shawn

Do the pesky little cupholder lids open up when you drive?
Isn't it just an annoyance to have to keep on closing it?
Shit, well this is the DIY for you.

First off, let me explain how those lids work. The lid has 2 arms and 1 peg. The cupholder itself is removable and has 1 peg. The whole assembly has 1 spring.

Now, on the lid, both arms click into the cupholder and the peg slides into a slot where it pivots back and forth. Now it moves freely at this time but this is where the spring comes into play. The spring slides INSIDE of the peg on the lid and OVER the peg on the cupholder. (you will see in pics below) with the spring in that position, that is what gives it the tension to either hold the lid closed or hold the lid open. Now here is what's happening. Either a) the peg on the cupholder broke (cross your fingers that it didn't) or b) the spring slipped off of the peg on the cupholder or the plastic ridge broke off (easy to fix). The reason why the spring would slip off is because when you open it, it tweaks the spring giving it pressure to slip off, so there is a really easy fix that will eliminate the annoyance when you drive.

So let's get started shall we?

First off, you need to remove the center console.
Screw locations are:
2 - very front of it on both drivers side and passenger side. Take a knife and pop the lid on the cover revealing the screw
1 - underneath window switch/ashtray. Pry it out with a knife. Very fragile.
2 - in the gas lid release and trunk release compartment

When the 5 screws are removed, unscrew shift knob, remove window switch and pull up from the front of the center console. Don't be scared. Pull center console foward to slide the trunk and gas door release out. Remove console.

Flip console over and identify to cupholder that was pissin you off. (I did both to save me the hassle of doing it later again) now there will be 6 screws holding the cupholders in place because they overlap each other. Pretty obvious to find (on all corners).

Pull the cupholders out.
To pull the lid off (for cleaning purposes) push the housing to the outside and pull the lid to the inside at the same time to wedge it out.




Now locate that pos spring. Here is how Mazda puts it on.






Put it back on there but as you can see, it tweaks outwards when you open the lid, we are going to fix that Ish right now



Items needed:
Wide head screw (I don't know the name of it) but a screw with the head that looks like a washer.
A few washers (to fit over the peg and hold the spring down) or a washer bolt (I got mine off the tail light on my cavalier.... Here is what they look like)



Now pop the spring on, put the washer bolt on, screw the screw into the peg and bam, you're done.



Results



No more limpy lid!

nikolai-7

nice

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amptramp

I used the fix shown here:

http://www.miata.net/garage/cupholderfix/024.jpg

and it worked just fine. The lid stays open if you open it, closed if you close it and doesn't try to open on its own. I used some 10-gauge copper wire that I keep on hand for restoring old FM tuners and radios and it works well because it bends easily then work-hardens into position.

shawn

hmmm.

i still think my fix is easier lol