Removing Cup Holder from Arm Rest?

I'm fairly sure this has been asked before, but I cannot find it anywhere.

I want to remove the cup holder bit from the place where I rest my left elbow; so that I can store my minidiscs in there as I am getting a bit annoyed with them flying around the car.

BTW any ideas on how I can prevent the minidiscs from rattling? Was planning on trying to get a lump of rubber the exact size of the space, and get grooves cut into it, but any other ideas appreaciated.

I was going to do the same thing but couldn't see how to do it either. Ended up having the cup holder open (?) and cutting an old mouse mat to fit on top of it. You get about 10 MD's in there, the mousemat seems to stop most of the rattles and there's a secret compartment underneath the mousemat. Maybe not so secret

Cupholder is simply held in by very small philips head screws. Remove the panel on the back for access. I believe you can take the whole centre tray inside the armrest out by removing a couple of hidden screws at the top of it...

Hope this makes some form of sense. Will check tonight and update.

I got mine out in a couple of minutes (MY98) by gently levering the cup holder out of its runners with a small screwdriver and then removing the runners themselves by removing the small fixing screws. Doddle

I had to go the same route as David and use an MD pouch, as my cup holder is being used. I use it to hold my Nokia car phone speaker!

I did have it in passenger footwell, but I couldn't hear it over the exhaust! Now when I get a phone call, I have to lift the lid slightly and I get a crystal clear sound!

Cheers
Andy

Raymond, how did you manage to get the back screw out as I can find no way of getting a screwdriver onto the head of the screw?

[This message has been edited by Robertio (edited 26 June 2001).]

Half the interior of my car is now scattered all over the place, by removing the bit around the hand brake I have managed to get into the screw on that side Unfortunately the screw on the other side I cannot get to as there is no hole in the back of the arm rest trim, I have removed the plastic plate at the bottom of it, but cannot fit a screw driver in the gap, any ideas before I resort to drilling a hole in it?

BTW there are 2 screws in the bottom of the cup holder, but there is no way I can get them out with the std issue Scooby screw driver, much like the 2 in behind the electric window controls, bu66ered if I can get them out

Overall not a very successful evening for me


I did happen to notice that the plug on the electric window switch says Nissan on it

[This message has been edited by Robertio (edited 26 June 2001).]

Not directly related to your question, but an alternative solution is to use one of Case Logic's 'Wallets' - they make one specially for minidiscs (12 or 24).
I've bought one from the following people - the service was pretty quick.

Robertio,

I'm not sure which screw you're on about but I can't remember anyway I do seem to remember (it must be about two years ago now) that all I used was a small screwdriver, one of the type about 4" long that you would use for wiring a plug. I didn't need to dismantle anything else and I didn't even break the cupholder either

I did the trick with the mouse mat as well, no need to remove the cup holder, just cut a piece of hard plastic to the right size and place it on the open cup holder.
Then cut two pieces of mouse mat for the sides of the space and about five or six bits to fit in between each MD case to stop them rattling and make them easy to get out without crashing the car.
What you end up with is a MD case/mousemat multi-layer sandwhich. When you want to change round your discs you leave the cases in the space and just swap the discs.
I hope this makes sense!

Pete

I got it out last night

Should anyone be interested I can do a step-by-step thing, I'm sure Chiark would look after it.

But as a general guide:
Remove all of the central trim, around handbrake, gear level, etc.
Undo screwms holding central area of plastic (not a clue what you would call it, but the area onto which the trim items are clipped / screwed)
Undo the screws in the botom of the cup holder.
Lift up whole section, you should find that there are 3 screws through from the bottom, undo these, and the hard plastic section is loose, it is now just a matter of removing the 2 small screws holding the cup holder.

Hopefully it goes back together in reverse order, but it was getting a bit dark at quarter to 11 last night, so my car is sitting in pieces at the moment

If you don't mind, I'll hold that in the "quick mods" section? Drop me a mail if you're happy for me to do this.

Nick (home of the quick and dirty mod)

chiark, you have mail, btw we don't need any further info on your home life