Armrest help - this is puzzling!

[Michael O'Connor]

Hi,

So I got an OEM leather armrest for my A3 today. Spent an hour or two cutting the hole for it, filing, sanding etc. The hole is all neat and clean and the armrest bracket fits through great.

Now the fitting itself has got me really scratching my head! For instance:

- As someone in another thread said, you need the hands of a child to get the bolts in and fitted. Smallish hands so I can work with that haha, but yes, very awkward and fiddly
- There's so little space under the mounting plate that the armrest fixes to that you can't actually get a spanner under it to hold the nut on other side while you tighten the bolt through it
- The mounting plate/ tree thing has a hex shaped hole in it. Now I assumed this is specifically for holding the other end of the nut or bolt (whichever way you decide to do it).
- However, the fitting instructions say it's an M8 nut, but an M8 nut or bolt is way too big for the hex shaped hole in the mounting plate
- I just went to screwfix to try some M6 nuts/ bolts instead, and they just spin in the hole so they're so small obviously...

It might be a 7mm hex bolt/ nut instead, but just wanted to get some answers here before I order those.

Thanks

 

[ch1z64]

Firstly did you remove back ashtray and the piece below ashtray then you can gain access to where the bolt would screw into . In my S3 i am sure irs a 12 / 13 mm spanner for the single nut to hold it in place .

 

[Michael O'Connor]

Yeah of course haha, that's how you get to the mounting plate no?

I did use a 13mm spanner, which fits the M8 bolt/ nut head fine, but there's only enough space to tighten the bolt from the top, not enough space to get a spanner in the bottom to hold the other side.

The hole in the mounting plate that the armrest attaches to has a hex shaped hole in it, to hold the other side of the bolt I'm assuming, to get around the fact that you can't get a spanner underneath to hold the hex nut/ bolt.

Would you be able to take a picture of yours by any chance?

 

[ch1z64]

I will tomorrow and pop it over , i just put mine back in today and i had to jiggle it about to get it to sit right and i used a 12mm open ended spanner

 

[Michael O'Connor]

I will tomorrow and pop it over , i just put mine back in today and i had to jiggle it about to get it to sit right and i used a 12mm open ended spanner

Thanks! Hmm 12mm eh. 13mm fits an m8 bolt so -1mm suggests it could well be a 7mm bolt instead... hopefully haha