Removing door trim

111S

111S

Member
Well, as the avatar shows, there's 2 x A2's on my drive at the moment, I've borrowed a friend's while he's on hol so my missus & I could see if we really liked the car.

I am sprucing his A2 up, it's an 03 car and he's had it from new but doesn't give it any TLC. 86k on the clock, it's never missed a beat but aesthetically it needs some lovin'.

Anyway - and here's the point of the thread - the front passenger side window was broken at some point during the car's life and there is residual broken glass kicking around in the door. Sounds horrible when you shut the door but even worse is it scrapes on the window when you operate it. Yes, imagine that glass on glass scraping noise - you don't want to open the window too often if you value your sanity.

So... are there any tips for removing the door trim so I can stick a vacuum nozzle in there?
 
Here's hoping you plump for an A2 in the end - you won't go far wrong if you do (especially with a diesel).

Anyway, the door trim:

Take off the tweeter grille (blade at the back and just pop it out).

There is a screw here (T25 from memory) and a further 2 under the door pull/armrest, Remove these and then starting at the bottom, sharply tug the door card away - the clips are stiff and make an 'orrible noise, but don't worry.

From there, unhook the bowden cable, noting the way it hooks into the release catch and then the electrical connector. Lift the card up and away.

Then, it's a case of undoing all the little black screws to release the ally panel and then you're in.

HOWEVER:

Be warned, the lower pocket into which most of the glass drops has a really thin opening and you'll struggle to get anything in there to get the glass out. The only real way is to take the door off and tip it upside down, but this is probably going above and beyond.

The most you can really expect to do is to get rid of any glass higher up that is causing the scraping.

Cheers,

Mike
 
the screws for the door card are Torx20; they are angled. Don't try to put it back on for the first time in the dark without a torch! The top one is obvious, the lower two - put your screwdriver into the hole and note the approximate angle. This will help enormously.

Clip the card back into place from the top - make sure it sits properly - then push the clips back into place.

The inner skin has also 3 philips screws, not just tx30. The ones with the oversize heads belong at the top.

Use a paper coffee cup or similar to collect them all.

I'll agree, though - the door is really inelegant at this point. It's quite possible you'll want to remove the upper frame to get better access to behind the space for the loudspeaker; alternatives would include using something like a kebab stick to shift glass around. Get the skin off and see :) Should take around 20-30 mins for the first time to get the card off and then another 15 to get the inner skin off. It's possible that it's also stuck in the middle, so you may need to cut the foam "seal" in the middle - NOT the "draught excluder" that's round the outside!

Hope this helps.

Bret
 
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Great responses guys, thanks very much indeed.

Mike - the one on the left in the avatar (Akoya Silver TDi90) is mine! We had our friends' black Tdi(75) for just under a week and knew we wanted one. Coming from the diesel Honda Accord, as good as it is on paper, the Honda was too big and my missus in particular never liked it (and it's her car really). In contrast, the A2 just feels 'right' (preaching to the converted I expect!). Bought the Accord for the wrong reasons, thought it was going to be economical but you had to drive it at 60 to get into 50+ mpg and even then you were really trying.

I can see me requesting the cruise control mod by you at some point, Mike - but the Elise has head gasket failure and requires my car funds at the moment :(
 
Ah, I see - you've gotten past the selection stage and acquired one already - missed that bit.

Anyway, whenever you're ready for cruise (or any other mods and additions), just drop me a line - always going to be here and it's a pleasure to talk A2!!

Cheers,

Mike
 
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