I feel a bit stupid, as suddenly the box cover will not lift, just slide back to uncover the cup holder. It was working two days ago when I put my favorite CD in there.
Is this a known problem?

Well, it's the first time I have heard about such a thing on this forum, but there is always a first time.

There are two catches on this lid, one to release the slide, and the other to release the lid so you can lift it. I have always found it a PITA to work and always wondered why it is such an awkwardly engineered device. Can you get the lid up when it is in the rearward position, or won't it come up at all ?

It won't come up at all now, and it is not just me, I had a friend try it for about two minutes.
An original problem? Just my luck :-)

JJ

Anybody else have any ideas, apart from brute force. Is there a trick to it ?

I have just had a quick play and with a bit of practice was able to pop the lid with a thin screwdriver by manually pushing the catches in horizontally from the side whilst applying a little upward pressure to the lid.

It is obviously easier if you can study the setup first but on my car the latches are about 2cm back from the seam on the side of the centre console. If the wire joining the two catches is broken you may need to use two screw drivers but on mine pushing on one catch moved the other.

The attached pics may help.

There's one to release the slide? I always bang mine forcefully from behind. Am I missing a way to slide it forward less harshfully?

The handle at the front releases it to slide forward or back, so pulling up on it should allow it to slide forward without using brute force.

OK, the screwdriver trick worked. It is obvious that the cable tension is not sufficient to fully release the catches. Now, how do I get this apart? It being the underside of the armrest box lid.

Thanks, I got it open but my cables for the catch are not exposed like yours and I have to find how to change the tension.

That is interesting as our cars are of the same vintage.

The cables are only exposed when the arm is fully extended. There isn't any obvious fittings for a cover and it looks like one would foul as the arm rest is slid back.

I think you may be missing a cover plate, as mine has 4 micro star bit screws holding a plate on the inside of the catch. I have go and buy this unusual size (read stupid) to get this off.

Showing, albeit fuzzily, the exposed cables on the underside of the lid of the arm rest. You can see one cable off the idler pulley and the end of the cable has a cross bar that had slipped sideways off the two hooks meant to anchor it.
As the cable stretched with use, the crossbar no longer seats under tension so my quick fix was to add adhesive blobs to both ends of the crossbar to prevent its tendency to slide sideways until it can twist off.

For people with a problem with the sliding function, the cable on the right of the photo is the one for that catch.

i've had the same problem for about 6 months now. About to try this method out and see if it works. Thanks for the tips!

Okay so I successfully got the armrest to open upwards with the screwdriver trick. Now, when I opened up the armrest to see if the cables were alright, they were both securely placed on the idler pulley unlike PearlFishers. Was hoping to have the same quick fix but unfortunately that isn't so. Seems to me as if the tension just isnt sufficient enough to make it fire by simply using the latch mechanism... I pulled the cable with a pair of pliers to see if it was still firing and they were fine. So, any ideas on how to increase the tension of the left hand wire without wreaking havoc?

It makes me wonder if the designers ever had a bicycle.
I cannot see any easy way, although you might be able to put a spacer of some kind where the cable exits its sheath, or if there is room, try and put something on the lower of the two horizontal metal bars to add a little tension on the exposed wire.