W124 door pocket/card repairs performed

[RoundOzBenz]

Did some repairs on the W124 door map pocket over the weekend. The pocket wasn't attached securely due to broken tabs. This caused annoying rattles and creaks every time I drove over a bump.

Thought I might share the methods used, some I did find in this and other forums. Cannot say methods used are 100% safe, but the length of screws/pins used was kept to a minimum, in case of a side-on collision.

After making these repairs, the map pocket is now held as solidly as a rock to the door. No creaking, no ratting after the test drive.

I drilled out a couple of the mushroomed pieces of plastic that had broken. I also drilled out various other tabs and inserted metal pins. For one of the existing tabs secured by a white clip, it still rattled so I folded some tape underneath it. It's pressed down permanently, so the tape won't fall out.

 

[RoundOzBenz]

Rest of the Pics

These are the rest of the pics.

 

[WDB124066]

Nice! Can you give a little more detail in the description I'm having problems understanding exactly what you did from the piccies....

I have just bought a bunch of door clips due to the same problem - got towels stuffed in the door pocket at the moment.

 

[RoundOzBenz]

Pic 1: tape folded and inserted under clip to lift it up so that it constantly applies suitable tension.

Pic 2: mushroom head screw 6mm x around 20mm. This is screwed into one of the mushroom-headed plastic dowels that secure the map pocket. The mushroom part had snapped off. You need to drill out the centre of the dowel. Careful to measure how far you wish to drill as you don't want to go all the way through! Additionally, you will have to reduce the length of the dowel so that it doesn't protrude out of the hole. Otherwise, in lieu of washers, you won't be able to adequately secure the particle board with the screw as it won't go all the way down.

Pic 3: This is where one of the tabs snapped, but left a length still poking though. I drilled it from the side, and inserted a pin. I used a pop-rivet as the pin actually. That way it is impossible for it to fall out due to the flange on the rivet.

Pic 4: this is a hard one to explain. Inside this square cut out, a plastic tab is supposed to protrude through a slit. From the factory, one of the white clips (yes even the white clips have the MB star on them) is supposed to secure it in place. The tab originates from the arm rest part of the door. This tab had snapped clean off. I drilled a small tapping hole in the location of the mushroom screw. I did not drill into the arm rest, but I let the screw self tap into that relatively soft material. This achieved a bond of similar strength to the tab, but probably a slightly lower level of tension, due to the soft material within the armrest. The screw does however provide a good degree of resistance against lateral movement so that is a positive. At this stage, I assessed it was not worth the risk to take apart the arm rest assembly, in order to insert and bond a suitable material for drilling into. If the screw works loose in operation, this could be something to explore. Rotating the screw head was particularly difficult and I cheated by using a pair of pliers. Really a hex head and spanner should have been used.

Pic 5: same as above, zoomed out.

Pic 6: Similar to pic 4, 5, except part of the tab still remained. I drilled a hole and inserted a pin. It's held in only by friction, but the flange of the pop rivet bites into the plastic somewhat so it's sufficiently secure.

Hope that helps. Each situation is different and needs to be assessed based upon existing condition. Take your time to think it out. Remember that you are essentially damaging something, in order to repair it. If it goes wrong, then you have something that is potentially worse that what you started with. Then again, it's only a map pocket!

 

[V12]

Looks good. I went through a similar process more than once with 190's and 124's.
A penny washer is helpful to spread the load and stop the screws pulling through the card.