As Peter says, no need to completely remove the light - just unplug it as you are removing the glovebox.

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Len
'59 220S Cabriolet-SOLD and living happily in Malta
'83 240D 351,500 miles original owner-SOLD
'88 560SL 41,000 miles - totaled and parted out
https://sites.google.com/site/mercedesstuff/home
'99 E300 turbo 227,500 miles
'03 SLK320 40,000 miles - gave to my daughter
'14 Smart electric coupe 28,500 miles
'14 Smart electric cabriolet 28,500 miles
'15 Smart electric coupe 28,000 miles

the ridges are not crucial to glove box fit, I opine, and serve merely to elicit
cursing upon removal. so after you remove the glove box, take a small file
and taper the ridge to roughly 45º slope (instead of OEM of 70º) and it will
ease removal *immensely* from that point on. I did this and suffered no
rattling afterwards. seems a pretty tame mod

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-- raymond~
47º 34'N 122º 18'W

Amen to the ramp, I guess in my case it served a purpose of them forgetting to put in the upper screws

Well I just finished replacing my cabin filters after a second attempt. Remove the six screws as instructed and then you need to grab the bottom of the door and pull very sharply. I initially used a scew driver and plastic putty knife to try and ease it out.
It didn't work and I disfigured the surrounding dash. I had to take a heat gun ( or hair dryer at VERY low setting )and carefuly kneed the plastic (leatherette)" dash back into place ..a close call but worked great. I used a mirror to locate the scews next to the light on the roof of the glove box and used a small magnet to get them out as they didn't want to drop. I used a 1/4" torque bar with a adapter and no.2 Philips screw head to get the roof screws out
I have decided not to replace the roof screws and may file edge down as recommended. Good luck...it does feel like you will break the door hinges but they seem to be able to take a very forceful pull.

I made an attempt at removing the glove box last night (and into this morning...) and could have sworn there were more hidden screws or black magic in there somewhere holding that sucker in. Unreal.

Driving into work this AM - no noise coming from that thing at all. With the interference fit of this piece, the screws are seemingly superfluous!

Excellent tips - thanks to all that shared their (horror) stories.

Cheers,

Matt

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'99 W210/OM606.962 - bone stock for now.
'94 Dodge/Cummins - NV5600, P7100, ~400hp
'96 Jeep ZJ - Cummins ISB 170/Allison LCT-1000 conversion project basket case
'00 VW Jedi - 345k, bone stock

Got the job done tonight...something tells me the first owner of this car never had the filters changed. Someone obviously tried to get in there since the screws were scratched up...but I doubt they ever got the glovebox out.

I ramped the nubs with a tungsten carbide burr chucked up in the Dremel flex shaft and afterwards could not believe how easy that thing is to install/remove with that little mod. Excellent suggestion!

What do you think - are they original?

Cheers,

Matt

Attached Thumbnails

 

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'99 W210/OM606.962 - bone stock for now.
'94 Dodge/Cummins - NV5600, P7100, ~400hp
'96 Jeep ZJ - Cummins ISB 170/Allison LCT-1000 conversion project basket case
'00 VW Jedi - 345k, bone stock

I thought I would add my photos as well.
Cabin filter(s) change for a 1996 e320.

Post# 8 of the following thread.
1996 E320 AC Vents dont seem to respond well, airflow weak despite change in fan spd

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1996 E320
2000 C230 Kompressor
1988 190e 2.3 - 225K miles, owned for 7 years. I cannot say enough good things about this car. Very well built, even at 225 it ran like new.

I also tried removing the glovebox today without much success. I don't want to pull to hard on the glovebox lid seeing as the force I applied already had an effect on the allignment of the lid with the rest of the trim.

Another approach is to approach from the engine compartment. The intake is located on the lefthand side of the engin compartment behind the box that says air conditioning. A few screws and clips to be removed and you have access to the filters. Although it's not possible to remove the filters this way is still possible to clean them. A taped a piece of garden hose to a vacuum cleaner, blew the dust out with compressed air and loosened dust by pulling my finger accross the ridges of the filter.

This restored the aircon to its original condition. It may not last as long as replacing the filter entirely, but is a lot simpler and safer than going in via the glovebox.

You may want to check that you had removed all screws before pulling on it in a way that "had an effect on the alignment of the lid." I don't see that happening with all the screws removed, although no two efforts to pull are probably identical. I was reluctant as well, but with enough trial, the box started to give way to coming out. It was then the technique of where and how much pulling pressure was applied as to how easily the box then gave way to removal. The filters have deep V-shaped crevasses that I would think are impossible to remove all foreign matter from. I would opt for hiring the R & R process before leaving old ones in place. It's just a highly placed maintenance item that I would not neglect accomplishing on my car.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert