Lower Dashboard Center Console has big gaps at the edge - help

[zuhl]

My lower dashboard center console (where the 12V plugs and Not-an-Ashtray are located) will no longer sit flush against the rest of the dashboard. It has large (up to 1/4) inch gaps all around it. It looks very sloppy. At first I thought I did something wrong or somethign was behind it when I re-installed it. But the two plastic press-plugs on either top corner that are supposed to hold it snug are not worth a darn.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how did you fix it? Thanks!

[schwejo]

Hi, I can relate. Mine was on the other side, but otherwise seems similar. I'm not able to take a look at mine now to completely refresh my memory, but I think I can pretty closely describe what was going on with mine.

Speaking from the driver’s side and assuming without looking that it may apply to the passenger side:

In the foot well, next to the gas pedal is a plastic cover/trim piece. It is held in place by at least one screw, several snap fittings and a locating tab at the very front that fits into a bracket against the firewall. It was this cover/trim piece on mine that was pressing against the console piece and making it pop out as yours is doing. It was a good 1/8 of an inch or a hair more and only on the driver’s side. Looked quite sloppy because not only was it popping out but it was uneven in a very conspicuous place.

I ended up doing a combination of things to remove the pressure this piece was putting on the part hat that was popping out. Seems like the front locating tab on the foot well trim piece is about 1/2 inch wide. I trimmed about 1/8 from the bottom of the tap so that the "nose" of the foot well trim piece sat just a tad lower. Also either I slightly bent the bracket with the screw up or there was enough play in the screw insert or oversized hole in the plastic trim itself (if I'm recalling correctly) to slightly raise the interior pointing side of the trim piece.

The end result was to slightly rotate the mating trim piece/cover in the driver side foot well counter clockwise which took the pressure from the top corner of the console piece that was popping out.

Did this about a year ago and haven’t had another problem. There is a slight increase in the gap where the two pieces meet in the foot well, but you have to stand on your head to see the area.

My apologies for the wordiness- a picture is worth a thousand words when you have one!

[Cochise111]

There's a phillip's screw behind the "not an ashtray." The "not an ashtray" just pops out by pulling it toward you when it's open. Sometimes people forget about that screw when they remove that center console cover and pull on it without removing the screw, which bend the bracket into where the screw fits. You might have to remove the console cover and bend that bracket back toward the front of the vehicle slightly to make the cover fit tighter against the lower dash. It's easy to remove. Remove the kick panels on both sides of the console cover by unsnapping them and there are two more philip's screws behind the kick panels. Remove those screws and the one behind "not an ashtray" and the console cover pulls off. It's held in place with plastic, reusable clips.

[zuhl]

Thanks for the replies! I will try both of these suggestions. I know that the first time I tried it I tried to just pop it off without knowing about the screw behind the NAA. I will check to see if that is bent next time I remove that panel.

[schwejo]

Hi,

My center console had never been removed, atleast by me. I had just noticed that in my situation when I pushed the center console back in place I could watch the drivers side kick panel bowed out just a hair. Relieving the pressure at the top edge where the two pieces come together seemed the easiest way to get the console to lay flat. With the kick panel removed all together, everything fit perfectly. This was just a 15 min fix instead of however long it would take to go see the dealer- they are a good group of folks.. and they have popcorn, doughnuts and Starbucks but a quick fix was the best option.