The rubber nubs (or "feet") on the center armrest keep breaking off. Will the dealer give me some spares or is there another fix?

Kevin

 

Mine snapped off ages ago... I bought some rubber feet from Jaycar (any electronics store) as a replacement. They should already come with double sided tape, but I drilled a hole in them and used screws to bolt them down as well. Works extremely good.

Toan.

 

This might sound weird, but when one of my rubber nubs failed, I yanked off the other one and replaced them with 3/4" long sheet metal screws! I am now able to adjust them to the exact point where they allow the center armrest to move low enough to latch properly, yet not any lower so there is absolutely no play or rattling.

It is a very secure feel that you don't get with the original rubber nubs. Toan's idea is fine, too, as long as you shave the rubber feet to the correct thickness.

 

Hey guys -

Did a bunch of work on my new SC300 today - check the Engine section for a big how-to on changing plugs.

Few things I fixed -

- The center console/armrest was loose. When you closed it, it would move up and down about 2-3mm. I bought a pack of small adhesive rubber feet from Wal-Mart, put one on each side of the center console (where the lid closes -there were little marks where the "feet" of the lid were hitting) and that did the trick. Clean install, lid is nice and tight now, opens and closes as usual.

- As some may know, I only have the valet key (for now - ordering a real key Monday) and the key override for the trunk was locked, so I couldn't open the trunk. I disassembled the lower part of the driver's side dash where the trunk release is, and was able to get to the back of the assembly. The trunk release has two connectors going to it - a 2-wire connector from the main harness, and another 2-wire connector from the lock that's next to the trunk release. Unplugged the main harness connector, jumpered it briefly with a short piece of wire, and voila'! The trunk popped . Looking at the lock, there's a bright metal band around it - remove the band (it just clips on) and you'll see a black "button" that was hidden by the band. Press the button down, and the lock will pop back to the unlocked position. Now I can get into the trunk when I want to!

The best part is - there was LOOT in the trunk! I got a baby seat, a bookbag with some college textbooks, some baby toys, a black bra (!), some assorted women's clothes, a pair of women's shoes, and the ORIGINAL FLOORMATS! I was so stoked to find the floormats - they're in great shape too. I think the previous owner pressed the lockout for the trunk release on accident, couldn't open the trunk, and just gave up trying to get in - there are some pry marks around the trunk release panel where it looked like someone tried to fix it (note - you can't pry that panel off).

Attached are some pics of the lock mechanism/trunk release....

Dale

 

You can see my fingernail removing the metal band around the back of the lock cylinder here.

 

Metal band removed. The black button was already pushed in this photo - where the aluminum lock bits are in the pic, that's where the black button was. It's a black plastic button, BTW.

Now I feel better than any SC owners in the future that have only a valet key and can't get in the trunk will at least know a trick .

Dale

 

nice job

im just a little confused, where is this mechanism? near the trunk release button?

 

He made it sound like it was right behind where you can push it in, between the trunk and fuel switches, where you can insert the key. I believe that was a view from behind it, if you take the center console off, I assume if you can just push the button, its the same effect as using the key to unlock it, -- correct me if I am wrong.

Richard

 

You got it - you do need to pull out the part of the dash with the trunk release to get to the back of it.

Dale

 

excellent work!

 

Cool advice... I've got a lot of play in my centre console thing as well so I'll give your method a shot

 

OK cool, thanks alot for the great info!

-Richard

 

Here's a pic of what I did - you can see the clear rubber stick-on feet on either side.

Dale

 

And here's the pack of rubber feet. It was about a buck or two from Wal-Mart in the hardware section. Most any hardware store will have rubber stick-on feet - just find some in an appropriate size.

Dale

 

This is just scary... I read the first post in this thread yesterday abotu how you fixed the loose console with two rubber feet from walmart.... (that bugs the hell outta me too) So today I go to walmart, I look all over for some sort of rubber feet, and at first I pick the larger set (shaped liek blocks) but they were too big too do the job, so I went back and traded them for the exact same set you bought, exact brand... It just scared me when I noticed that a few seconds ago. Anyways, thank you very much for that idea, I cant believe I never thought of that! All SC owners should be made aware of this product sold at walmarts and should all remedy the loose console problem. Do you think this was an issue when the cars were new?