[Biturbos4] B5 S4 Glove box strut/dashpot

[Brandon Rogers]

Nice.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Brandon 
'00 S4
'91 911 turbo
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Biturbos4 [mailto:biturbos4-bounces at www.audifans.com] On Behalf Of Ti Kan
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2016 6:32 AM
To: quattro at audifans.com; biturbos4 at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [Biturbos4] B5 S4 Glove box strut/dashpot

I fixed it!

To recap:

My S4's glovebox dashpot broke, so the lid just crashed down when being opened, instead of gliding down in a smooth, damped manner.

The Solution:

The dashpot Audi part number is 8D1880324A, but it's no longer available, so I obtained the B6 platform version to install. Its part number is 8E1880324A.

Unfortunately, while its top mount is the same, the B6 dashpot is significantly shorter than the B5 version. When the dashpot rod is fully extended, it doesn't reach far enough to allow the glovebox to open fully.

Here are comparison photos of the B5 (longer) and B6 (shorter) dashpots, with and without the rod extended:

http://www.amb.org/ti/audi/autiq/dashpots1.jpg
http://www.amb.org/ti/audi/autiq/dashpots2.jpg

To make the B6 dashpot work, I had to modify how the dashpot rod attaches to the glovebox lid. Rather than attaching it to the original mounting hook, I drilled a hole on the inside left wall of the glovebox and mounted a 1" long #6-32 machine screw, and tightened with large flat washers and a lock nut. The screw also goes through the holes at the end of the dashpot rod, and capped with another lock nut. The location of the drilled hole is carefully chosen to allow the glovebox to close fully, and will still open wide enough for access to the contents.

Photos of the modification are here:

http://www.amb.org/ti/audi/autiq/glovebox1.jpg
http://www.amb.org/ti/audi/autiq/glovebox2.jpg

The B6 dashpot has an electrical connector that should be left unconnected when used in this way. The dashpot also acts as a switch for the glovebox light, but on the B5 there is a separate switch for this.

Here is a short video of the glovebox opening smoothly again, after the modification/fix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb6scRLGjhU

-Ti

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