Underseat drawer stuck closed.

Straad · Oct 23, 2022

Hi. We are just on our way back to Scotland having had a month toodling around Europe. It has been brilliant with no major hiccups but one small annoyance. The drawer under the bench seat has become stuck closed! The side with the latch seems ok but the catch next to the latch that moves the seat seems stuck closed. Initially I could get around that by gently lifting that side with a screwdriver but, alas, even that has stopped working. Fortunately, anticipating this eventuality, I had already taken out all the important documents!
Has this ever happened to anyone else and if so, how did you fix it? I'm reluctant to force it anymore for fear of doing permanent damage and I'm going to wait till we get home before doing anymore attempts but I would appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks, Alan

KGCali · Oct 23, 2022

Post in thread 'Problems opening drawer' https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/problems-opening-drawer.40154/post-517141

Straad · Oct 23, 2022

KGCali said:
Post in thread 'Problems opening drawer' https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/problems-opening-drawer.40154/post-517141

Ah yes, but I’m guessing to do that you need to first open the drawer. Problem!

Straad · Oct 25, 2022

The drawer is now open! Hooray! Thanks to everybody who posted advice and especially thanks to Hotel California and others on https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/rear-under-seat-drawer-wont-open-seems-to-be-stuck.12881/ for the very helpful photos. Also thanks to Andy at my local independent VW garage AP/DC for his brilliant use of the screwdriver. Now to work out how to stop it happening again!

KGCali · Oct 25, 2022

Straad said:
The drawer is now open! Hooray! Thanks to everybody who posted advice and especially thanks to Hotel California and others on https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/rear-under-seat-drawer-wont-open-seems-to-be-stuck.12881/ for the very helpful photos. Also thanks to Andy at my local independent VW garage AP/DC for his brilliant use of the screwdriver. Now to work out how to stop it happening again!

Now the drawer is open, loosen the allen bolt on the RHS to align the two catches and then add a drop of blue or red loctite to the allen bolt thread and firmly tighten.