Remove Inner Aluminum Door Panel
 

Hi Guys,


Having encountered a problem with my car's soft close on the rear left door, I hear the soft close motor working, and also the cable is still in one piece. But the car is still not sucking in the door.
I managed to narrow down the problem to the mechanism in the door's lock pulling in the door., the lock actuator.

- The soft close motor works, switched it with the rear right soft close motor...but no difference
- The cable still seems to work, when I pull it I hear the lock work

So it’s probably the lock actuator itself, and so I would like to inspect/replace it.

The thing is, I can’t seem to remove the aluminum inner door panel. The outer door panel isn’t a problem, but this inner door panel…There are about 12-14 Torx bolts on the edges of the panel, two smaller nuts in the center, you have to remove the window motor and then I’m almost able to take out the panel.

The lower side is loose now, but still in the upper part of the panel there seems to be something preventing me to take off the entire panel.

I did try to loosen the window, by slightly lowering it and removing the two torx bolts you can reach through the round holes in the panel. But then still the panel seems to be stuck somewhere in the upper half of the panel.

Haven’t found clear instructions on this specific part yet.

Is anyone of you able to help me? Help would be greatly appreciated.

What am I missing?

With all the Torx bolts out, the panel should come off. IIRC the first time I did this, the top was pretty tight into into that sealer material along the top edge...have you disconnected the cable for the door latch, removed speakers, door motor and soft close motor? Wiring for the speaker? I've disassembled both of my front doors a couple of time, but not in the rear, but it can't be that different. I have a comprehensive doc f front doors, PM me and I'll send it to you.

Thanks, I’ll PM you right away.

by the way i thought I could leave all the door motors on the panel, only removing the window motor but leaving attached the speaker, window screen motor (rollo) and the soft close motor. Does the window have to come out in any way?

I did not remove the window, just disconnected it from the up/down sliding assembly by removing the two bolts (orange). But all motors and speakers have to come off before you can remove the aluminum panel.

These Procs
 

This covers it.

Thanks Guys,

by the way, does the motor for the automatic sun screen on the aluminum panel need to be taken off as well? Not all A8’s have this...

Hi All,

All your instructions were very valuable and helpful. Unfortunately still not able to remove that inner door panel.

Pretty sure iT has to do with the rear left sun shade motor. The upper aluminum bar (holding the shade) and the door panel are connected in a way, see picture beneath.

I’m stuck at this point. Does any one of you know how to proceed on this? Help again would be greatly appreciated.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...89b520c37.jpeg

Looks like all that is left is the wiring harnesses along the bottom - they need to be unclipped from the aluminum panel. Picture is dark and it's hard to tell for sure...what is that black cable that runs top to bottom, that is top the left of the blue door latch cable?

That Cable is normally a little bit more to the left, attached to the door with a small black metal clip, I just placed that cable in the hole for the moment for the door to be able to close without crushing that cable.

The Harness at the bottom is already pretty loose, iT doesn’t seem to hold back the panel anymore.

Could iT be anything else besides the sun shade equipment?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...0d8bc02c49.jpg