Ok... My in dash cup holder (ash tray) stopped popping out on it's own so I figured either a spring broke or came undone.

So I get the cup holder tray out and find there's a piece of metal that's bent to be a spring that's no longer attached.. I look at how it was connected but it has me confused a bit. I see what looks like 2 sided tape on the back where the spring was connected, but I don't see any of the tape on the spring. This makes me think I'm missing a piece of plastic. Still it looks like the sprint was just clipped on the back of the tray with by 2 small pieces of plastic holding it on. Makes me think I can just use a screw and reattach the spring...

Now the question is, for those that know how it's normally attached or have fixed theirs in the past.... Am I missing anything that goes between the spring and the tray? And even if I'm missing a piece, do I really need to have something between the tray and spring? 3rd... Does the attached picture show the correct orientation of how the spring should be reattached?



Thanks!

 

i think that the way it goes also how did you take yours off? im trying to replace mines but cant get it out

 

Here's an image of another one that I found. It seems to be the same as your's, so I don't think you're missing anything.

 

This happened on my 03 Screw. I actually had melted plastic that held it in place. I melted mine again, but that was temporary. I ended up predrilling and putting a small screw in it to stay.
5.4T - going from memory (which is bad) there are two tabs that you can kind of feel that make it release and pull out. Took a couple of minutes to figure out. Search around it a little bit - it was not real hard to get out though. Good luck, Mike

 

5.4T - now that I looked at Alloros pic, it is those two tabs on top, just push in a little bit and push those down - should slide right out. Thanks for the pic Alloro. Mike.

 

I went out to see if my dash cup holder was like the one discussed here.
After pushing it in to open it, guess what, the spring fell out from behind!
That thing hasn't been used a half dozen times in 12 years, go figure.
Looks like a cup holder repair is on tomorrow's schedule....

BTW, mine has a wire connected to it.

 

I screwed it in and it seems to work fine now...

Here's a picture of it screwed on and also the tabs, circled in red, that need to be pulled down, from underneath, to pull the tray out.

 

The wire has a bulb connected to it. I disconnected it on the tray side. Just turn it a bit, and it will come right out.

 

thanks man!im guessing this is a commen problem for 99 and up models, my 98 never had this problem

 

Thanks to all for the pictures and advice in this thread.
Once the tray was removed it was simple to drill out the plastic dots that held the spring and insert small screws - done.
The whole job took about 10 minutes.