S82001

My 2001 S8 has individual center armrests for the driver and passenger.

These are adjustable and can be reset by pulling the armrest all the way towards the back of the vehicle and then returning them forward as desired.

I now cannot get the driver side center armrest to return to the down position. It is stuck upright.

How do I fix this please?

Thanks for looking. Have a great day.

reyxlp

Mine also gets stuck all the time. After moving it in every possible combination of directions, I figured out I can release mine by:

(1) Push as far "forward"/"down" as it will travel when stuck in the "back"/"up" position

(2) Pull all the way "back"/"up" *WHILE ALSO* pulling or pushing it to one "side" (driver or passenger side, I always forget which)

(3) Push "forward"/"down" again to reset to "down"/"forward" position

This does the trick for me, usually have to do it two or three times.

Have not figured out a permanent fix/repair.

Hope this helps!

S82001

reyxlp: thanks for this tip. i have tried it several times since you replied but have so far not been able to get the armrest to go down. thanks for answering this though. much appreciated! and i'll keep trying.

best,

reyxlp

Have a look at this article:

https://www.audipages.com/upgrades/armrest.html

I used it to remove my armrests from the center console, then I removed the driver's armrest from the mount and passenger armrest.

Somewhere either in that article or another article/post, someone said the driver and passenger armrests can't be individually removed/separated from the mount and each other, that it's all one unit -- but I didn't find that to be the case.

If you remove the side trim panels from the driver's armrest (I used a plastic pry tool) there are two T10 torx screws on each side and once you remove those, the inner lining storage box tray thing can be raised out by lifting the rear portion up first.

With the inner storage tray liner box thing removed, if you look inside toward the back, there is a 5mm hex bolt that secures the armrest to the mount. It is only visible if the armrest is either raised or lowered, I forget which. It holds the armrest into the mount by pressure, it doesn't actually screw in past the armrest and into the mount. So all you have to do is loosen it, you don't need to remove it.

Then you can slide the armrest out of the mount and get a better look at the latching mechanism, which if you figure out how it works, please explain it to me lol -- but just from removing and reinstalling mine, it works better now. So it may be worth a try.

It's a simple procedure, I'm just too long winded. But they are *not* exaggerating in the article when they say you really have to hit the armrests hard on both sides with a rubber mallet to dislodge them from the mount due to the taper. I also rotated the whole armrests unit CW and CCW which is what finally broke it loose. I was afraid I would damage it hitting it so hard.

Hope this helps! Let me know your findings if you give it a try.