canaudinut

.......or is it just an adjustment that went haywire?

FinnishPride

stfa

saturnal

There is an underengineered tiny peg of plastic that goes into a mechanism that will "click" the cupholder shut. When that peg breaks the cupholder won't stay down and I've seen this on numerous A6's in the past when I was working on them and it also happened to mine as well. What I did to make it useable without going to the stealership is take the cupholder out by pushing in the two clips on the front end that hold it in. The cupholder slides up and out. Then, you pry the sides apart where the main pivot is and the whole mechanism will follow the grooves to get out. It's pretty straightforward. I took the spring out that pops the cupholder up and reassembled everything. Now the cupholder works manually and it didn't cost me a dime. It won't pop back down when there is a drink in it and there is enough friction from the gears to keep it up empty.

FWIW, it is virtually impossible to repair the cupholder as the little plastic peg is sooooooo tiny. I tried over the course of two days with a number of small plastic and metal pegs, but gave up when all broke.

Also, a new cupholder from the stealership is around $45-50. I don't know what Clairparts' cost would be.

Finally, from my own observation working on used A6s from the small dealership I worked at, that cupholder would typically break at 100k to 120k miles.

Alex
2000 2.7T

GPZ

That little bugger in the driver's switch that prevents the rear window lockout button from keeping locked in the down position when it breaks... I took mine apart and tried to fix it... I ended up jamming it in the down position by wedging a couple of toothpicks in it and putting it all back together...

I wasn't aware that the center console cup holder breaks. I wish I could stop using it then, but unfortunately it fits my coffee cup so perfectly.

What causes it to break? Opening it and closing it? Stress on it while its open?

Avants

I have read it slides right out but I had no luck getting it out.

SNAFU 4

Truthfully, push it in... then use your fist to bang it and on the side. Really...it worked.

saturnal

If you look into the holder partially open you will see the clips that hold it in