ZHP convertible - glove box lock cylinder replacement
Not sure if this is/has been covered here before. If it has, coupe, sedan or cabrio, can one of you point me to it via a link. Thanks.
Recently acquired a 2005 ZHP cabrio, Titanium/Laser Cloth (see my post on the Intro page). The glove box would not open. Surprise, right...well, I was able to get it open - no hidden treasures in there unfortunately (oh well), but I did find some P.O. and/or prior mechanic kluges and "stuff". Most obvious was a broken wire in the latch mechanism. Ah, right, for those that weren't in the know, the convertible's glovebox lock is tied in to the central locking system - the notion being owners leave the top down and to keep the dishonest types honest, the glove box locks (and most times unlocks) via the central locking system. Most times...
In my convertible's case, it would not open.
After watching several youtube videos - sorta helpful but sorta not and involved the use of prybars to force the box to open (a bit destructive imho) I opted to take another, less destructive, route.
I undid the four philips-head screws that hold the two plastic hinge plates underneath the glovebox, wiggled it about some and got lucky, the glovebox popped open. SUCCESS!! But....this is only part of the story...
Once open, I could tell the "damper" (on the inboard side of the glovebox) was kaput. Ok, mark that as a part to order.
And, the actual latch had a wire that was broken. Certainly a good part of the problem as that would prevent the central locking from locking/unlocking the glovebox. Additionally there seems to be some level of a mechanical malfunction where cycling the latch does not result in the two "tangs" retracting and allowing the glovebox to open. Fair enough. And by and large fixable.
Then I checked into RealOEM, got the p/n's and checked the latch - inner and outer - prices. And had a heart-attack. Pricey buggers they are! Like, north of $250 and counting.
Then, I checked the same parts on the coupe/sedan's and breathed more deeply - can you say a whole lot less expensive! And, unless I've got it all wrong, they'll work just fine for a convertible with the caveat that they are not/would not be incorporated into the central locking system. And, I'm quite ok with that.
Now, here is my question for those of you out here, and who may have done this: How do I repurpose the key-operated lock cylinder from my original latch and install it into the inbound replacement latch?
IOW, how do I remove the lock cylinder from my old latch?
Any of you done this? What's the trick? I've searched youtube and there are a couple of videos out there but, they don't show me how to extricate the lock cylinder from the old latch. BMW's designers are pretty sensible people - they usually make it pretty easy to do. ONCE you know the "trick".
I've done this on E24's, E28's, E30's - they are pretty easy. The E46 - especially the convertible - is a bit more complex. And I've not yet figured out the "trick". So....a video, step-by-step instructions, photos....any of you have detailed tips-and-hints to offer up to this E46 newbie?
