I was driving up to Dallas for the Texas vs OU game on Friday and had a coke in the cupholder. It was one of those fountain drink type cokes that comes in a cup as opposed to a bottle and was definitely too big for my cupholder.

Long story short, I'm driving on the freeway and the car in front of me slams on the brakes...so I slam on the brakes, Coke flies out of the cupholder and sprays everywhere....i mean everywhere. Everything got hit, tape deck, buttons, shifter, floormats (thank god for the all season rubber floormats).

The next day, when I'm driving back to Austin, I started having trouble getting my shifter out of Park and even had to do the procedure to unlock it through the panel on the top left side. I still have a lot of trouble getting it out of park sometimes and took it into the dealer this morning. They disassembled everything and showed me...man, the coke got EVERYWHERE on the inside. So basically they're taking everything out, radio, nav, shifter assembly, e-brake...taking everything apart and cleaning each individual piece.

He said I was lookin at like 4 hours of labor, and at $101.00 an hour, that is not gonna be cheap.

Has this happened to any of you? What did you guys do to fix it?

-Abhi

 

Try drinking Gatorade and Water in the plastic bottles. Hasn't failed me yet!

 

GD, that sucks. I aways use a plastic bottle (keep the lid on) because something like what happen to you happen to me, but not as bad in my old Nissan.

 

only drink from bottles, and that to being water!!!

 

That sucks. You should quickly adopt a no food or drinks rule after this.

 

A few years ago, I stopped by the store at noon and bought a bottle of red wine for dinner that night. I left it sitting on the front seat that afternoon while I was at the office. Well, I wasn't thinking very well because the interior of the car got very hot sitting in the sun and the wine expanded and blew the cork out. Red wine EVERYWHERE. That cost a fortune. New seat, carpet, lots of clean up. I learned my lesson on that one.

 

Ouch! And I drink stuff like that all the time in my car...sigh... one of the joys of owning a car. I just can't see never eating / drinking in your car either..it's a car..not a museum piece behind a glass case! If you're that concerned about getting your nice car dirty then get a cheaper car or something, or cover the whole thing in plastic like grandma's old couch in the living room! hehe


I thought the MDX was bad because we have 2 little kids that make big food/drink messes in the back seat all the time!

 

yeah back seat and the baby. i keep trying to reason with my 16month not to make a mess back there but he just wont listen.

 

I had coke slop on the shifter area like you .. gummed things up .. I just sprayedit with distilled water and wiped it in all gears .. took about 5 days of doing it but all is fine now.

 

alright so I took the car in on Tuesday and they proceeded to rip everything out, Navigation, Radio, shifter assembly, etc. The tech showed me the mess after he had ripped out the shifter assembly...coke had gotten everywhere.

So basically, he had to take out every individual component and wipe them down and then he used cue-tips to clean under the buttons and all that sorta stuff. Cost me $380, which was a lot less than I expected.

However, I am still having problems getting the shifter out of Park sometimes. It's really random and almost impossible to duplicate. Just all of a sudden, it will get stuck in Park and will not come out until I wrestle with it for a little while.

Any ideas?

I'm at the dealership right now and they're taking a look at it...I don't know whether they'll be able to duplicate the problem though.

 

Look at my post .. the coke gets in the movable plates etc and the switch .. mine did the exact same thing .. you can get it out of park if you remove the litlle plate and activate the switch.. All I did for a few days was spray distilled water in the movable plates area and work it in and out of the gears some then wiped it clean with a M/F towel .. took a few days but every time it tightened up I sprayed & wiped .. keep the bottle / cloth in the car and the little access cap off.


Good luck .. worked for me ..

 

Thanks for the advice...the dealership gave me a list of stuff that needs to be replaced:

Base Bracket ($100.78), Switch Assembly (56.68), Escutcheon (72.48), Solenoid Assembly (95.56), plus 3 hours of labor ($303).

I told them that was ridiculous since I had just spent $380 on Tuesday to get everything cleaned up and the Tech told me he could guarantee everything except the switch which might go out eventually. The service director went on to say that he really valued my satisfaction and that he wanted to take care of me and blah blah blah and that he would not charge me for labor and that he would take 20% off the parts which brings the cost down to like ~$250. He also said that the problem would be completely fixed now and that in case something still wasnt working that I would not have to spend a dime to fix it.

Thoughts?

Is there anyway spilling a coke could damage all those parts (base bracket, switch assembly, escutcheon, solenoid assembly)??

 

I don't think so...switch assembly maybe but the rest is highly unlikely! How do you damage a "base bracket" with coke?? The soenoid is possible to damage with liquids but again very difficult to do unless you shorted it whist it was powered. It sounds however like it's just sticky! If coke go into the gap between the coil and the rod it would cause all sorts of prolems with the actuator sticking.

 

Coke spilled ??????

How many hundreds or thousands of $$$ did that cost you?
I'll bet it cost you a fortune!

Remember that scene in a Woddy Allen movie where he sneezed into a little box and that white powder went all over the place? If my memory's correct, that was $1600 worth.

Better yet, remember that scene in True Romance when Elliot got pulled over?

 

my first question is what the is an Escutcheon? the second thing...whats going on here is obvious. by spilling your coke, which by the way, along with coffee is actually somewhat common, you managed to stick up your solenoid assembly below your shift gate cover. Your initial problem arose at the onset of the stick. After cleaning, your problem has been 99% taken care of. I would assume that's because they've only removed 99% of the coke. worst case scenerio, you go with a whole new solenoid to ensure 100% proper operation. I wouldn't ever recommend pouring water onto an electrical harness or switch, as this could lead to shorts or even worse, corrosion. But I would recommend this: go back to your dealer, demand free installation of the solonoid only. Under warranty, acura would pay a technician 1.2 hours to replace the ENTIRE shift lever assembly, under operation code 214107. You never should have been charged 4 hours and certaintly shouldn't have to pay anymore. Tell them if they install your part free of charge and you don't experience anymore issues, you won't destroy them on your next survey. -Good luck

 

From the title of this thread i would have just guesed that you spilled a bag of cocain in your car and that was worth a fartune, anyway why didnt you take it apart and clean it yourself? where you too coked out already ??? lol

 

yeah sounds like maybe the solenoid was shorted out and it isn't consistently releasing the shifter lock when you press the brake.. i would disaassemble the center console and see if the switch is clicking when you depress the brake... that should be the main reason you have to use the override to get it out of park...

this happened on my vigor but it was due to a bad brake switch... but it is more likely your solenoid from the coke...

 

Sugary drinks are very hard to clean. (Ask me how I now). An ammonia cleaner (Windex) works the best, but it is water based an may lead to a corrosion if left inside. That's why sensative parts like a solenoid should by cleaned with alcohol. Pure ethyl alcohol is sold in liqour stores and taxed like a drink, which makes it expensive.

 

Pharmacies also carry 90+% rubbing alcohol behind the counter or in a secured back room, in addition to the 70% stuff on the shelves. You have to ask for it, but the 90%+ alcohol is really inexpensive and works well for cleaning as well as disinfecting. It is not potable and will blind and or kill anyone that tries to drink it, however.

 

Yeah maybe I did get reamed, but i got all four parts replaced (base bracket, switch assembly, escutcheon(no idea what that is), and the solenoid assembly)...since i had already paid $380 for them to disassemble everything and clean it I told them that I did not want to pay for labor...long story short, they ended up comping labor and giving me a 20% discount off of parts so I ended up paying $216+tax...

so, did I get reamed or not?

 

Alright, it has been a while now and the buttons on the radio are still really sticky. I took it back to Sterling Acura but they said that there's pretty much nothing they can do about it other than replacing the whole damn head unit, which costs ~$2000. Obviously, with a pricetag like that, replacing it is not an option.

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what I should do? Is there a way to really clean the buttons well and get them to stop being so sticky?

 

You could try what I did as posted above.

 

This is a common event on the 1997-2002 Mercedes CLK's due to their (rather whimpy) cupholders that essentially "suspend" the drink over the shift mechanism. Although it did not happen to me, it did to a number of my friends. For a while Benz was doing a (one time only) replacement for customers but the second time it was something like $2,000 so....it could be worse...

 

Actually, the shifter is fine now. The problems I'm having are with the buttons on the radio. Any ideas? I can't afford to replace the whole damn thing.

Any ideas on where I could get a replacement head unit for cheap? I've been trying local junkyards but no luck so far.

 

bump...anyone?

 

look on ebay i saw some for really cheap like 80$

 

Im new hear, and I had the same thing happen (spilt drink in shift gate area) my question is.
Do I have to take the whole center console out, or is there a way to get the shift gate off withought taking the whole console apart?

My check engine light is on and I have to get emissions done soon, even though it has nothing to do with emissions, it will not pass if the check light is on.
Thanks in advance,
Greg.

 

Read my post above

 

got ya. I will give it a try.
Do you have AT or MT, the code it throws is for the sports shift, it will not get out of second gear if I use it. Instead of water I might use tuner cleaner, we shall see. Thanks for the quick response Jesstzn.

 

I have a AT and watch the tuner cleaner doesn't react with something .. I used ditilled water in a spray bottle.

 

thanx for the help Jes, I didnt' use water, I went ahead with the tuner cleaner (from radio shack) worked fine but I ran out of time. Took it to the dealer (Pohanka Acura in NOVA) they fixed it. Had to replace a switch, It didn't come out as bad as I thought. The total came out to 270.00

 

anyone think they can help me figure out how to clean behind the buttons on the radio? My 2 button sticks from time to time....it's the only one too....

 

Hmmm...try compressed air maybe (the one in the can) with a targetting straw? Maybe that might dislodge the goo? Or spritz it with a little bit of water and hit it immediately with compressed air ? Do this numerous times? Thats a tuff one!

 

The alcohol or distilled water trick. Spray, work the buttons, wipe, repeat. You probably need to get it between the buttons and the frame. Might want to do it with the power off and let it sit overnight until it dries out before you power it up again. If you use the alcohol, test it carefully first to make sure it won't have any negative impact on the finish.
Windex or similar has ammonia, which may cause corrosion, I would stay away from it.
If you are handy, you could probably take the radio apart enough to thoroughly clean it, as well.
Good luck.

 

dang that sucks sorry to hear that, I'm getting a brand new cup holder cause acura messed mine up, so yeah, its already sticky inside the cup holders too lol i spilled some soda on it also
~Jason

 

Not heard of this term since Wheel Horse tractors (they had an Escutcheon plate right on the front of em) but....here is the formal def...

es·cutch·eon [ ə skúchən ] (plural es·cutch·eons)

noun Definition: 1. heraldic shield: a shield, especially one used in heraldry to display a coat of arms

2. protective shield: a plate or shield fixed around something such as a light switch or keyhole, as an ornament or to protect the surrounding surface

3. nautical nameplate on vessel: a panel on the stern of a vessel on which the vessel's name is shown

 

jesus did you see what god just did to us man!?!?!! #gonzo

 

In my case, coffee was the culprit -- after reading this and some other threads I decided to make a $10 gamble on spraying electrical contact cleaner in where the coffee had gone, then cleared the engine code ... so far, so good.... figured I would post on this ancient thread in case it helps someone out in the future.