Originally Posted by brettfk

Hi all,

I have a 1998 Audi A4 sedan.

I can no longer open the boot, and I have been told it may be the locking pin.

Is there any other way of opening the boot, like some kind of emergency boot release?

Just an FYI, my seats do not fold down.

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by brettfk

No, the seats appeared to be glued or whatever to a 'firewall' at the back of the boot.

Its not an electronic release, so theres no button in the glovebox.

I just had a look under the rear seats for anything like what you described, but nothing...

Cheers

Originally Posted by oziaudi

Back Seat's

1/ Start by taking out the Back seat's. First lift your back seat base up and forward. It should lift straight out no bolts or screw's there.
Next, this step is much harder, there are 2 star screws on each side at the bottom of the back seat. Unscrew them first. Now take out the head rest's pull them all the way to the top. Do this very slowly. Take them out if they are hard to take all the way out , on the window side of each head rest there is a clip at the base of the head rest two bar's. pull that out and they will come straight out.

Next after both head rest's are out there are 4 plugs where the head rests slide into it is very important to take your time here. You have to remove these plugs because they keep your seat in. The 2 plugs closest to the window's first remove there caps. To do this use a flat headed scew driver and carefully prier the cap off slowly half way because there is a sliding clip on the outer of the caps that have spring's in them. as you are taking them off slowly the clip will lift off and slide out the clip. repeat this on the other side first. Now Take a large flat headed scew driver and put it under the plug and lift it straight up. The plugs are about 3 inches long. Repeat this on the other window plug. Now the inner plugs have a cer clip that you have to pull half way out . To do this take a small pointy screw driver and pull the clip towards the back window and almost out. Next take the Big flat head screw driver and repeat the same lifting Technique that you used with the other 2 plugs and lift them out slowly.

Now you can carefully lift your back seat up and out. You will have to use your palms and hit up on the back seat afew times to loosen it up. and out she comes.

Originally Posted by brettfk

...Question though - what do I do once the seats are out? As I mentioned earlier, there's a panel directly behind the seats which I think is welded to the rest of the chassis....

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Originally Posted by AV8RUK

I thought I'd add a couple of photos to this info to show the idea...

this shows the latch. the lever in about centre of the picture needs to be pushed to the left. I did it with a broom handle, through the special 'long-object-and-emergency-boot-release-aperture' that audi incorporated in the rear seat.



And this is the view from that aperture, just to prove the concept.

Originally Posted by AV8RUK

Boot lock. 30 minute service
As promised, I got some photos (really bad quality, sorry, but they serve the purpose) and a quick explanation. Which I hope is of some use. the reason for this is that my boot lock (trunk lock) was not working, and I thought it had failed, but in fact it simply needed a little lube after 20 years of neglect. The effect of the lack of lube was that the key could not be turned either one way or the other because the lump shown in a yellow outline was hitting the sides of the levers on the lock, instead of moving behind them.

so here it is.

Once you have successfully opened the boot, you can get to the boot lock which is behind this panel. My thumb shows the position of the only screw.



This is the boot lock from inside. Notice the lump outlined in yellow doesn't engage with anything yet. The lock is in the locked position. The lock is held in place by two 8mm nuts (5/16 in old money)



The lock has 2 levers, which I have drawn pretty green and blue lines on. upper lever highlighted dark blue is connected to the latch rod. Lower lever in green is connected to the central locking rod. There is also a lump (boxed in yellow)
Turning the key in the lock causes the lump to be moved behind either the latch lever or the central locking lever.

The lock has 3 states.
1)Locked, key slot vertical. This is the condition that is shown in my highlighted photo. Pushing the lock from outside has no effect on either lever.

2)Central locking, key slot horizontal

Car is locked. Central locking lever is not engaged. The lump previously shown in yellow is at the 7o'clock position, but pushing the lock from outside will have no effect.



Car is unlocked. Note that the central locking rod has moved the lever inwards to engage with the lever for the latch rod. Pushing the lock from outside will now force the lump up against the lever, and unlatch the trunk lid.



3)Manual unlock, 1/8th turn to right. The lump is in the 1o'clock position, and pushing the lock from outside will force the lump against the lever attached to the latch rod.



If you remove the 2 8mm nuts (5/16in, and disconnect the central locking and latch rods (labelled and arrowed) the lock can be removed. A little penetrating oil will pay dividends.


Once again, my apologies for the quality of the photos. My nice digital camera was stolen by some scumbag on a flight. You're not safe even in business class!

Originally Posted by brettfk

...I can no longer open the boot, and I have been told it may be the locking pin...