I’ve had the front door card off to fix a loose door mirror. I can get the door card back on but having trouble getting the top part of it, the crash roll I think they call it, it in a good position where it’s secured and without too wide a gap to the inside of the window. Just wanted to ask if anyone has any tricks to this.

The door card has a metal tongue that has to slip into a bracket on the inner door panel so the panel has to slipped in a downward motion. And there are the plastic push in pins around the perimeter that secure it to the door once it’s in place. There is also a metal tab on the back of the crash roll. Is that supposed to slip into the slot in the inner door panel? I can’t seem to get that and the metal tongue in place at the same time before pushing in the plastic pins. This is a VDP interior if its different than the standard style.

metal tongue:





Tab on back of crash roll/door card next to my thumb:





slot in door panel:

 

I went a couple of rounds with my door cards when I put them back on the doors. The metal tabs on the crash roll were the issue. Your procedure is correct, but the crash roll tabs need to be bent away from the card slightly so they will "reach out" a little farther and start over the lip along the top of the inner door panel. Have your window down, it might help to slightly "roll" the crash roll outward just a little to help the clip go over the lip. Once the card clips are caught over the lip, a firm push down will lower it in place. The push-pins around the lower part of the door will line up with their holes, may need to reach behind with a pick or thin screw driver to get the end of the pin in the hole.

It's been over a year since I've had my doors apart, but I don't recall seeing a bracket like your picture of the speaker. My S3 is a standard trim level so the speakers may very well be different.

Dave

 

I gather your car is a series III with the one piece door card. Yes, window down and then tilt the door card out at the bottom to help get the tab in the little slot. Then once you get the tab in, shift the card fore and aft to line up the plastic fasteners with their respective holes. BTW you can get a bag of new plastic clips at your local auto prts store if the old ones were mangled during disassembly.