300tdi cup holder

[muddyjames]

The other day I took the plastic section out below the heater controls that holds the cup holder, ash tray and spare button plastic bit.

All went well until in the dark I heard a tink, tink, tink. Something that holds and allows the cup holder to slide in has fallen out and be blown if I can find it now! The cup holder wont even slide in anymore.  :twisted:

anyone know of someone breaking a 300tdi and I could buy the whole part and them not removing the cup holder :lol: or know of which part I may have lost or how it goes back together?

Trivial I know but now there is 2 bits of metal sticking out which I am going to catch my hand on soon.

[Disco Matt]

I accidentally dismantled mine in similar circumstances before, so my experiences might be helpful - the most likely part to go "ping" is a small plastic cog that makes the inner and outer parts of the cupholder extend at the same time (essentially they push the outer section out as the inner section is pressed out by a wire spring). There's one cog on each side and getting it all properly meshed was an absolute swine of a job.

Best bet I found was as follows: Extend the inner section and offer the outer section to it. Ensure cogs are correctly aligned (they tend to slip sideways or fall out) and then push - after a disturbing crack mine went back together and works as before. The wire spring at the back can now be refitted, assuming it fell out earlier.

Edit, this assumes that you have actually dismantled the cupholder - if it's a simple case of the spring having fallen out then check on the top of the assembly at the back, where a little plastic thing pivots to lock the cupholder closed. The wire spring is supposed to hold this in the right place, if it has fallen out then the plastic part could be jamming the holder.

[muddyjames]

now the 2 plastic cogs that also fell out I amazingly found!! :lol: I think the wire spring is the item that I have lost. Under the inner part looks to be a groove that the end of the wire follows and locks the damn thing back in place!

I will dismantle it all again tomorrow in day light and have a fiddle. Also will dismantle car to find the spring! :lol:

I m NEVER taking it out again! I only took it out to see if there was a retaining screw behind it!

[Disco Matt]

I m NEVER taking it out again! I only took it out to see if there was a retaining screw behind it!

Exactly my reason for removing it and resolution upon getting it all back together!

The spring is a bit of a puzzle to refit rather than a brute force job - just keep trying it at various angles until it goes back in. I now wish I'd taken some photos while sorting mine out.

[muddyjames]

I think I will take photos too. I feel I may end up taking photos of the inside of the disco and posting them on here and having a spot the spring in the photo competition!!! :lol:

[Disco Matt]

The other problem I had was that I couldn't remove the subassembly from the car as it was tethered in place by the wiring loom for the front foglight switch (I don't have front fogs but the wiring is all there). Best bet is to get it all sliding in and out and then attempt to refit the spring - it's one of those jobs where you look at it for a bit, try a few angles, then figure it out and wonder why it took so long!

[muddyjames]

I dont have fogs either. I didnt see a wiring loom behind the unit once I removed it.

this is the reason why I removed it in the first place. To fit this switch!! At least the fak switches pull out easily!

[andrew2986]

did exactly the same thing with mine, managed to get it back in but its never been right....

[africanpete]

Me too!

But they are useless anyway unless youre putting a small can of something in it, bigger bottles, coffee mugs just interfere with the climate control switches(TD5)

Does anyone know if you can substitute the ashtray and coin tray in a TD5 to take the 300's switches?

Pete

[Disco Matt]

did exactly the same thing with mine, managed to get it back in but its never been right....

There seem to be two things that can go wrong - either the gear mesh is out (so it won't slide back properly - one segment hits the end stops before the other) or the spring is missing (so it doesn't self-deploy when you press it in).

With a little further thought, my comment about the pivoting plastic thingy above was slightly wrong - this just pivots freely, the spring bears on the back of the inner sliding section of the cupholder to deploy it. Pressing it in causes the plastic thingy to move aside and unlock the cupholder.

I just used the small blank areas either side of the steering column shroud to add switches to mine - a couple of small round rocker switches, one controlling the spotlights and the other isolating the aerial (so I can play CDs with it folded).

[muddyjames]

well, by breaking it further and looking for about half an hour for something that wasnt missing I had a cunning plan!

the bit I was looking for was a piece of plastic that was already mounted to the holder casing but the pin had snapped off.  :roll:  I tried getting the cogs back in to only some how sheer a few splines off the cogs and then the spring that pushes the holder out fell out.

It was at this point I decided to bin the spring and cogs! So now I have a fully functioning cup holder, just I need to pull it out by hand!!! :lol: