinge should last the life of the car.

Now, for those of you who haven't broken their glove box door yet, please listen very carefully.

If you are going to be bothered by the door opening more quickly and not nice and slow, then DO NOT PERFORM THIS MODIFICATION. You will not be happy.

I recommend that you first try lubricating the piston as you open and close the door. This is easily done with the side panel off.

This may be enough!!!!

Please post here your results.

Lito

TDI168,

There must be a bleeder screw (the kind on your screen door piston) that we could add to the hole on the back of the piston. If you want to reverse this mod, simply JB weld a piece of plastic over the hole.

I did this too... I found it was easier to remove the whole box and bring it inside the house to work on it.

It now opens lightning fast. You guys think the hinge could break in the case the door was dropped (opening the door without manually holding the door) ?

I modified my glove box today, not by the hinge but the piston. I poked a hole in the bottom, cut the top 1-coil off the spring, and lubed it up with some "Corrosion Block" grease. Took the better part of 10 minutes for this mod. I didn't fill the hinge with epoxy nor fill the inner box lid with expainding foam but I figure it will last longer now than before. (I don't use my glovebox too often.)

Volks27,

Try putting a piece of duct tape over the hole.
I don't think the weight of the door is equal to the pressure of the piston. No, I don't think it'll break.

I want to make sure this gets on the second page for those who don't read the entire thread.

For those of you who haven't broken their glove box door yet, please read very carefully.

If you are going to be bothered by the door opening more quickly and not nice and slow, then DO NOT PERFORM THIS MODIFICATION. You will not be happy.

I recommend that you first try lubricating the piston as you open and close the door. This is easily done with the side panel off.

This may be enough!!!!

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

So, what kind of lube is being recommended at this point? Would good ole vaseline work or 3-in-1 or how about a teflon spray?

I used plain old silicone spray. Worked like a charm.