Top compartment and button work; glove box button seems lame and glove box stuck. Cannot open it. What should I do?

 

I ran into this issue in the past and it drove me nut. I keep hitting it and eventually it opens.
If you follow the procedure to replace the cabin filter then you will see a wheel on the latch/unlatch mechanism. Turn it to adjust the length of the cable pull for opening.
Most of the time, this issue happen after the cabin filter change.

 

Thanks. Sorry for the typo......glove box, not gloce box. Haste makes waste!

 

As I said in another post, I had my wife hold the button in firmly while I banged on the door. It opened finally. There is a cable from the button to the latch that needs adjusting. I don't think that in my car the glove box had never been opened after 18 years! Manual and stereo demop disc were still in their original wrapper.
Anziani

 

I just adjusted the glove box cable on my '97 s420 last night. In my case, the glove box door was completely stuck shut, and I didn't want to force it open and risk breaking anything.

There is a very tiny hole off the side where the key goes into the glove box lock. You put the key into the locking mechanism, turn it approximately 45 degrees and insert a small wire or pin (I used a microscopic allen key) into the microscopic hole. You should feel the pin or wire eventually go further into the hole. The key and lock eventually come out with a little jiggling. Once removed, you must keep the key inserted into the lock at all times, or the tumblers will fall out (I put some tape around the tumbler assembly to be sure).

Once you remove the tumbler assembly, you will see a phillips head screw deep into the hole where you removed the locking mechanism. You remove that screw, and then you should be able to remove the whole button assembly as one unit. One end of the glove box cable should be attached to it. You should be able to move the cable and pop the glove box door open.

Once I was able to open the glove box door, I put back the whole button assembly, as well as the key and tumbler assembly and moved onto where the glove box door is located. To adjust the cable, you have to first remove the glove box liner, which requires removing the 4 pin fasteners (2 on the top, 2 on the bottom) and taking out the glove box lining. Unplug the glove box light as well and set the lining aside. The adjustment wheel is located underneath at the top of the glove box where the door latches.

I adjusted the wheel such that I could feel some resistance and concurrently see the slightest movement from the the glovebox latch when I pressed on the release button on the side. The adjustment wheel does not feel that sturdy, so I held the cable while turning the wheel.

Replace the liner, etc. There may be more than one way to skin this cat, but this method worked for me.

Brian