C5 centre console lid - oil your hinge!

[anonymous-user]

The centre console lid has been very poor on my car from day one. Over time it got worse and worse. Finally two small metal straps on the the hinge broke (pic 1). As a result the console lid was rubbing when opened and had developed a split (pic 2).

New hinge on left; broken one on right.


Split at edge of console lid.


New hinge came from Eurovettes (£38) and fitting meant removal of the whole rear section of centre console. (Watch out for the wires to the trunk/fuel filler release switch which are tricky to unplug from the switch and trickier to plug back in).

Split at edge of console lid was sewn up with a dab of evo-stik to make sure (pic 3).



Simple but fiddly job which took longer than expected. And the moral of the story is - make sure you oil the hinge of your centre console lid! The old hinge I removed was very stiff to move even with those straps broken. The new hinge received a good dose of 3-in-1 before fitting and the console lid now works better than than ever before. Job done.

[yellowshark454]

Thanks for the tip Steve, a little job for this weekend then

[LuS1fer]

It is a weak area and one they obviously don't do at the factory. I remember that on my Z06 I thought the lid only opened to 45 degrees as standard. A dab of WD40 later and it opened fully.

[v8d]

Good tip - Cheers!
Going to find me tin of everyman right now.
Too late for my rear wheel bearing though!!

[Dee Gee]

You can get leather console covers from redlinegoods.com. It would cover that split nicely