Friends,

A small issue with my center console ashtray door. Originally, the door would open, and stay open at a certain point. To close it, one would move it forward slightly, and it would then automatically close. Now, when pushing it open, it does not stay open, and just slides closed. It hasn’t been used as an ashtray during my ownership, and appears to have never been used. Again, a small issue, but if anyone has any ideas on what to look at to correct this, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.
John

 

I think there was a TSB on that. Nonetheless, I did see that the mechanism “gucks up”. I removed the ashtray (instructions in the workshop manual), cleaned the mechanism then very lightly lubricated with a liquid with teflon. That was a few years ago.

 

Guy,

Thanks. . I played around with a few search phrases, and finally got a hit. Seems that it is a fairly common issue, and a big job, to fix a small problem.
John

 

That’s correct, big job for a small fix. In my case, the latching mechanism, a small plastic disk, had fallen out, and was laying on the transmission tunnel under the ashtray.

 

I had that problem also. Seems some business cards and other stuff migrated back there. This guy explains how its done:


Fairly easy removal...

 

Why didn't the guy vacuum out all the debris?

 

For those that have performed this repair, couple of questions...

Should the battery be disconnected before starting the work?

Two, what is the best/proper way to remove the wood panels?
I fear that I might break the tabs, or whatever holds them in place.

thanks.

 

Well huh. I removed the whole console when I did mine, have to remember this shortcut (if I ever need to fix it again).

Not necessary.
Get a set of those plastic trim removal tools (cheap, and boatloads of them on Amazon).
IIRC, for the vertical one, work from the bottom up. For the horizontal one, work from the front to the rear.
Carefully insert a trim tool, with a wide edge (to spread the load of your prying), between the wood trim and leather (deep enough that you are not just catching the edge of the laminate), and gently pry outward.

 

thank you.

 

Before you go through that, you could try just removing the ashtray lid and clear that debris if any see attached TSB image 3

 

Thanks Sean.