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Unfortunately, through my enquiries, the glove box and lid is not covered on most warrantees - and if you are thinking of buying a new glove box set anyway - what have you got to lose by trying this guide out first - could save you a few quid, eh?
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Recently, I had read various stories on the interweb of the glove-box lid lock mis-behaving? I have had the misfortune of having this happen to my Zaf glove-box very recently, and was thinking about ordering a new glove-box set from the dreaded VX Parts Dept!
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Not any more . . . read on LOL!
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With this 'problem', what happens is that when you close the lid, you would notice that the lid appears to close up ok, but in reallity it actually does not - only one of the catches on each side of the box lid will engage? This in turn ends up leaving the glove box light turned on - thereby draining the battery of power.
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Now, when you take a close look at the lock catches while the lid is actually open, you will see that when you operate the lock lever so as to 'open' the lid, upon release of the said lever, the catches will move very very slowly (if at all) into their original 'locked' position - most times (as previously mentioned above) only just the one will want to come out into position . . . and only then - after you have manually pulled it out!
Ok, the remedy?
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First off, you will need to remove the foot well cover from beneath the glove-box itself - there are two 'Twist & Turn' type washers that secure it to the footwell wall, roughly in the centre line area of the footwell, immediately under the box.
Next thing is to remove the box/lid combo itself - the footwell cover you just removed was covering 2 of the 4 glove box securing Torx bolts - you will need a T20 torx bit to undo them. Right, the final 2 of 4 torx bolts are visable at the top inside egdes of the open glove box shell - T20 Torx bit again for these. Once you have undone all 4 of the Torx bolts, you can then pull the glove box unit out from the foot-well as one piece . . . to enable you to progress further.
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To remove the lid from the glove box, you will see at the lower edge where lid joins box, that there are 2 sort of plastic/polyurethane 'pins' that run through the hinges? You need to push these from the centre line to the left and right (depending upon which side you choose to undo first of course). This will almost release the lid, but not quite yet. On the left hand side of the lid as you look at it from the front of the glove box, you will see there is a black plastic 'slider' that is attached to a little black plastic 'gear box' affair - this gives the lid a nice slow movement upon opening it. You can undo the slider from the gear box by carefully using a small flat bladed jewellers screw driver to encourage the catch at the end of the gear box to dis-engage with the slider. This will now allow you to put glove box asside and get on with the next step . . . .
Ok, now you will just need to 'grow a set' and bite the bullet - because, honestly, it WILL sound far worse than it is when you do this next step, but trust me, it is nothing to worry too much at all over. The secret is to take your time with it and all will be well in the end.
![]()
A flat bladed screw driver, and SLOW brute force is what is needed here - what you need to do is to start to loosen the bond that exists between both parts of the lid, and do this all around it completely - even overlapping the point at which you started to do it. Once this step is done, this next bit is the bit that sounds far worse than it really is. Better if there is two of you as well - four hands i think really are needed for this.
You need something long enough to act as a lever - what you will be doing is literally levering both parts of the lid slowly apart so that you can gain access to the lock assembly to make the correction needed. Like I say, you will hear sounds that will make you think it is going to break apart - if you take time doing this step, it should all come apart well. The cracking/breaking sounds you will hear is simply the bond between the 2 halves of the lid being broken, that is all - nothing to worry too much about. The person holding the lid needs to be taking care of, and holding onto only the inner part of the lid as there are a few things that could fall out as the 2 halves come apart from one another - don't worry too much about the outer part of the lid though, as that is all one piece and so you can't lose anything.
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Ok now, you have the inner and outer parts of the lid - put the outside bit to the side for now. What i found i had to do is this: The spring in the lock is too stressed by now, and has become relaxed to the extent of not being man enough to return the lock correctly. i carefully removed the spring from the lock and cut off 5 revolutions (not including the end which is turned over at 90 degrees to form the loop) of the spring off, and used a pair of long nosed pliers to turn the resulting end 90 degrees to form another loop - keep safe for now.
Right, the 2 plastic spigots which the spring was attached to? I measured the hole of the spigots which rest on the 2 lock pivot pins, and enlarged them by a gnat's knacker on a pillar drill - just enough to ease the binding effect that was evident in the (now spring-less) pair of spigots on the pins. You can just ease the spigots off of the pins by gently, but firmly, lifting them up and off the pins.
May as well say this now: as the lock is apart by now, and all moving parts visable - you may as well lightly grease the moving parts now, as you do not want to get it all back together and then think of grease! lol
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Right, ok . . . now that all is greased up, put the locking assembly all back together and carefully dry test it all while the lid is apart - if all is good (and i cannot think why it shouldn't be, providing you took time, and measured carefully) it is now time to re assemble everything.
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As they say in the Haines manuals: "Re-assembly is simply the reversal of dis-assembly" - helpful chaps them, ain't they!? lol
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For the lid parts, i simply ran a bead of hot glue gun glue all along the top and bottome edges of the lid, and quickly but carefully got them together before the glue set up hard. A minute or so of holding the parts together should see it back together well enough. Thats the hardest bit just about over with really? Just reverse the preliminary dis-assembly (testing the lock ability at each stage) and, at the end of it all, you SHOULD have a nice & tight fitting, and smoother operating glove box lid locking mechanism/action?
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Hope this is of help to anyone who come across this problem?
All the best,
Grim.
Edited by: Grim Reaper
Recently, I had read various stories on the interweb of the glove-box lid lock mis-behaving? I have had the misfortune of having this happen to my Zaf glove-box very recently, and was thinking about ordering a new glove-box set from the dreaded VX Parts Dept!
Not any more . . . read on LOL!
With this 'problem', what happens is that when you close the lid, you would notice that the lid appears to close up ok, but in reallity it actually does not - only one of the catches on each side of the box lid will engage? This in turn ends up leaving the glove box light turned on - thereby draining the battery of power.
Now, when you take a close look at the lock catches while the lid is actually open, you will see that when you operate the lock lever so as to 'open' the lid, upon release of the said lever, the catches will move very very slowly (if at all) into their original 'locked' position - most times (as previously mentioned above) only just the one will want to come out into position . . . and only then - after you have manually pulled it out!
Ok, the remedy?
First off, you will need to remove the foot well cover from beneath the glove-box itself - there are two 'Twist & Turn' type washers that secure it to the footwell wall, roughly in the centre line area of the footwell, immediately under the box.
Next thing is to remove the box/lid combo itself - the footwell cover you just removed was covering 2 of the 4 glove box securing Torx bolts - you will need a T20 torx bit to undo them. Right, the final 2 of 4 torx bolts are visable at the top inside egdes of the open glove box shell - T20 Torx bit again for these. Once you have undone all 4 of the Torx bolts, you can then pull the glove box unit out from the foot-well as one piece . . . to enable you to progress further.
To remove the lid from the glove box, you will see at the lower edge where lid joins box, that there are 2 sort of plastic/polyurethane 'pins' that run through the hinges? You need to push these from the centre line to the left and right (depending upon which side you choose to undo first of course). This will almost release the lid, but not quite yet. On the left hand side of the lid as you look at it from the front of the glove box, you will see there is a black plastic 'slider' that is attached to a little black plastic 'gear box' affair - this gives the lid a nice slow movement upon opening it. You can undo the slider from the gear box by carefully using a small flat bladed jewellers screw driver to encourage the catch at the end of the gear box to dis-engage with the slider. This will now allow you to put glove box asside and get on with the next step . . . .
Ok, now you will just need to 'grow a set' and bite the bullet - because, honestly, it WILL sound far worse than it is when you do this next step, but trust me, it is nothing to worry too much at all over. The secret is to take your time with it and all will be well in the end.
A flat bladed screw driver, and SLOW brute force is what is needed here - what you need to do is to start to loosen the bond that exists between both parts of the lid, and do this all around it completely - even overlapping the point at which you started to do it. Once this step is done, this next bit is the bit that sounds far worse than it really is. Better if there is two of you as well - four hands i think really are needed for this.
You need something long enough to act as a lever - what you will be doing is literally levering both parts of the lid slowly apart so that you can gain access to the lock assembly to make the correction needed. Like I say, you will hear sounds that will make you think it is going to break apart - if you take time doing this step, it should all come apart well. The cracking/breaking sounds you will hear is simply the bond between the 2 halves of the lid being broken, that is all - nothing to worry too much about. The person holding the lid needs to be taking care of, and holding onto only the inner part of the lid as there are a few things that could fall out as the 2 halves come apart from one another - don't worry too much about the outer part of the lid though, as that is all one piece and so you can't lose anything.
Ok now, you have the inner and outer parts of the lid - put the outside bit to the side for now. What i found i had to do is this: The spring in the lock is too stressed by now, and has become relaxed to the extent of not being man enough to return the lock correctly. i carefully removed the spring from the lock and cut off 5 revolutions (not including the end which is turned over at 90 degrees to form the loop) of the spring off, and used a pair of long nosed pliers to turn the resulting end 90 degrees to form another loop - keep safe for now.
Right, the 2 plastic spigots which the spring was attached to? I measured the hole of the spigots which rest on the 2 lock pivot pins, and enlarged them by a gnat's knacker on a pillar drill - just enough to ease the binding effect that was evident in the (now spring-less) pair of spigots on the pins. You can just ease the spigots off of the pins by gently, but firmly, lifting them up and off the pins.
May as well say this now: as the lock is apart by now, and all moving parts visable - you may as well lightly grease the moving parts now, as you do not want to get it all back together and then think of grease! lol
Right, ok . . . now that all is greased up, put the locking assembly all back together and carefully dry test it all while the lid is apart - if all is good (and i cannot think why it shouldn't be, providing you took time, and measured carefully) it is now time to re assemble everything.
As they say in the Haines manuals: "Re-assembly is simply the reversal of dis-assembly" - helpful chaps them, ain't they!? lol
For the lid parts, i simply ran a bead of hot glue gun glue all along the top and bottome edges of the lid, and quickly but carefully got them together before the glue set up hard. A minute or so of holding the parts together should see it back together well enough. Thats the hardest bit just about over with really? Just reverse the preliminary dis-assembly (testing the lock ability at each stage) and, at the end of it all, you SHOULD have a nice & tight fitting, and smoother operating glove box lid locking mechanism/action?
Hope this is of help to anyone who come across this problem?
All the best,
Grim.
Edited by: Grim Reaper
