8L ashtray repair

[h100vw]

Productive afternoon today.

Had the S3 2 years and the ashtray has been broken the whole time. There was an estimate from Audi, with the paperwork given to me by the previous owner, bargain $600 to repair. Hence it was never fixed.

I had a look on google but that was no help.

So I leapt in blind!

Taking the ashtray out was easy, one screw and a couple of plugs to disconnect.

Examining the ashtray I could see the mechanism that would hold the ashtray up, but there was a pip missing that would run in the mechanism.

I split the ashtray apart, there's the ashtray, a return spring, a pair of wheels on an axle, a couple of dampers to slow down the ashtray as it opens and the housing.

I could see where the pip had broken off and split the back edge of the ashtray. I had a hunt in my toolbox and found a pop rivet. I cut off the tail and bent the end over into an L shape. Then I drilled out the hole to take the rivet tail. Mixed up some epoxy and glued the tail in place and left it to dry.

I tried a dry assembly of the bits and the pip I had made was too large in diameter to run in the mechanism. Out with the needle files and took the pip down to suit. Another dry run and success so far. The ashtray latches in place and releases as it should.

Next job was to refit the spring that opens the ashtray. One side goes into slots in the housing, the other should have gone into the back edge of the ashtray but I had glued it up and there was nothing for it to act against. I created a slot in the epoxy for the spring to sit in and it worked perfectly.

Reassembled everything, not forgetting the dampers!

So if anyone needs a repair done, it would take me an hour or so to complete another.

Sorry no pictures this time, if I do another, I'll do a better write up.

Cheers

Gavin

[whiteVR6]

I sold one for about $250 about 6 weeks ago, since then the price would have come down too.

[h100vw]

$250 is still big money for what it is. You should do them on exchange.

[Jmac]

Yeah not many people fix things these days Gav. Good to see you still have the 8L mate. Ive still got mines, its in the queue for its new heart transplant. Coming soon, then it "might" be up for sale, will be a cracker for someone.
JMac