Good write up, I'll try it again if my new replacement lid installed yesterday takes a crap on me again. My first one actually had the legs on the back of the button break off. Luckily the dealer had a lip in stock and they are actually redesigning the whole center console to be tougher so I will go in for the new entire center console when parts are available.

 

Is this to fix the consoles problem of sliding closed when breaking hard. Or is my problem a completely different one. Does anyone else have this problem of the center console sliding closed very easily and loosely when just braking sometimes. It is really starting to bug me

 

Mine slams forward all the time as well. Course the little "height" tab that slides the cover on the left side of mine is broken and the button is now popped up in front. Figured they were all releated but maybe not.

Any idea how far into the warranty the dealer will fix this? I've got about 7 months and 14000 miles on it. What are my chances?

 

Just did this "FIX". Like new. -Props to the OP.

 

me too.Just fixed this with your help. Thanx. Great write-up

 

worked great thank you

 

Thanks to the OP for a clear How To.

 

Wow! After three and half years since I posted the fix, I am glad that people are still reffering it to fix the button! I am not sure if this issue has been solved in the later models. I really miss my Rex since I traded in with a current Mazda 3 two years ago because I have to do even longer commute. When I traded my Rex, it had 40K miles and the button did not pop on me after the first fix.
Funny thing is that my Mz 3 has already 73K miles on my in almost 3 years But is still running strong

 

Fantastic fix for something I had just planned on living with, thanks Rom.

 

mine fix worked for a day.... should i bend the tips out little bit more? im afriad its gonna snap

 

Just got a used 04 button was slanted found this forum now all straight, awesome diy

 

I believe that you did not applied enought heat on the tabs. Try a bit longer and make sure that the tabs are 90 degrees. Perhaps a bit more should be ok.

 

Rom, I could kiss you! This has been driving me INSANE for months now, but I never brought it up to the dealer because I didn't want to deal with it. I just popped the lid off, pulled the button out and fired up the old 70s hairdryer. Done! We'll see how it holds up in the summer heat, but it's so darn easy to fix that if I had to do it every 4 months I wouldn't even care. Awesome DIY.

 

i remember this DIY
haven't had a problem for 4 years now

 

I am glad to see that
I started to believe that during the molding process of the buttons when pulling out from the mold the buttons still "hot" as it cools down the tabs tends to bend inwards. Of course if they put the buttons in a jig while it cools down is an added expense. Probably the supplier knew that but they let it go since it stayed withing tolerances. Of course they did not anticipated that with the heat of summer and the springs pushing the button upward made the tabs to release the housing.

 

This is great! Now, someone just needs to figure out a way to fix the looseness of the lid overall. (Side to side, forward and back.)

 

Butters, if your lid is like mine, then some of the plastic tabs that go in the "tracks" have probably broken off. Unfortunately, I am at work so I can't go snap pictures at the moment, but if you take the lid off, you can see the tabs I mean. They actually should have little plastic pieces on them as well, which are there to keep the lid from sliding left to ride and provide a little bit of resistance for the front to back. Unfortunately, I think that all 4 of my tabs have broken off a bit, and the little plastic "resistors" fell off with them. The tabs are still there, but the corners are all gone, so instead of being about 3/4" long, they're close to 1/4".

I'll try to get some pictures up over the weekend to explain what I mean. I am not sure if this is a warranty fix or not, I will have to check the next time I take my car in.

 

Interesting, I'll have to check that. If you could snap some photos that would be awesome.

 

Sorry for the delay, the drive to Chicago yesterday was murderous. And sorry for the crappy Blackberry pictures, it's the best I could get.



You can see here, where I've circled, that the tab has broken off on the corners. The arrow also points to one of the plastic "resistor" pieces I mentioned. What you can't see is that the tab that is broken also used to have one of those "resistors" on it as well.



This blurry picture shows the "resistor" from that tab - you can see where there is plastic stuck in there from the corners of the tab that broke off.

I am going to try to either get the dealer to replace these pieces under warranty or at the very least get me some information on them so I can order new ones, because if I can get that fixed, I expect it will make that console lid operate more smoothly. Hope this helps.

NO IDEA WHY IT WON'T EMBED MY PICTURES

 

YeahYeahYouWere, I pulled my lid off and saw that all my "resistor" pieces were in place and not broken. The "retainer tabs" that are broken on yours are just fine on mine. Here's what I've discovered: The tabs only prevent you from lifting the arm rest up when the lid is extended; they have nothing to do with the sliding forward/backward motion or the side-to-side looseness.

In order to fix the problem where under hard breaking or acceleration the lid slams shut or scoots back, you need to increase the amount the resistor fins stick out. I think maybe over time, the resistors lose their springiness so that they are unable to provide the necessary pressure against the rail that the lid slides into.

What I've done so far is to fold up a couple of really tiny pieces of paper towel napkin and stuff them in the resistors so that the springy fin part sticks out more. I did this to all four resistors. Admittedly this is really ghetto, but now the lid will not move unless I apply deliberate effort to move it. However, this does not solve the side-to-side looseness, though it may have lessened it. To fix this, you'd have to increase the distance the fins of the resistors stick out so that they'd touch the sides of the rails when you slide the lid off the back lid. But you can't really do that because then the resistors would have too much resistance on the back lid rails. I hope this makes sense.

I'm thinking that you could probably glue some extremely thin weather stripping or something equivalent into the rails (in the cup-holder) so that the resistors will contact them, thereby getting rid of the side-to-side play.

I'll try to post up a video explaining what I'm talking about. In the meantime, you'll have to decipher my ramblings.

I should probably make my own thread about this. DIY: Fixing loose center console lid. (Or something....)

 

Butters, that makes sense. Unfortunately, since I don't know exactly when those tabs broke on mine, I can't really tell exactly what difference it makes to not have them. I know that as it stands now, I can flip my cover up along the side without having the slide it back, and I KNOW that isn't right.

As for increasing the "resistance", your paper towel jamming idea is pretty much right along with what I was considering. I was thinking to maybe use silicone to fill that gap, but I don't really know how you'd actually get the little fins to stay bowed out while it set. If I had some silicone fuel tubing leftover from my nitro R/C car, I could use little pieces of that too, but alas, I don't have any. Of course, I need to actually get the tabs fixed and resistors back in place before I worry about much else.

Be sure to keep us posted if you can figure out how to get rid of that side to side!

 

fix works great, whats frustrating is if u leave ur car in the sun and the interior heats up. its like a counter fix. the heat makes them bend back in.

 

^^^^ So true. Mine did that in the sun.

 

yea. so maybe we can like wrap it in some insulation or something, lol. or ill just wait till it cools down before fixing it again

 

Just want to chime in

This was a great DIY, I bought my car this week and it was almost the first thing I noticed and bothered me to no end. Did this and bam! It was fixed and looks much better.

Thanks!