Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
Tips for motorists

Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible

The Volksvagen Touareg, first introduced in Paris in 2002, quickly gained popularity among car owners around the world. He received popular recognition due to his reliability, comfort and sporty character. Today, the first cars that went on sale have long lost the title of a new car. Dozens, or even hundreds of thousands of kilometers of hard workers who have traveled around the country's roads, now and then require the intervention of auto repairmen. Despite the German quality and reliability, over time, the mechanisms wear out and fail. It is not always possible to find a service at the place of residence, and even more high-quality and proven. For this reason, car owners often have to intervene in the car’s device to fix problems on their own, or when a car enthusiast adheres to the principle “If you can do it yourself, why turn to the masters and pay money?”. To help car owners who have decided to independently repair a car, let's consider one of the elements of the car body and interior, which is subjected to heavy loads throughout the entire period of its operation - doors.

Volkswagen Touareg door device

The car door consists of the following main parts:

  1. The outer part of the door connected to the body with hinges. It consists of a rigid frame sheathed on the outside with a panel and a door opening handle installed on it.
  2. The frame of hinged units connected to the outer part of the door. This is the inner part of the door, which is designed for the convenience of repairing the door. The frame of mounted units consists of a mounting frame and a glass frame. In turn, on the mounting frame there is a power window mechanism, a frame with glass, a door lock and an acoustic speaker.
  3. Door trim. Plastic trim with decorative leather elements includes a duffel pocket, armrest, handles for opening and closing the door, controls, air ducts.
Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
In the appearance of the door, you can easily see 3 of its components

The door device, consisting of two parts, is designed so that it is convenient to carry out repair work on the door. Everything that needs to be repaired or replaced is located on the removable part of the door. To carry out work, you only need to remove the frame of mounted units and install it in a place convenient for you. On the removed frame, all components and mechanisms of the inner part of the door are conveniently located and easily accessible.

Possible door malfunctions

During the operation of the car, over time, the difficult climatic conditions of our country, high humidity, frequent and strong temperature changes adversely affect the door mechanisms and devices. The dust that has got inside, mixing with the lubricant, makes it difficult for small parts and door locks to work. And, of course, the years of operation take their toll - the mechanisms fail.

Owners of used VW Touareg often encounter the following door malfunctions.

Window lifter failure

This breakdown is most common among first generation cars produced in 2002-2009. Most likely, not because the glass lifting mechanism in this model is bad, but these models have served longer than the others.

The reason for the failure of the power window may be the failure of its motor or the breakage of the cable of the mechanism due to wear.

As a diagnostic, it is necessary to pay attention to the nature of the malfunction. If, when you press the button to lower the window, the sound of the motor is heard, then the cable is broken. If the motor is silent, then most likely it is the motor that is faulty. But first you need to make sure of this by checking whether the voltage reaches the motor through the wiring: check the fuses, wiring connections. When the diagnostics are completed and no power failure is detected, you can proceed to disassemble the door.

After detecting a cable break, it is not recommended to press the power window button, because the motor running without load will quickly wear out the plastic drum of the mechanism.

Broken door lock

Breakdowns associated with locking the door can be divided into two groups: mechanical and electrical. The mechanical ones include the breakdown of the lock cylinder, the failure of the lock itself due to wear. To electric - failure of sensors installed in the doors and responsible for the operation of the locks.

The first prerequisites for a lock to break may be infrequent cases when the lock does not perform its functions, in other words, it sticks. The lock may not open the door on the first try, you have to pull the handle a couple of times, or, conversely, the door may not close on the first bang. The same phenomenon can be observed if the door is closed with the remote control when the car is set to alarm - one door may not be locked or will not open. It would seem that it’s okay and you can live with this problem for a long time, however, it’s worth considering that this is already a signal for action, because in this case the mechanism can fail at any moment, probably at the most inopportune one. For trouble-free operation of door locks, it is necessary to respond in a timely manner to the first signs of an impending breakdown, diagnose and troubleshoot. The consequences of untimely repairs can be quite serious, for example, the door may be locked in the closed state and in order to open it, you will have to open the door, which can lead to damage to the decorative elements of the door trim, and possibly the paintwork of the body.

Video: signs of a door lock malfunction

Tuareg door lock malfunction

Broken door handles

The consequences of breaking door handles will be the same as with locks - the door will not be able to be opened from the inside or outside, depending on which handle is broken. The drive from the handles to the door lock is cable and often it can cause a malfunction: a cable break, sagging due to stretching, a broken connection at the point of attachment to the handle or lock.

Electronics problems

Electrical devices and control systems are installed inside the door: mechanisms for adjusting mirrors, power windows, locking the lock, a control unit for these mechanisms, an acoustic system, and lighting.

All these devices in the door are connected by a single wiring harness to the car body in the area of ​​​​the upper canopy of the door. Therefore, if one of the devices suddenly stops functioning, it is necessary to check the "power" of this device - check the fuses, connections. If a breakdown is not found at this stage, you can proceed to disassemble the door.

Disassembling the door

The dismantling of the door can be divided into 3 stages:

There is no need to completely disassemble the door if you only gained access to the source of the problem by removing the hinged frame from the door. It is possible to carry out repair work with mechanisms directly installed on the frame.

Removing and replacing door trim

Before you start removing the door trim, you need to take care of the following in advance:

The order of work:

  1. We pry off the trim on the door closing handle from below and carefully disengage all the latches. We remove the cover.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    The lining must be removed by prying it from below
  2. Two bolts are hidden under the lining, we unscrew them with the T30 head.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    Two bolts are unscrewed with a T30 head
  3. We unscrew the bolts from the bottom of the casing with the T15 head. They are not covered with overlays.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    Three bolts from the bottom of the skin are unscrewed with a T15 head
  4. We hook the door trim and tear it off the clips, clip by clip one by one.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    Sheathing breaks off with clips by hand
  5. Carefully remove the trim and, without moving it far from the door, disconnect the cable from the door opening handle by squeezing the latches. We disconnect the wiring connector to the power window control unit, it is not on the casing, but on the door.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    Pulling the trim to the side, the door handle cable is disconnected

If you only need to change the damaged trim, disassembling the door ends here. It is necessary to rearrange the door opening handle, control unit and decorative trim elements on the new door trim. Reassemble in the reverse order of disassembly. It is worth paying attention to the installation of new clips, this must be done carefully, accurately installing them in the mounting holes, otherwise they can be broken when applying force.

Removing the frame of mounted units

After removing the casing, to access the main devices, it is necessary to remove the frame of mounted units, in other words, disassemble the door into two parts.

We continue the disassembly:

  1. We pull the rubber boot, which is located between the door and the body, from the wiring harness and disconnect 3 connectors. We stretch the anther together with the connectors inside the door, it will be removed along with the frame of mounted units.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    The boot is removed and, together with the disconnected connectors, is threaded into the inside of the door
  2. We open a small plastic plug from the end of the door, next to the lock, prying it from below with a flat screwdriver.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    To remove the plug, you need to pry it with a screwdriver from below.
  3. In the large hole that opens (there are two of them), we unscrew the bolt with a T15 head a few turns, it fixes the trim on the outer door opening handle (on the driver's side there is a pad with a lock cylinder). Remove the door handle cover.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    After unscrewing the bolt a few turns, the trim can be removed from the door handle
  4. Through the window that opens, use a screwdriver to unhook the cable from the door handle. Be sure to remember in which position the latch is installed so as not to knock off the adjustment.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    The cable is installed taking into account the adjustment, it is necessary to remember the position of the cable latch
  5. We unscrew the two bolts that hold the lock mechanism. We use the M8 head.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    By unscrewing these two bolts, the lock will only be held on the mounting frame
  6. We remove the plastic plugs on the end parts of the door, two on top and two round on the bottom.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    Decorative caps cover holes with adjusting bolts
  7. From the holes opened under the plugs, we unscrew the adjusting bolts with the T45 head.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    Adjusting bolts not only hold the frame, but are also responsible for the position of the glass frame relative to the body
  8. Unscrew 9 bolts along the perimeter of the mounting frame using the T30 head.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    9 bolts around the perimeter of the frame are unscrewed with a T30 head
  9. Slightly pull the bottom of the frame towards you so that it moves away from the door.

    Do-it-yourself Volkswagen Touareg door repair - it's possible
    To release the frame from the fasteners, you need to pull it towards you.
  10. Together with the glass frame, glass and sealing rubber, moving up a few centimeters, remove the frame from the fixing pins (it is better to do each side in turn) and carefully, so as not to catch the lock on the door panel, take it to the side.

After disassembling the door, you can easily get to any mechanism, dismantle it and repair it.

Video: disassembling the door and removing the power window

The most important mechanism in the arrangement of doors can rightly be considered a door lock. The failure of the door lock will cause big problems for the car owner. Timely replacement or repair of the lock will help to avoid these problems.

Repair and replacement of the Volkswagen Touareg door lock

The result of a broken lock may be:

In the event that the lock fails due to wear or breakage of the mechanism itself, it must be replaced with a new one, because the main part of the lock is non-separable and cannot be repaired. However, breakdowns associated with the electrical part of the lock are also possible: an electric drive for closing the lock, a microcontact of the lock, a microcircuit. Such breakdowns have a chance to be repaired by pre-diagnosing.

Replacing the lock with a new one with the frame of hinged units removed is not difficult:

  1. Two rivets need to be drilled out.
  2. Pull out the two electrical plugs from the lock.
  3. Disconnect the door handle cable.

One of the common lock failures that can be repaired is the wear of the lock microcontact, which acts as an open door signaling device. In fact, this is the usual trailer for us.

A non-working limit switch or a door lock microcontact (popularly called a mikrik) can lead to the failure of some functions that depend on it, for example: an open door signal will not light up on the instrument panel, i.e. the car’s on-board computer will not receive a signal from the door lock, respectively, the pre-start of the fuel pump will not work when the driver's door is opened. In general, a whole chain of troubles due to such a seemingly insignificant breakdown. The breakdown consists in the wear of the microcontact button, as a result of which the button does not reach the counterpart on the lock mechanism. In this case, you can install a new microcontact or modify a worn one by gluing a plastic overlay to the button. It will increase the size of the worn button to its original size.

The reason for the failure of the electrical part of the lock can also be a violation of the integrity of the solder on the contacts of the microcircuit. As a result, the lock from the remote control may not work.

It is necessary to check all the contacts and tracks of the microcircuit with a multimeter, find a break and eliminate it. This process requires skills in working with radio electronics.

Of course, this kind can be classified as "homemade" and you should not expect reliable, durable work from it. The best option is to replace the lock with a new one or install a new microcontact. Otherwise, you will have to disassemble the door every now and then and repair the lock again, the former freshness of the old lock still cannot be returned.

Upon completion of the repair, the lock is fixed on the mounting frame with new rivets.

Assembly and adjustment of the door

After carrying out all repairs, it is necessary to assemble the door in the reverse order of disassembly. However, due to the fact that the door consists of two parts, the position of the assembled door must be taken into account during assembly. It may not correspond to the factory setting and when closed, there may be uneven gaps between the glass frame and the body. For the correct positioning of the door during assembly, it is necessary to carry out its adjustment. That's why:

  1. We hang the frame of mounted units on the guides, while bringing the frame to the side of the lock. Having placed the lock first in its place, we bring the frame and hang it in place. It is advisable to carry out this operation with an assistant.
  2. We screw in 4 adjusting bolts at the ends of the door, but not completely, but only a few turns.
  3. We screw in 2 bolts holding the lock also not completely.
  4. We screw in 9 bolts around the perimeter of the frame and do not tighten them.
  5. We connect the power connectors to the door body and put on the boot.
  6. We put the cable on the outer door opening handle so that the cable is slightly loosened, it is advisable to put it in its previous position.
  7. We put on the trim on the door handle and fasten it with a bolt from the end of the door, tighten it.
  8. We check the operation of the lock. Slowly close the door, watch how the lock engages with the tongue. If everything is in order, close and open the door.
  9. Covering the door, we check the gaps around the perimeter of the glass frame relative to the body.
  10. Gradually, one by one, we begin to tighten the adjusting screws, constantly checking the gaps and, if necessary, adjusting them with the screws. As a result, the screws should be tightened, and the glass frame should have equal gaps relative to the body, the adjustment should be carried out correctly.
  11. Tighten the lock bolts.
  12. We tighten 9 bolts around the perimeter.
  13. We put in place all the plugs.
  14. We install new clips on the skin.
  15. We connect all the wires and cable to the skin.
  16. We install it in place, while the upper part is brought in first and hung on the guide.
  17. With light strokes of the hand in the area of ​​​​the clips, we install them in place.
  18. We tighten the bolts, install the lining.

A timely response to the first signs of a breakdown in the door mechanisms will help the VW Touareg car owner to avoid time-consuming repairs in the future. The design of the car doors allows you to carry out repairs yourself, you just need to carefully follow the instructions and prepare for disassembly in advance. Prepare the necessary tools, spare parts. Equip the repair site in such a way that, if necessary, the process can be postponed to another day. Take your time, be careful and everything will work out.

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