Sportivo Hinge Failure Replacement Option

[IMB055]

G'day guys,

I, like a few other ZZE123 owners, have had the hinges on the compartment above the ashtray fail. I have seen it fail in different ways, some having the hinges break, others having the spring closing mechanism fail

Toyota's only option was to replace the whole section, at around $700.

Wreckers had a few, but most were scratched, and expensive.

The design of the hinge does not lend itself to any kind of easy aftermarket replacement.

So, I decided to try something different. At worst, I could always go and get one from the wreckers, right?

I found this eBay Cupholder

Then used a Dremel to trim the back out of the original pocket, and the front off this unit, to allow it to fit.

I completed the installation using screws to securely mount the unit from the sides, and a little adhesive to apply the original fascia panel to the front of the cupholder. There was a little learning done along the way, and I think next time I would do a couple of things differently. (I cut away a bit of plastic from the back of the unit that I would not have if I was doing the same job again!) So, for somewhere around $30 my interior doesn't look bodgey anymore!

The cupholder is not in an ideal location, as it obscures your A/C controls if a cup is fitted, but I have gone from having an ugly black hole in my dash to having a cupholder and a felt lined tray which, when closed, looks stock. It's also a handy size for iPods and phones, but not quite big enough for a GPS.

I'll post up a pic when I get a chance.

Cheers, Nath.

[IMB055]

Oh, I forgot to mention....

I was concerned about having a cupholder in this location as I was worried that this might foul the action of the stock gearshifter.

Fortunately, it doesn't cause any problems when the unit is mounted far back like I did. If you were to try and install the unit without cutting out the back of the pocket, you will not be able to fit this unit.

I need to advise that I did cut away a fair bit of plastic off the unit and the original pocket to make this work, so this "soultion" is not exactly what I would call "plug & play" - as the pic will show.

[123R-Prozak]

show a pic of it in your car please....

[alpine_vs_sportivo]

my way around this in our stivo was a piece of timber, screw, bog and an alpine 4'' type s speaker :P will post pic up once i get it painted.

[Lukeywunda]

I used loctite super glue three years ago to fix the hinge. Still going strong.

[ANTY]

i used a metal paperclip, and loctite supere glue i had to drill a tiny hole on where the little thingo sticken out was to put the paper clip through, it was dodgy but u cant notice it and it hasnt skippoed a beat yet

[Sprung Stiff]

$700 for that facia assembly, that's very steep.

I picked one up from Motorama Toyota for $423.00

Took abit of haggling between a few Dealers but got it down from around $500.00