T5 door lever repair?

[minniemousey]

Hi there, a while back I remember reading a how to post on repairing a broken door lever including instructions on how to get the door panel off. Can anyone post the link please? I've looked in the how to section but can't seem to find it.... Cheers!

[Ivo]

I think I did a post on my repair. Not sure where it is though lol.

[minniemousey]

Bugger! I tried doing a search of your posts but couldn't find it either. Anyway, how did your repair go?! Was it successful? I got the door panel off to find that I need to replace a not very well designed part! The one holds the cable to the door trim.

[Ivo]

Its worked well.....after I got it in the right position! I will have a look and see if i can find the post. If not I will write it up again.

[Ivo]

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/forums/f136/multivan-t5-door-lever-broken-51139-2.html


copy and paste:

Been there done that.....twice!

I broke mine, pulled it all apart gently to discover the crappy design. Glued the clip back on that holds the cable and it worked fine for a few months. Glue was a special u-beaut plastic stuff but just did not last and it broke again.

The door has three layers (maybe even more). They are trim, then metal panel then the external door skin. In between the metal panel and the door is the window.

I undid one of those bolts that holds the metal panel in place and used a heavy duty mounted head ziptie to hold the cable in place. Unfortunately it took me about 5 attempts to get the cable in the exact position so the mechanism would work. 5mm +/- and either direction and the metal hook was either to loose or to tight.

( 5-inch Mounted Head Cable Ties, 40 lb. Nylon Ties - CableTiesPlus.com )

I also had to grind down the bolt mount on the cable tie itself as the bolts are relatively short and would not get started.

To remove the door trim, you need to carefully prise up the switches and unplug the cables. Then undo all the bolts around the lower section of the door.

Then grab the piece that the switches were mounted to where it curves up to meet the dash and firmly lift it vertically and pull it off. Then undo the bolts that hold the handle in place. Then pull the trim out from the bottom of the door and then upwards....it should come off but be careful as there are to more wires attached and they need to be unplugged before the panel can be completely removed.

Hopefully that worked and you can see how little room there is to try to fix the problem.

If you don't have any luck I could probably pull mine off again and take pictures to show it all.

[minniemousey]

Cheers for that! I'll give it a go on the weekend hopefully.

[minniemousey]

Hey Ivo, just wanted to thank you for sharing your info about repairing the lever - the hardest part was finding the cable tie (no one knew what it was)!!

[Ivo]

No worries mate, hopefully it lasts! I should have taken a few pics when I did it. Would have made it much easier to understand lol.
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/MountedHead-3.jpg

[Cousin]

I'm gradually ticking off all the things that go wrong on a T5

Up to the door lever now

Broke the other day as I went to get out, pulled it apart today and unclipped this bit off the end of the door release cable


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/10/DSC_0292-1.jpg



This is where it came off, and it certainly is a poorly thought out design
This bit breaks off, it looks like a complete new door panel. Bloody waste


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/10/DSC_0300-1.jpg




What I want to do is mount the broken bit back where it came from, but to be strong enough to stay I'll need to glue the two broken edges together with something that melts or fuses plastic together
But I also want to glue the back of the broken bit to the panel behind it
Then just to make sure I'll glue a piece of thick(ish) plastic over the front of this repair


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/10/DSC_0299-1.jpg




But I don't know what glue I should be using
I need something that basically plastic welds, that is, melts the plastic surfaces to each other
Also need it to be able to span a 1 to 2 mm gap on the back, and not shrink or go brittle

I'm really not up with my glues

Anyone have any ideas what will do the job

I'm happy to leave the door panel off for a few days, or a week even, to make sure it sets properly

Thanks in advance



M

[Transporter]

Try Qbond, you can get it from the Bursons Auto Parts. I fixed shattered door handle on the sliding door (in the house not van) with it some 5 years ago and it's still good.

http://www2.blackwoods.com.au/infoBANKProduct.aspx?SG=2000165&S=4084748&G=2004226&P=2027380

[Ivo]

I glued mine the first time, cant remember if it lasted a few weeks or a few months, it broke again though. I used Araldite. Hopefully that Qbond stuff works, give it a try and report back.

[Cousin]

Thanks Transporter, I'll hunt down some Qbond

Ivo, I thought of an epoxy, or Araldite, but it's not reknown for it's shear strength, and I wasn't really sure what section cops all the tension, hence glueing the back as well

I'll let you know



M

[minniemousey]

i used a mounting cable tie (bunnings have them,22kg strenth) attaching it to the bolt oppisite on the door. i had to cut down the mounting hole as the bolt is short. fiddly but works well so far.
Dan

[minniemousey]

I'm gradually ticking off all the things that go wrong on a T5

Up to the door lever now



Hey Cousin, what else has gone wrong with your T5???! My mirrors keep breaking but that's the missus...

[Cousin]

Hey Cousin, what else has gone wrong with your T5???! My mirrors keep breaking but that's the missus...


Had all the problems in the world getting the wiring right for the towbar, but in all fairness to VW they weren't installing it

Exhaust manifold cracked and had to be replaced

Auto went, left me short a house deposit

And various other niggly bits that are nowhere near as serious or costly as the above


But on a positive, got the door back together tonight, and all working well!!

Here's a pic,


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/10/DSC_0315-1.jpg


It's not pretty, but if the glue holds, it isn't coming apart again in a hurry


M

[minniemousey]

i hope i dont have to deal with any of that... the glue job looks alright, hope it holds for you .
Dan

[Ivo]

Fingers crossed it works for you!

Imagine what the cost would be to replace the entire piece if you had to buy it from VW.

[Cousin]

My son had a gander at it Ivo, he's in the trade, and he said the whole panel would come as one, as the plastic rivets are only there because they couldn't mould the whole thing in one piece
So yeah, I'm guessing the whole door panel would have to be purchased!

And just on the strength of this thing, I picked up what part of the problem is and how to reduce the chances of it happening again, for me anyway

When it broke, and it may already have had a crack or tear there to begin with, I was immediately aware that I had pushed the door as I grabbed the lever. And I think probably pushed first

So that creates some strain on any weak point, and it broke

I'll be more aware, and not try to be in such a hurry to get out the door. Also there is a big difference between how far the door lever opens, and the movement of the latch. So if you try to pull the lever more than the latch will go, tension is taken up between the two.

Short story, I'll be much easier on the door lever now I know it's limitations



M

[Sunny43.5]

When you think about it this should not happen its obviously a design flaw that has not been picked up in testing , as usual not every test VW do covers all aspects . We too have had broken mirrors in both our vans as usual the designers have made the mirrors fold inwards if you hit something whilst driving forwards or hitting a poor pedestrian it folds in towards the van but low and behold if you are reversing as in two of our cases the mirror hooked up on something and voila ! you are poorer to the tune of a couple of hundred bucks depending on how much gets destroyed . :mad: Howard

[Cousin]

Sunny, I had a courier fly past me one day, I was parked on the side of the road

His mirror hit mine (how friggin close was he driving?!) and there was an explosion of plastic and glass on the road in front of me

Quickly checked, but my mirror was fine, just a very minor 'graize' on the outside plastic

It was his newish Transit van mirror all over the road in front of me

Went back to eating my lunch


M

[Sunny43.5]

Lucky for you maybe our hits were just bad luck ah well thems the brakes . Howard

[NOTVWR&D]

Hi,

My MY11 T5 Australian delivered Multivan front LHS passenger door lever stopped working a few days ago. It was as if the linkage had come loose - which it had.

When I removed the door card I experienced the problem as shown by Cousin below.

First my rant: I cannot believe that some VW engineer thought that the best idea would be to make the cable holder an integral part of the the entire door card. That they thought that a tiny bit of plastic would do the job. Furthermore I cannot believe that VW R&D ran any endurance testing on this component that would simulate the thousands of times that a door could be operated in its lifetime.

While there are some good solutions on this forum, here is mine:

See the picture and the stainless steel plate.

1. I took a 1mm thick piece of stainless steel plate. I cut it with tin snips to shape it. Then I bent a right angle into it. On the LHS you can just see the bent up lip. It stands about 8mm high. You may have to adjust the height of it a bit to get the cable to fit nicely into it.
2. Brown arrow - I drilled a small hole through (you can just see it) which I passed the cable hook and the thin part of the cable sheath. The existing forked ends to the cable sheath stay but do nothing apart from abutting the cable sheath to the plate.
3. The blue arrow points to a place where I had to bend the plate to go over an existing welded rivet.
4. The purple arrow points to a cable tie that passes through the two holes. The cable tie is tied when reassembling and holds the cable sheath so that it is correctly pointed and supported in the direction of the brown arrow.
5. The green arrow and circle point to where I used a sharp wood chisel by hand to remove some of the broken cable clip so that the cable can move cleanly in that area. You could use a box cutter/stanley knife.
6. The yellow arrow points to the hole where the hook on the end of the cable connects to.
7. As you can see, I used two short (8mm or so) self tapping screws to attach the plate. Careful not to use long ones that would pierce through the entire door card.

Does it work? It seems to... I did it yesterday. Time will tell.


33432





































Cheers,

Daryl


I'm gradually ticking off all the things that go wrong on a T5

Up to the door lever now

Broke the other day as I went to get out, pulled it apart today and unclipped this bit off the end of the door release cable


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/10/DSC_0292-1.jpg



This is where it came off, and it certainly is a poorly thought out design
This bit breaks off, it looks like a complete new door panel. Bloody waste


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/10/DSC_0300-1.jpg




What I want to do is mount the broken bit back where it came from, but to be strong enough to stay I'll need to glue the two broken edges together with something that melts or fuses plastic together
But I also want to glue the back of the broken bit to the panel behind it
Then just to make sure I'll glue a piece of thick(ish) plastic over the front of this repair


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/10/DSC_0299-1.jpg




But I don't know what glue I should be using
I need something that basically plastic welds, that is, melts the plastic surfaces to each other
Also need it to be able to span a 1 to 2 mm gap on the back, and not shrink or go brittle

I'm really not up with my glues

Anyone have any ideas what will do the job

I'm happy to leave the door panel off for a few days, or a week even, to make sure it sets properly

Thanks in advance



M