swamper8

Can someone describe or show pictures of how to get the actual door handle/lock out of the drivers door? I have the door panel off, door latch removed. I have pulled the tangs up, slid to the right and removed the metal retaining plate as well. THe whole handle/lock etc is very loose in the door, but I just can't get the damn thing out. It seems very close but no cigar no matter what way I turn/pull it. I'm wondering if I have to remove the pivot pin on the inside which eventually connects to the latch rod? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm just trying to slide the door lock itself out and it's being a major pain in my ***.

swamper8

OK, well for anyone else interested, there's one pin which needs to be removed. It looks goldish in color, like anodized metal. It's a small pin about 1/2" - 3/4" long and allows part of the handle to pivot enough to be removed from the door......

wardhill

I was planning on replacing my door latch. I understand you have to remove the door lock cylinder. From what I've read the door panel removal is straight forward but you have to remove the window and frame to get to the latch and pull the lock cylinder because of a tab that goes into the latch mechanism.
Do You have the proceeedure for all this described somewhere. Waht should I be looking out for?
Thanks
Jeff

swamper8

Jeff,
You don’t have to remove the window/track to get the latch assembly out. That’s a lot of extra work. While you don’t technically have to remove the door handle either, it’s a good idea to loosen it as there’s a door lock rod which goes from the lock cylinder to the latch and that can break easily if you aren’t careful.
Here is a procedure to follow (off the top of my head)

Remove Door Panel:

1.) To do this, remove each screw (two total) one at the top left and one at the top right of the door panel. These are Philips head and they are black.
2.) Pull straight UP on the door panel (it will move ~1”) and it will dis-engage the door frame. Then pull up/out to pull the door panel away from the door. (Audi does not use fur-tree clips! Nice!)
Be careful to make sure the door lock rod (which protrudes through the top of the door panel) slides out the bottom of its guide and does not bend/break.
3.) Next you kind of have to support the door panel on your knees etc and reach behind the door panel and unplug all the electrical connections and dis-engage the inner door handle
Cable. I disconnected this cable from the door panel handle side, not the latch side. It helps to have a extra set of hands to hold the door panel while you do this.
*note* I was never able to get the power windows/locks assembly to pop out of the door panel, so I couldn’t get that electrical connection loose. So I just let the door panel swing down and
“rest” on the ground. From what I later learned, there’s supposed to be a way to push up on the switch assembly from underneath to get it to come out. Never tried it afterward though.
4.) Next you have to dis-engage the linkage from the OUTER door handle to the latch. This linkage is connected to the door handle with a whitish clip. This clip snaps into a hole in the door handle and rotates down and snaps OVER the linkage rod. You need to take a flat blade screw driver and come up from below at the connection and unclip it from the linkage rod. If it’s a virgin clip, it will be on there pretty tight. Once it’s dis-engaged rotate it fully upward and the linkage will pull out to the right. (toward front of vehicle) It’s not uncommon for these clips to break. Don’t know where you are, but if it’s wicked cold, you might want to aim a hair dryer at the clip for 30 seconds or so to warm up the plastic. This will help the plastic to flex and it pops off instead of snapping/cracking.
5.) Next I would pop off the plastic weather guard off the back of the latch assembly. This snaps in place at (three?) different spots so use a small flat blade screwdriver to dis-engage the tangs and push the weather guard backward. Then slip it out toward the front. It takes a bit of turning/spinning to find a good route out of the door frame.
6.) Unplug electrical connector from bottom of door latch.
7.) Just to get them out of your way, remove the inner door handle cable from the latch assembly and remove the door lock rod from the latch assembly. Set them to the side.
8.) Loosen, but do not remove, the three torsion bits (12pt?) which attach the latch to the door frame. These are not a common bit, so if you have a autozone near you, they sell a 4 bit pack in their tool section and it’s cheap. Fits in like a 13MM socket or something.
9.) I personally would recommend loosening the door handle assembly as this will allow the lock cylinder to push outward ½”-3/4” inch and make it easier for the latch to dis-engage the door lock rod.
10.) To loosen the handle, you have to look inside the door and see the goldish anodized plate which is on the back of the handle. This will have two or three metal tangs which have been bent “inward” to keep the plate from sliding left/right. You need to take a screwdriver or whatever else works and pulls these tangs so they are out flush with the rest of the bracket.
11.) Once these tangs are dis-engaged, you need to take a large flat blade screwdriver, find a nice pivot point (door frame) and slide the bracket toward the front of the door. It should slide maybe ¾” total? You may need to try different angles and even tap on the back of the screwdriver to get the plate to slide. Mine was on tight. This plate can be pulled out.
12.) With the plate out you’ll see there’s more wiggle and play in the door handle assembly. Reach behind the latch with your right arm and feel up toward the lock cylinder. There will be a rod there, that’s the one you don’t want to break. It is slightly spring loaded and does have a little bit of allowable movement in it.
13.) Next I would completely remove the latch bolts, and begin to rotate/slide the latch down/forward. If you feel too much resistance and think you’re going to break that rod, it’d be best to remove the whole door handle assembly. No matter how you twist/turn/yank the door handle assembly, you will not remove it until you take out one more pin (so don’t bother trying)
14.) If you need to remove the whole door lock/handle assembly, there’s one more goldish anodized pin toward the very top of the door handle assembly. It’s hard to see and even harder to get out. It is held in place by a small tang which goes over the top of the door handle arm and clips to the other side. Hard to explain but this last pin will need to be finagled out with a pick/small screw driver. This allows just the extra amount of pivot in the handle lever so the whole assembly can be pulled out of the door.
15.) Once you have the door handle/lock assembly out of the door the latch comes out very easy. It too needs to be rotated/turned to find the right exit angle but will come out the very first pass through. (between the door frame and the window rail)

I will try and take pictures of mine if you get stuck somewhere. I fought mine for quite a while, it’s not hard but it’s not easy either. Might need to wait a day or two to take pictures, we are in a deep freeze here in Massachusetts. (-12 this morning)

Steve

wardhill

Steve
Your write up is great . Thanks for taking the time to do it and I'm sure a lot of other AR folks will benefit from it as well.
Any pictures you can offer will help.
I'm north of you in Maine so we hit -20F yesterday. Its a little warmer today , almost 9F. I'm still looking for the latch replacement. Found one at Force 5 in Concord NH but haven't gotten it yet. I'm going to wait untill it gets above freezing before I tackle this
Again thanks
Jeff

swamper8

No problem. Might do a DIY at some point w/pictures if the temps ever get up above 40 or 50. In addition to force five, I would also try http://www.shokan.com/
They are below Albany. Generally speaking I get the impression from their websites that shokan moves more vehicles and newer vehicles as well. I got my latch from them for $90 and got a ash tray (which I couldn't find ANYWHERE else, even EBAY) for $30. They've never responded to any of my inquires through their website request form, it's better just to call them directly. The latch I got I believe actually came from a A6, not a Allroad. They are similar but not identical. For example on the A6 latch, there was a plastic surround/guard near where the lock cylinder rod engages the latch. This made it exponentially more difficult to take the latch in and out without completely removing the lock cylinder. This piece of plastic was not in place on my Allroad latch. I wound up trimming the plastic off with some side cutters.

wardhill

Yeah I am getting a latch of an A6 too. $50 w/ 30 day warranty from Force 5. I also needed the wood for the ashtray. $25 shipped on ebay. i'll hace to re-read all your input once i have tha part in hand

swamper8

Were you able to match a part number for the wood piece or did you go by eye/color? I went through three different e-brake handle trims pieces before I found one that matched the remainder of the wood pieces well enough. I think the allroad is polished walnut but I"m not positive. I've read that even the same type (i.e. polished walnut) between batches and between years do not look exactly the same. Like they come from different lots. Hope yours matches!
I believe Shokan gives a 1 year warranty on their parts.

wardhill

Well the color was acceptable but the size is wrong...? part number is for a c5. Are allroads different from the regular a6dash?

swamper8

If you're talking the wood trim for the ash tray under the radio, I believe it's unique to the Allroad. I think that because when I was trying to find a complete replacement ash tray assembly for my AR, it was very hard. I looked through 100(?) Audi ash trays on EBAY and NONE were correct. The only place I could find one (other than the dealer) was shokan.