Avant Rear Armrest Dismantling

Simon968

Simon968

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I finally found a rear armrest with cupholders at a semi-sensible price for my facelift avant.

It's from a pre-facelift and although the colour is correct the leather has a finer grain than in my car, so I was thinking that I might swap the cover over from one to the other, but I can't find any guides on how to take them apart. Has anyone taken one of these to pieces?
 
I love this forum as always can get ideas of what to add to my car and make my to-do list longer. Lol

Just browsed around for these armrests and it doesn’t seem to have much about them taking off.

According to part list in C7, it is held by screws on each side

ce46029b47897930ef430144c4d86304.jpg


Looking at C6 armrest, it does match the C7 screw description, sort of.

Will check my car at some point to see any obvious anchor points.

While I was at it, found wicked leather rear door armrest covers with various colour stitchings. No front ones tho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Kris.
I've got a C6 parts list which is about as helpful as the C7 version. I found a how to for swapping the armrest over and it is only held in by one screw and I swapped the armrests over yesterday.
I just can't find anything about taking the armrest assembly to pieces.
 
So you want to take them right down to pieces?
Any particular part or all gutted out?

From what I’ve seen, that back cover on the lid

05fb34f0ee1575d3c5364c457b7e5946.jpg


is held on two tabs

392af78bbfdc488d68c0bccca9d5b2c5.jpg


I wasn’t fiddling with it for too long but that’s the only thing I could see, what is able to disassemble.

I wanted to repair my armrest latch on the perviously owned A4, as they broke commonly and found out, upholstered part was glued to the plastic lid.
Not sure if it would be same in this case as all parts of armrest (lid and storage) sit tightly together.

Try to pry them up gently and peek what hold them together.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Kris.
Maybe if I can get that back cover off it will reveal more of how the rest is held together.

I am thinking that maybe the lid could be swapped over complete and I could use the leather from my base to re-cover the base with the cup holder in.
 
If you try to slip in two tiny precision flat screwdrivers into the clip areas, where I pointed with arrows, you should be able to pull it out.

Main body brackets also hold the lid pivots so, somewhere you should be able to access the side brackets
 
Simon, would you know how to take off the front center armrest lid leather part of the lid itself? How is it held?
Thought of asking before pulling out any tools and making a mess of it.
 
Hey @Simon968 , did you managed to get anywhere with that rear armrest?

I've pulled the front one apart to re-thread it in Red and will post up a "how-to" guide, while I do reverse of it and fit back mine.

After that, will see if there's anything obvious to be pulled off at the rear.
Might tackle re-thread on that also. LOL
 
Tried to fiddle around the rear arm rest last night, @Simon968 but didn't found any dismantling points.

Front lid internal cover is easily removable, not the rear one.

As for the front one, if someone is looking for a guide how-to take the lid leather part off, scroll down and follow these steps: (well, not all of them but you'll see why)

Once you lift the lid up, you'll notice it is divided in two parts 2/3 and 1/3. In between of them, mid width, slide flat metal piece and lever it down. This should unclip middle clips

IMG 0302 Copy Medium


This is the 2/3 cover part from inside and marked two middle clips with red arrows

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNCLIP FROM THE TOP, BY THE LOCK

Once middle is done, move on each side and start unclipping the cover upwards. There are 3 clips along each side of the cover, marked with blue arrows on the first picture.

IMG 0306 Copy Medium


When you're by the 3rd clip, hold the top edge but the lock so it doesn't move. There are two plastic hooks that easily break. Circled in red

IMG 0303 Copy Medium


I did the mistake, didn't hold the edge and started to unclip from the top and hooks broke off. Glued them together with proper plastic glue.

Once the third side clips are done, gently slide the cover down to unhook and release the cover from the lid.

This reveals one more clip to be pushed (marked with red arrow)

IMG 0301 Copy Medium


and the whole leather part of the lid can be slid down (down as you see it)

Reverse order to reassemble it.

I took it off to re thread the leather from Black to Red

IMG 0291 Medium


Matching now with gear gaitor earlier done.

Hope this helps anyone.

Good luck
 
KrisKrk said:
Hey @Simon968 , did you managed to get anywhere with that rear armrest?

I've pulled the front one apart to re-thread it in Red and will post up a "how-to" guide, while I do reverse of it and fit back mine.

After that, will see if there's anything obvious to be pulled off at the rear.
Might tackle re-thread on that also. LOL
Click to expand...

Hi Kris,

No haven't had chance to look at taking the armrest to bits.
I need to look at the ABS on my 968 first.

Good work on the red stitching. It looks good!
 
Simon968 said:
Thanks Kris.
Maybe if I can get that back cover off it will reveal more of how the rest is held together.

I am thinking that maybe the lid could be swapped over complete and I could use the leather from my base to re-cover the base with the cup holder in.
Click to expand...
Probably an old thread and the problem is already solved, but i found theese instructions on how to disasamble the rear armrest ( on the C6). Hope this helps somebody. The trim pannel has 2 plastic clips on the front that are visible from the photo, but it also has 2 smaller ones in the back. Once you take that trim out you have acces to the hinges. I had to take it out because someone left an open chocolate box in there while there were 30 C outside and they melted under that plastic cover.
 

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theo1002 said:
Probably an old thread and the problem is already solved, but i found theese instructions on how to disasamble the rear armrest ( on the C6). Hope this helps somebody. The trim pannel has 2 plastic clips on the front that are visible from the photo, but it also has 2 smaller ones in the back. Once you take that trim out you have acces to the hinges. I had to take it out because someone left an open chocolate box in there while there were 30 C outside and they melted under that plastic cover.
Click to expand...
It would be useful to me, at some point as will be rethreading that and the rest of the seats.
Thank you for that.

So, the panel No.2 is closer to hinges, right?
Will try it today

Sent from H P20 PRO
 
KrisKrk said:
It would be useful to me, at some point as will be rethreading that and the rest of the seats.
Thank you for that.

So, the panel No.2 is closer to hinges, right?
Will try it today

Sent from H P20 PRO
Click to expand...
Yeah, when I took it apart yesterday i kind of did it wrong at first and i am thankful that it came out without braking anything. I tried to undo the front clips (Red Arrows) but the plastic piece didnt move even with the clips undone. So after i took it out and took a closer look to the piece on the other side i realised that the correct method is to use a prying tool and undo the back clips (blue Arrows), starting with the left side one (number 1)(the part where the plastic piece doesn't go all the way arround the hinge. The green Arrows represent the holes in witch the back clips (blue arrows) go.
 

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theo1002 said:
Yeah, when I took it apart yesterday i kind of did it wrong at first and i am thankful that it came out without braking anything. I tried to undo the front clips (Red Arrows) but the plastic piece didnt move even with the clips undone. So after i took it out and took a closer look to the piece on the other side i realised that the correct method is to use a prying tool and undo the back clips (blue Arrows), starting with the left side one (number 1)(the part where the plastic piece doesn't go all the way arround the hinge. The green Arrows represent the holes in witch the back clips (blue arrows) go.
Click to expand...
I was trying it myself briefly now and managed to break them clips you pointed with red arrows.
Thank you for your tips. Will give that a go.

Sent from H P20 PRO
 
Right, got the plastic prised up as above guide.
Luckily, first clips are still intact and working.

Now I got the plastic bit still attached to the metal bit on one side and don't see any further possibility for dismantling.
Think I can remove the lid by taking the metal pins out of the hinges but that's it.
How would the rest of armrest go out?

Sent from H P20 PRO
 
You do not need to remove the above plastic at the back of the lid, in order to remove the whole armrest out.

Found this video:


You drop down the 40 part of tour rear backrest and unclip plastic on the armrest hinge. That will reveal T15 screw which you remove.
I have also removed other T15 screws that hold the second folding mechanism metal pin spring from the hinge. Lost the nut from it but will easily find it.
Then you need to pry out the both big pins out to the front from that bracket. Once out, see the other hinge.
Main folding pin is hooked on on the hinge. You need to swing the armrest vertically to the rear OS (if car is RHD, opposite for LHD) and unhook it from that hinge.

This will leave you with whole armrest in your hand.

Didn't took pictures but will do in reverse order, when will put it back.
Will also drop info and pictures of lid and lid upholstery removal, for future reference.

Sent from H P20 PRO
 
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Not much input from anyone else but will take a shot:
does anyone know how to take the leather part off the rear armrest lid?

After removing the armrest itself from the rear seats, spent an hour trying to figure that out and failed.
Broke little kitchen knife, cut one of my left hand finger tips and scuffed leather in few spots. Luckily underneath so once its closed, you cannot see it but still

It was much easier with front one but this one, proves to be impossible.

I'm attempting to restitch it from black thread to red and on the armrest will not look nice, if done.

Sent from H P20 PRO
 
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