V70: Body Cargo Area Door Trim Removal

[october37]

The lever for opening the Boot Door on my MK3 V70 has seized, and is also ineffective in opening the rear door, although the electrical buttons still open and close the boot door, I would like to access the boot door locking mechanism to try to rectify this situation. Therefore can anyone inform me of the correct procedure for removing the rear door trim as there isn't any obvious way of doing this, and no instructions in the Haynes Manual for this procedure.

2008 V70se 2.4 Geartronic

[green van man]

First buy new clips as you will be fortunate indeed to get it off without breaking some.

From memory,
Undo the Philips screws in the plastic trim around the lock and remove. Using a suitable leaver the trim pops off. I have a set of plastic trim tools that work well for this.
Re fitting is a case of lineing everything up and using the heel of your hand push or smack the clips home. After replacing the ones you broke getting it off of course. If I remember correctly some of the clips are 2 part.

Hope that helps a bit. It was some time ago I needed to take mine off and memory is not what it was. If you have vida you will have chapter and verse instructons.

Paul.

[tommyweaves]

If you look on my profile there's an album which shows the tailgate trim when I took mine off some years ago. Allen bolts as Green Van Man said on the bottom of the tailgate and I think 2 on the side pieces. You have to take off both parts if I remember correctly because the upper window surround overlaps the lower trim.

Don't know if the pictures will help but at least it shows where some of the clips are. It's not a difficult job but clips will get broken!

[tommyweaves]

BTW, if it's just the handle above the number plate that's seized you don't need to get at the lock:

The handle pivots on a steel bar, which gets rusty. Get plenty of WD40 or similar sprayed up there and wiggle it repeatedly. It will loosen up.

[october37]

Originally Posted by tommyweaves

BTW, if it's just the handle above the number plate that's seized you don't need to get at the lock:

The handle pivots on a steel bar, which gets rusty. Get plenty of WD40 or similar sprayed up there and wiggle it repeatedly. It will loosen up.

Hi, The handle is just about seized up but will move with some resistance, it tends to get stuck in the open position, when family and friends don't think and try to open the door with the handle, and still doesn't open the tailgate, I have to free it with a thin blade before the tailgate will open on the button or with the remote, so I think something inside the tailgate has ether come loose or is broken

[tommyweaves]

The spring on the handle isn't very powerful, so it doesn't take much resistance for it to stick in the "pulled" position. Mine did the same as yours, plenty of lubrication and lots of wiggling freed it up. Worth a good go at it!

[Tatsfield]

My experience is that the design of the trim retaining clips is intended for assembly and not removal. If when replacing the trim you fail to get all the clips to locate and hold the trim, you have to take it off again and refit it, probably damaging other clips, so to give yourself the best chance you should replace all the clips and only use new ones as is done on the assembly line.

A set of plastic trim removal levers will cost you about £5 on ebay and will save you problems not only on this job but for anything that you might have to do with trim removal in the future.

Lastly, before to replace the trim be absolutely sure that you have done everything that needed to be done on the hatch as there is nothing so heartbreaking as having managed to refit it and they realising that you need to take it off again. I speak from personal experience!

[tommyweaves]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

My experience is that the design of the trim retaining clips is intended for assembly and not removal. If when replacing the trim you fail to get all the clips to locate and hold the trim, you have to take it off again and refit it, probably damaging other clips, so to give yourself the best chance you should replace all the clips and only use new ones as is done on the assembly line.

A set of plastic trim removal levers will cost you about £5 on ebay and will save you problems not only on this job but for anything that you might have to do with trim removal in the future.

Lastly, before to replace the trim be absolutely sure that you have done everything that needed to be done on the hatch as there is nothing so heartbreaking as having managed to refit it and they realising that you need to take it off again. I speak from personal experience!

I'd agree with all of that! Also take a note of what bit overlaps other bits. I also found my carpet moulding was separating from the plastic moulding. I used Araldite to re-glue it in case it decided it wanted to rattle!