The little spring loaded doors on my center console cupholder have gotten weird.


On one door it still moves up and down like it should but doesnt stay closed. The other door stays closed but it moves freely as if its not connected to the spring any more. I know this is trivial but i hate the look of one door popped open and the other closed.


Anybody know how to fix this?

 

u can open it all up, and see what the prob is, its not a spring btw, its plastic gears..

 

k cool thanks i didnt know it was plastic...i thought plastic parts were reserved for american cars haha. so anyway, how would i go about opening the thing up?

 

ya gotta take it out, then remove the black plastic cover, and then remove the gears. under the gears you will find the circular metal clip thing, its under pressure when its on there correctly. just wind it up, put the gears back on, and youre good to go.

i wonder how i know this... hehe

 

how do i "take it out?" i know there are screws on the sides of the center console but after that what do i do? id figure it out as i went but i dont wanna mess anything up seeing how im a complete

 

you can pop off the fake wood trim.

My cup holder broke where the lid connects to the gear. I can see a really tiny plastic ear that stuck off the shaft of the lid. You could be having the same problem.

 

Ok, so I had the same problem with mine. And I know it seems like a lot of work, but you just got to start taking shit apart to figure it out some times.

I started by removing the "wood" trim on the sides of the center console. This is where your screws are to remove the cup holder. so just start unscrewing. but make sure you know where all the screws go (makes it easier for reinstall)

I think you might have to remove the 2 screws that are in the bottom of the storage area under you arm rest.

anyway, once you have the cup holder out, you should be able to see all the gears (4 I think) and you just got to reset them so that both doors open and close at the same time. you can also adjust the gapping when closed.

Now if you gear is not there, chances are it might be under your shifter, which really sucks cause then you have to take that out to get to it, it happened to me and hopefully it doesn't happen to you.

Just make sure that when you get the gears where you want them that they stay there and don't move or slide out again. I put screws in the shaft that the gears go on to keep them from sliding again.

sorry I don't have pics to post for ya, but I'm layin in bed typing this shit on my phone. I know how you feel so I thought I would help ya otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep.

hope it works out. if not just ask more questions.

 

taking it out is the bitch, you have to puck the piece forward to disconnect it from the armrest and them pull it back to pull the studs out of the shifter piece.

 

thanks for all the help guys, ill go out tomorrow morning and try it out, ill let everyone know how i do.

 

I wanted to thank everyone for the tips on fixing the cup holder lid mechanism.

The lid on my 1999 TL would never latch closed.

Since I already needed to remove the console to install a new navigation screen and radio, I took that opportunity to fix the lid.

After removing the small cover plate in front of the gears, I could see that the gears were slightly mis-rigged. The large gear on the right was not rotating enough for the locking tab to engage. This was easy to see by watching the gears while moving the doors.

I loosened the screws holding the large gears in place and I was able to re-adjust everything. I basically pulled the gears back and rotated them to the proper positions.

Now the lid latches perfectly every time.

Thanks again!

Bob

 

im getting gold plated cup holders

 

i honestly spent like half an hour tugging and pulling this cupholder apart trying to get it out of my car and i could NOT figure it out. i took off the wood trim and unscrewed those screws, but i didnt know how to disconnect it from the armrest, there were like 3 screws in that area that were physically impossible to unscrew, and the thing that holds the armrest closed is connected to the cupholder as well (i believe?) and i just couldnt get it out. can you like give me better detail on how to exaactly "puck" a piece forward??

 

You need to open the armrest storage compartment (lower storage not small top one), remove the 'liner' at the bottom and you will find two screws there that you need to remove. Once those are removed, simply lift and slide back the the entire armrest unit. You just gave yourself so much room to work
BTW, that's after you have removed the 'wood' and other screws, just an easier alternative to 'puck' the piece forward

 

Forgot to mention that just be careful not to mess the connector for the second power outlet and light in there when doing the 'lift and slide' of the armrest console.

 

Here's a great "how-to" link that shows how to remove the center console with some photos:

http://www.skyeflye.com/acura_cls/In...01-2003_CL.pdf

It also shows how to remove the radio.