T5 door lever repair?

[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,





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 . 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