I remember Road & Track Magazine complaining about the lack of cup holders in the Mercedes 450 SEL circa 1976.

Mercedes response was something to the effect that you do not have time to reach for a cup of coffee at Autobahn speeds. It is a drivers car.

Perhaps jag-you-er (as a passerby called my car yesterday), reluctantly placed them in there to placate the press while realizing a true enthusiast would never dream of using them.

That is my position as regrettably they are pretty chintzy.

 

The official XK8/XKR cup holder


By scotiapilot at 2012-05-15

 

I hope they were also "cup fillers".

At least "B". Hopefully, "C".

 

So what's changed?

Oh yeah! That's right ... now you get to hang on to her purse in the mall

 

This thread seems to have taken some truly bizarre twists and turns. (bidets?)

Back to the point, I don't know how to slow down the opening mechanism, but if you are talking about the same noise that mine made, I sprayed some Armor All in it and it quieted up. Someone else suggested WD 40, and that will work as well, but I don't like the smell inside my car.

Someone else is liable to tell you a superior product to Armor All that you should use, as so often happens, so pick your own poison and spray something in there that may help with the noise.

 

The thing is, there is plenty of room there to make a cup holder that actually works. I was going to proto something out of aluminum, but I don't really care all that much. I just don't allow any drink that doesn't have a cap that can be screwed on in the car.

 

I here scotch is a good lubricant..put plenty on and the last thing you worry about is your cup holder

 

Ok, thanks to MarcB, I found out that there is a missing spring somewhere in my cup holder, which makes it much worse than it should be. His did not sound and behave like cup ejectors :-)

 

James Bond ejector mechanism.

press the button, and whooosh

 

Mine takes about a half second to pop out but the one I had on the R was like a switch-blade.

 

They didn't really think it through since it's seriously in the way of shifting when in use. I don't trust them, they are not designed for the tall cups we have here so I use my legs. Terrible design.

 

I agree, and I NEVER use them, after a spill when I first had the car and tried to use them.

I have always assumed that the British designers were not aware of the Drive Up fast food places with the huge cups that we have here in the USA.


You can tell that they are like an afterthought.

 

Yeah our "small" sizes now are HUGE, no wonder we're all fat here! Wonder if they have specialty "lap" cupholders for this problem!

 

Back to the original problem for me, because sometimes when I open my legs they make a terrible noise.. I'll stop now. Promise.

 

Yes... it's like right in front of the shifter....like... I never manually shift when I have coffee..I can't even reach over and grab the girlfriends ying yang with it there...

 

When my XK8 was newer the cup holder would open nice and slow - it was attached to some sort of internal device that eased it open.

Somehow it became disconnected from it's "brake" and now it snaps open quickly.

I'm sure that if you open up the thing you will find a broken piece of plastic or a connecting rod of some type that has simply come loose. Fix that and you'll be back in business!

 

yeah, spring/damper system. Mine still works properly, opening slowly.

 

After my son and I discovered the efficacy of the cup-holders after a McDonalds run (yes I have to go there...he is a teenager after all) all I do is hold the cup (my arm rests on the arm-rest so no biggie) on exit ramps or while turning while driving (or ask the passenger to hold both) until the road settles down straight.

Small price to pay for the car. Those indistinguishable autos running around on the roads today can keep their 60oz capable cup-holders.

 

And mine also works perfectly however there is a cup holder repair kit available from Jaguar and surprise , it's very cheap to buy ,

Nik

 

Don't complain. My 98 Porsche 911 didn't even have cup holders! I'm ecstatic to have them now in my xk,