The other day I pushed in on the cup holder thats located in the dash on the lower passenger side in the center. But instead of popping open it just stayed pushed in all the way. I got it pulled out and looked around inside there and noticed theres a decent size metal strip/spring that pushes it out when compressed and it had fallen out and there were two broke off small black tab looking things still inside this metal thing. How do I go about fixing this??

 

There are two holes in the spring that pair up to the back of the ashtray. The matching raised bumps on the ashtray will need to be drilled out. To make it easy, I took a utility knife and flattened them. Next, I used a small sheetrock screw to make a dimple so the drill wouldn't wander. Once you get the ashtray drilled out, use rivets to attach.

If you've never used a riverter, it is pretty easy. I got one for $10 at harbor freight that came with rivets.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=40690

 

Thanks for the quick reply thats exactly what I was looking for. I already have a rivet gun/rivets so I just got done taking the ashtray assembly out and took it down to the shop and put in some new rivets and reinstalled everything and it works as good as new!

 

Awesome, pretty easy fix. It boggles the mind that the spring was glued on from the factory. Rivets probably would have been just as cheap and easy.

Well, now with rivets it should last as long as you have the truck.

 

Yea I got to looking at how it was held on and it was a pretty poor design from the factory, but like you said shouldnt have to ever worry about that again.

 

Mine just broke today. Can anyone tell me how to get the ashtray/cupholder out? I've removed light, but don't want to break anything. Thanks,
Dawn

 

There are two tabs on the top that you push gently down with a flathead screwdriver. No prying is needed. If yyou are prying, then you are messing with the wrong* tabs. Use your third hand to pull out the ashtray. Actually, if you push one down and then pull on just that side you can walk it out without a third hand.

*When you look with a flashlight, you will see two things that look like tabs in the slot. Its the inner pair that matters. The outer pair is a red herring to make you swear.

Just examine it carfully with a flashlight and you'll see what I mean.

 

These tabs also prevent the cup holder from coming all the way out. However, one of mine broke ... just with normal use (wife and kids = normal use ). Any one else have these tabs break off?

 

Since mine was always out people kept on kicking it so it bent the whole thing and since the spring already broke I went to the salvage yard and got a different one for $20

 

i sanded down the lil plastic rivet things,and covered the two holes with jb weld and its good to go

 

I paid for a new one after my spring came off from the plastic melted rivets. The new one only lasted 3 weeks, then I did exactly what was described above drilled 2 holes and used pop rivets and secured it in place. I haven't had another problem since. I have an extra assembly if anyone needs one (minus the spring). Great posting and instructions to correct a weak factory design.
Shawn

 

The previous owner of my truck drilled a screw to the bottom of the cup holder... So there's a trick to taking it out...
But I want to do this, seems kinda tricky though.

 

Wow! This site is great. Who would of known that you could get this many answer to fixing a cup holder. I now think I have the information to fix it. Thanks to those who posted the answers.

 

Just went out a fixed mine. Took about 20 minutes.

 

Great info on fixing the problem...Just had an issue with mine