superblast

Before I begin, I wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this forum over the years. I have learned a lot and appreciate the time everyone has taken to document their projects and fixes.

The spring mechanism stopped working in my center console cup holder a while back and I finally set out to fix it today. You'll know when the mechanism has failed because the cup holder lid no longer has a slow, smooth action and it doesn't lock in place when it's closed. It has driven me nuts because it makes the car feel really cheap as it's really loud and clunky when the spring falls out!

In my case, a screw came loose that holds the spring and gear in place on the cup holder. Unfortunately, that meant I had to go on a treasure hunt to find the missing parts as they fell into the open space below the cup holder and I wasn't really sure what I was looking for. Once you find the parts, the rest is easy. Or you can just go to Acura and buy a replacement cup holder assembly for about $50. Here are the four parts you'll need to locate:



The first step is to remove the top console cover which the cup holder is attached to. 737 Jock has documented that very nicely here: https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-rdx-diy-faq-161/diy-remove-top-console-cover-also-replace-cup-holder-803114/

In order to find all the parts, I also had to remove the carpeted side panel on the passenger side of the console as seen below. The easiest way is to remove the small panel that hides the Navigation DVD drive and then you can pull the larger, surrounding panel off.



Here is the side of the cup holder that is missing the four parts:



First, you'll want to attach the plastic gear piece to the hinge piece on the lid of the cup holder. I found it was easier to do this if I opened the lid about half way. Make sure the teeth on the part line up with the gear on the main body of the cup holder.




Next you'll insert the spring. Orient the spring so that the end with the loop is on top. The loop end hooks behind a tab on the main body of the cup holder.



Then, insert the plastic cap piece through the spring and insert the screw to hold it in place. The peg on the main body of the cup holder that the screw goes into has a certain shape to it so you'll have to rotate the plastic cap until in lines up with the peg and then you'll be able to insert it all the way in. Be careful how much you tighten the screw. It seems like it would be easy to strip the hole it goes into since it's plastic.

I may have to look into some sort of loctite type product that works with plastic parts because I have a feeling this screw will work its way out again.

ben_shafer

Sorry to bump this thread but are there part numbers for the pieces of the cup hold retract assembly rather than buying an entire cup holder? I lost the small washer that holds everything in place with the screw so that's all I really need. I can't find it anywhere in there.