gregor241

Hi all - would like to post my experience resolving an issue with the ski hatch on my MK4 Octavia SE Tech Bought the vehicle second-hand from a car supermarket. Found when I got it home that the ski hatch was inoperable. A small issue, but annoying. It was a slightly different issue to what has already been posted on the forum, so I felt a duty to share my findings. I would like to preface this with I have no idea if this is the correct method, but thought it would be useful to have the photos uploaded for others to see the inner workings. I will describe my steps below for reference, but I think the most important part of the post are the photos (which I could not find whilst researching before doing this). I have also attached some close up photos of some of the parts in case anyone wants to attempt a 3d model for printing. I do not have the time to do this unfortunately. I do not recommend following these steps, but I have described what I took below to try and help someone who might have a similar issue. This is not a tutorial First, I attempted to push harder on the ski hatch handle on both sides. This did nothing. I could see initially that the locking bars on each side had extended far beyond their intended ranges and the handle on the boot side was pushed in and stuck in a fully open position. Coincidentally, the interior side handle fell off, exposing the inner workings of the ski hatch. With the help of an uncomfortable amount of force and a screwdriver, I managed to slide the internal mechanism down, retracting the locking arms on both sides. With the ski hatch now open, the handle was still inoperative. I removed it from the vehicle with the two bolts which were now exposed and was able to inspect properly. For the same reason, I removed the arm rest part, which was possible by removing two bolts on either side. I was unable to remove the bottom cushion, but found this was unnecessary. Using plastic trim removal tools, I managed to separate both sides of the plastic ski-hatch, breaking almost every single one of the clips at the sides 🥲. It is clear this was not meant to be dismantled by someone inexperienced (like me!) There were some particularly difficult clips to undo on the upper and lower surfaces - some large, angled spencer-wells managed to undo these. There were more clips under the bottom cushion which I found were easier to disengage by angling the plastic and pushing. With the internal side of the ski hatch removed, it was now possible to see this issue - I have tried to illustrate this below. After putting these into position, and placing the original spring back on one of the locking arms, the handle was now able to move freely. I lubricated all moving parts with a silicone grease. The internal handle was placed back into position (the crescent shaped plastic supports pop back in. I added some adhesive to prevent them falling out again as it seems to be a common issue) along with its spring (see photos). After function was confirmed, I closed it back up with some silicone to try and make up for the broken clips (whilst still being possible to dismantle if it breaks again). It has been 3 days and all seems well. I am being fairly gentle with it, but it is not something I use frequently. Thanks for reading - if you have any questions or if I have posted this in the wrong section, please let me know. It is my first proper post.

As the title suggests - I am a long time user of the forum, and have now decided to finally create an account. Hoping to contribute somewhat to the community!