Has anyone fitted a genuine Skoda luggage guard themselves ?

The local parts dept dept told me the only special tool required is a pop rivet gun. Having now got the guard, I'm not so sure.

There are two bars that fit vertically, one each side of the car that the guard fixes to with knurled knobs. The base of these bars fit over u-bolts that are visible - no problem.

The top of the bars are cranked sideways and the end of each has a plate with two large holes in it; the holes being reinforced with welded on spacers. The top of the bars locate somewhere over the plastic trim over the inner rear wings, but there are no fixing areas visible, no fixings are provided and no instructions.

My query is - how to fix the top of the bars? Conventional pop rivets would be much too small to fit in the large holes in the plates - and the fitting has got to be really strong to take a load of luggage wanting to move forward in a crash.

Any ideas ?

I´m also considering to mount this thing by myself.

But you said, that you didn´t get the instructions in the box? If it is the original accessorie (DMM 770 001) the box should include fitting instructions.

The intructions are just drawings that I can scan for you if those cannot be found anywhere else.

And I don´t have the tool for rivet nuts. I was thinking that I could use just extra nut&bolt to fasten that..

My guard was dealer fitted. Does this photo help?

Merseadog,

Thanks for posting the photo - interesting and very helpful. It looks like you've got allen key bolts that go into the car bodywork, which must bolt into something solid. No bolts were supplied to me for this.

If there's nothing for the bolts to screw into in the car already, the trim panel must come out and whatever the bolts screw into needs to be added. I haven't got those parts either.

Your trim panel looks to have a recessed portion to it around the area where the vertical bar fits. My car doesn't have this - despite being the same model (Roomy 3 tiptronic).

I queried this with the dealer and he's told me that certainly that the allen key bolts should have been supplied with the kit. He's ordered a replacement kit and offered to have a look at it with me when it arrives. It may even have some instructions with it!

Timppi, I ordered the original accessory, DMM 770 001

Edited 18 June, 200917 yr by Dan H
Update

OK, so you are missing the nut rivets marked with E in this drawing?

If tou do the installing by youself, could you take some photos from the nut rivet installing..

Timppi,

Thanks for the info.

I'm missing the rivets E and also the components in G, M, K and J - as well as the instructions. Doesn't look like I got anything like the full kit.

The rivetting tool looks very different to the pop rivet tool that I've got and will probably mean it's going to be a dealer fit job now anyway. we'll see. :(

What an awful design Skoda have managed to come up with.

How har is it to put a fixing in for a dog guard at manafacture? I'd imagine a fair number of people that want a car like the roomster might have dogs and having to drill holes to make it fit is madness.

What an awful design Skoda have managed to come up with.

That´s true. I thought it would be an easy task (and so did the dealer..). But no..

By the way, instructions say; "The part is intended solely by professional fitting by contract partners of Skoda auto..". I could complain to dealer and get some compensation if they installed it. But in the other hand, this could be a nice experience to install by myself..

Timppi,

That disclaimer on the instructions is on most Skoda accessories - it was certainly on the bumper protector that I bought, despite that being pretty straightforward as a DIY job.

I have got sympathies with Skoda for not providing the fittings on the bodywork ready for the dog guard - as it's a cost thing - and to a lesser extent keeping the weight down.

Skoda dealer now has the revised parts. To resolve this quickly I've agreed they'll fit the guard while I wait (for £50 +VAT). Takes me an hour to get to the dealer's and back anyway, so one more visit is all I want to do to get it sorted.

I finally got some time to try to install the dog guard. Oh man, if you don´t own proper tools, try not to do this by yourself. By proper tools I mean; 22mm drilling blade and riveting nut tool.

Specially that rivet tool, which I do not own, yet, is required for proper install. I tried to install those rivets just by fastening the bolt tight enough. Not good, The rivet nut just spinns and wont fasten to bodywork. So I ordered the proper tool from ebay; 9.95£ + shipping to Finland (9.50£

Oh, by the way. There are proper holes under the plastics. So there is no need to drill the bodywork..

If those tools are available, it should take only about half an hour to fixing the dog guard..

Replacement dog guard including the missing bits were fitted today by dealer whilst I waited, for the price quoted. Took an hour and a half !

Service reception bloke said the trim had to come out - but no sign on the car that this was done.

Worth the money and effort I think - the finished job is pretty sturdy, so I can now stack baby stuff up to the roof and take extra passengers on the rear seats, with confidence that the stuff in the boot won't shoot forward in an emergency stop or worse.

Yep, I haven´t got the rivet tool yet. But my Roomster is going to get a software update (DPF-related thing..) and I think that I´ll tell them to install the rivets to the boot as well.

But 1,5h for that work? That is at least 45min too much..

0.75 hours was the quote - at £72.00 an hour.

OK, maybe it was not a best idea to try to install this by yourself.

It has now took about 4 hours, and I have drilled the holes to the boot, installed 2 and destroyed 2 rivet nuts, Made a bleeding wound to my thump..

And I have spent almost 30 Euros to the threaded rivet tool (which by the way, was too big for that space, the pop-rivet type tool) and extra parts..

So now I just have to find 2 more those 8mm rivet nuts and I´m done..