Jammed Glovebox 9-3SS Aero 2003

[chris aka zaphod]

As above, really. I don't keep too much in the glovebox, but going to open it the other day, it is jammed, at the button end.
I have undone and removed two of the torx screws at the bottom of the box, to give a little more play. The left hand catch doesn't really seem to be attached to anything. Removing the nearside fuse cover in an attempt to get better access, but no joy.

Taking the cover off of the operating button, I see another torx screw that secures the mechanism. Sod's Law that the Saab screwdriver with the torx blade is in the glovebox.

Any ideas?

[sgould]

You may have to break in.  Even if you get the four front screws out, you still have the screw in the middle at the far end of the box that's only accessible with the door open.

But getting the glovebox out might fix it.  The button and the lock are not part of the lid.  Can you get anything in the gap to fiddle with the pin shown here.  It's the bit that releases the lid.

[chris aka zaphod]

It'll be a struggle, but I'll give it a go, Will.

[Petemate]

Hindsight I know Chris, but better to keep the little Saab multi-driver with the torx bits in the rear under the lower boot flap! I nearly left mine in the glove box once, but don't ask why, I looked at it and thought no, I'll go to the trouble of going back to the rear and put it back where it belongs.

[Guyver1]

Bloke at work kept a can of tyre weld in his glove box

Red hot sunny day and the can went pop

His glovebox set like concrete. pmsl

[Petemate]

Bloke at work kept a can of tyre weld in his glove box

Red hot sunny day and the can went pop

His glovebox set like concrete. pmsl

That is quality

[smurkenstein]

I had this glovebox problem a few months back. There is a tendency to try to force it open by pulling down (it just bend and mangles the whole thing). The thing that fixed it for me was pushing it in (up hard) and it came free. Counter intuitive.

[nine-fiver]

Restoring an old e21 323i, and the glovebox actually has a 25mm hole in the bottom. Why? to let all the water that leaks from the windscreen seal into the box then go all over the carpet!

Nice if it didn't leak in the first place...

[chris aka zaphod]

So the glovebox now works. A determined effort of 20 minutes today did the trick - although I have been having a 5 minutes play with whole thing before going into evening work

A little loosening of accessible screws and nuts - including those by the fuse box - gave wriggle room. Then, after pushing up the door, the Left Hand latch locked - something that it hadn't been doing. We're getting somewhere. A little more wriggling, and a push or two of the release button, and the glove box opened. Contents: two pairs of gloves, the OBD code reader, and the Saab screwdriver with two blades. Nothing else.

What caused the issue in the first place? It's a mystery - could it have been the larger temperature variations we have had recently?

Rattle free, now, too - a bonus.

Thanks, everyone for your input.

[sgould]

Well done!!

[smurkenstein]

Nice one! (although I am a bit confused about the gloves)

[chris aka zaphod]

His and hers - a throwover from years gone by when we had the convertible.
It would be rude not to