**** Disclaimer**** Plastic parts will break if you stress them beyond their limits, so I will describe what kfh78 and I did, which may or may not work for you without breaking plastic.
Plastic trim tools were used to unsnap the trim on the back of the console; it needs to be pulled toward the back seat for the clips to release. I just pried it from the bottom drivers side until I heard the first pop, then tried to get a better look inside. Repeated that a few more times, working my way up and it came off without issue. No tabs or clips were broken, but again, perform this at your own risk. Despite what you see in the pictures, you do not need to remove the armrest; you can access what you need to with everything intact except for the back trim. With that off, simply remove the two bolts that VW locked our lids with (4mm allen). The problem is that there seems to be some sort of clip or spring missing from the ratcheting mechanism. This means the ratcheting arms move freely and will engage in both directions preventing you from being able to close the armrest. It will lock in place when you try to close it. After the bolts are removed, wedge something in there to hold the arm up on each side (some have glued or safety wired the arms up as well); I fabricated two small plastic tabs to wedge into the ratcheting arm to prevent it from engaging. With the ratcheting arms disengaged, try opening/closing it a few times to make sure it works. Last, just snap the trim back on and you should be set. I realize this is not fully functional, because it doesn't ratchet like it should, but it'll at least allow you to open and close the compartment. The ETKA parts breakdown doesn't show any of the small pieces of this mechanism, so without a source outside of the US, you will likely not be able to get the ratchet to work... Also, VW knew we would eventually get in there, so they put the rubber liner in the bottom of the compartment.
Hopefully this is just a temporary solution and someone smarter figures something out and will share it with us (let me know and I'll edit this post). I'd like to find out what the clamp/spring is and if we can get a hold of them. If someone has connections to the correct part, please shed more light on this.
Here is what the ROW unit looks like. The black items circled here are what is missing from the US units.
![Image]()
To "lock" ours they drilled/tapped/screwed into the ratcheting arm on both sides. Here's a pick of where the bolts are that you need to remove and you can also see the grooves where the missing clips/springs go.
![Image]()
You can see that with the bolts removed, you can freely move the ratcheting arm with your finger. The key is to keep the ratchet arm up enough not to engage the corresponding teeth. If left alone, gravity will naturally pull it down engaging the teeth and keep you from closing the arm rest once it's open.
![Image]()
All you need to do is wedge something in there to keep the arms up. A piece of plastic was wedged on each side of the hinge to hold the arm up as shown at the top of this picture
![Image]()
Here you can see the 2 plastic tabs inserted into the sides of the ratcheting arms to hold them up enough so the ratcheting teeth don't engage. This allows you to open/close the armrest but the ratcheting feature won't work. Not sure how long these tabs will hold the arms up but so far, so good.
![Image]()
And there you have it!
![Image]()
.... and for the win, mcpopster put this video together :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
Plastic trim tools were used to unsnap the trim on the back of the console; it needs to be pulled toward the back seat for the clips to release. I just pried it from the bottom drivers side until I heard the first pop, then tried to get a better look inside. Repeated that a few more times, working my way up and it came off without issue. No tabs or clips were broken, but again, perform this at your own risk. Despite what you see in the pictures, you do not need to remove the armrest; you can access what you need to with everything intact except for the back trim. With that off, simply remove the two bolts that VW locked our lids with (4mm allen). The problem is that there seems to be some sort of clip or spring missing from the ratcheting mechanism. This means the ratcheting arms move freely and will engage in both directions preventing you from being able to close the armrest. It will lock in place when you try to close it. After the bolts are removed, wedge something in there to hold the arm up on each side (some have glued or safety wired the arms up as well); I fabricated two small plastic tabs to wedge into the ratcheting arm to prevent it from engaging. With the ratcheting arms disengaged, try opening/closing it a few times to make sure it works. Last, just snap the trim back on and you should be set. I realize this is not fully functional, because it doesn't ratchet like it should, but it'll at least allow you to open and close the compartment. The ETKA parts breakdown doesn't show any of the small pieces of this mechanism, so without a source outside of the US, you will likely not be able to get the ratchet to work... Also, VW knew we would eventually get in there, so they put the rubber liner in the bottom of the compartment.
Hopefully this is just a temporary solution and someone smarter figures something out and will share it with us (let me know and I'll edit this post). I'd like to find out what the clamp/spring is and if we can get a hold of them. If someone has connections to the correct part, please shed more light on this.
Here is what the ROW unit looks like. The black items circled here are what is missing from the US units.
To "lock" ours they drilled/tapped/screwed into the ratcheting arm on both sides. Here's a pick of where the bolts are that you need to remove and you can also see the grooves where the missing clips/springs go.
You can see that with the bolts removed, you can freely move the ratcheting arm with your finger. The key is to keep the ratchet arm up enough not to engage the corresponding teeth. If left alone, gravity will naturally pull it down engaging the teeth and keep you from closing the arm rest once it's open.
All you need to do is wedge something in there to keep the arms up. A piece of plastic was wedged on each side of the hinge to hold the arm up as shown at the top of this picture
Here you can see the 2 plastic tabs inserted into the sides of the ratcheting arms to hold them up enough so the ratcheting teeth don't engage. This allows you to open/close the armrest but the ratcheting feature won't work. Not sure how long these tabs will hold the arms up but so far, so good.
And there you have it!
.... and for the win, mcpopster put this video together :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
