bigcoupe.com

Hey all...been offline for 2 months...playing catch-up reading old posts.

My glovebox "broke" in the closed position and I can't open it.

The latch pulls but it's lost its tension. I also hear a metallic rattle when I jiggle it -- as if a piece broke loose in the latch/key assembly.

How to proceed? Or should I (or would you) trust a good, old-fashioned locksmith? I can't find a diagram on realoem.com.

Regards...

Rich
1980 635CSi

Been there :)
Pull the door down and you'll see two Philips bolts. You can unscrew them with small phillips screwdriver.
When done, the u-shaped clamp come out and you'll open the door and you'll be able to take the lock apart.
Get new lock (you don't need full assembly, only inner part) from dealer, eBay or scrap yard, there is a plenty of them from e28, e30, e32.
HTH

Opening this thread up again.

On vacation (picked up my 88 M6!) and somehow my glovebox became stuck closed. The latch seems to operate, but it doesn't unlatch. Any thoughts on how to open? Looked on realoem - maybe my only hope is to try to unscrew the hinge? Is that accessible? Not sure if that will help or not given the type of latch.

The glovebox is definitely stuck. I think the latch may actually be broken internally. At times when actuating it makes a rattle sound. I unscrewed the hinge to try to reach from behind, but no luck. No amount of pushing, pulling, lifting, twisting makes a difference. I'm afraid I need to break/destroy something to free it. I believe the "catch upper part" per real oem is still available. I may need to drill up through, or cut through the "catch upper part" (51161955759) to destroy the catch to release the door. I'm open to any other ideas...

If I do have to cut/drill I'm not sure the angle. Since I can't see the catch, I'm not sure of its orientation. In the closed position is it essentially vertical, or does it angle towards the front of the car?

Scott

I've got the same problem. I haven't had a chance to tackle it yet, but i did take the glove box out of a pull-a-part car the other day to practice. Wish I'd taken some photos.

If you pull back the carpet behind/beneath the glove box, there's two bolts that hold the hinge in place. The bolts go straight back toward the firewall. If you can't get a good angle on those, there's like 6-7 Philips screws that old the hinge to the box that are accessible if you reach directly up from the bottom of the box.

I haven't tried this yet on my stuck box, so I don't know what happens when you disconnect the hinge with the latch stuck. That's the only way forward I've figured out.

Thanks @guyatou

I unscrewed the 4 (on my car) small screws holding the glovebox. No help. I can't reach behind it and up towards the latch far enough. I understand the latch is no longer available from BMW, so if I do destroy it i'll have to shop around for another. Seems like there were multiple glove boxes and latches available though, and I'm not sure they're all interchangeable. I've pushed/pulled/twisted with the hinge removed, but no luck.

I think I'll try removing the hinge plate held on by the two larger bolts you mention. That may provide more room to fit an arm up above the glovebox from behind.

When you took the glove box did you notice the orientation? Is the latch essentially vertical when closed?

Many of us have had this issue, this should add clarity to Val's suggestion:

"Pull the door down and you'll see two Philips bolts. You can unscrew them with small phillips screwdriver."

You're pulling the top of the glove box door downward towards the floor, this will create a space between the top of door and the dash. The small screws hold the "striker plate" which is mounted on a sheet metal channel on the dash, remove the two screws and the "striker plate" will fall out. You need to apply a lot of force as you are actually bending the channel downward to obtain access to the screws. Bend the channel back to correct position, repair/replace glove box lock.

Roger

Wow. Was I turned around. Since I started at the hinge end of the glovebox I took your comments from that perspective. I did not understand how you could see phillips head screws from that end.

I finally figured out that you were talking about screws that are visible when sitting in the passenger seat! The screw heads face the passenger. A picture makes it obvious (for people like me).

I removed the striker and the glovebox was loose. But I do have a broken latch - posted in the Want to Buy section. Thanks for your help.

Scott