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When I purchased my R53 last August, the previous owner told me the armrest was broken. The armrest cover that slides open to access the center console storage compartment wouldn't stay closed. Over time, the small tab that provides friction to keep the cover closed either broke or worn down. Every time your elbow rested on the cover, it would slide open. Talk about annoying and frustrating!! I found myself having to close the cover every five minutes while driving to prevent my elbow from going into the storage compartment. :-(
I'm not sure how many have had this same issue but figured there were enough (I watched a YouTube video of a guy using rare earth magnets to fix this problem). After trying the magnet fix, and failing, I tried something else. Since my fix was easier, cheaper and worked really well, I thought I'd share it with the NAM community.
After removing the arm rest, I noted there was an upper and lower track in the lower storage portion of the console. The armrest cover had two sets of short plastic pins on its' underside. These pins snapped into the tracks and guided the cover's movement forward and back when opening and closing.
First, I cut a small piece of masking tape to mark the width and location of the front plastic pins. I noted the pins' forward most position when closed. Second, I transferred the masking tape to the lower console's top track, marking the pin's "closed" position. Then I removed the upper armrest cover. The masking tape markers ended up being about .25" back from the start of the upper track.
Finally, using a shortened wooden kabob stick, I added a large drop of epoxy to each of the upper tracks where the single pin slides back and forth. I hoped adding a little "bump" in the upper track would provide the necessary resistance to keep the armrest cover closed. After the first drop dried for a couple hours, I added a second drop to each track to make sure the bump was large enough to provide the necessary resistance. I waited about 12 hours for the epoxy to fully cure before I tested my fix.
I'm happy to say that my problem is now solved! The cost of my fix was $5 for the epoxy and about a day to remove, repair and replace the armrest. The cost to replace my center console with OEM parts would have been a little over $200 + shipping. I'm including a couple pics to illustrate. Hope this cheap hack will help someone else :-)
