billwot

Probably another newbie question. My cupholder door (above the glovebox) is difficult to latch. I never use cupholders, but curious passengers have opened that door, and I have great difficulty getting it to latch closed again. Is there some technique I'm missing, or is there some adjustment? Carbon fiber trim pkg, it that makes any difference. 2011 Cayman

Suicide Jockey

Bill, not sure if this will help, but when closing the trim piece to retire the cup holders you need to make sure you are pushing it in as far as it will go. If you don't push hard enough, the trim piece won't close the first time and you end up opening and closing it two or three times before it ultimately engages and remains closed. Also, I've found that if you put your finger in the dead center of the trim piece when you push (on my trim piece there is a beverage sticker right in the middle), that is the "sweet spot" as the latch is directly behind that in the middle of the trim piece. If you try to close it by pushing from the right or left of center, the chances of engagement the first time lessen in my experience because direct pressure on the latch itself is not being exerted. Give it a shot. Good luck.

Yogi911

I 2nd this. Great advice. If i dont push in center near the sticker it doesnt close.

billwot

Thanks guys. After doing some more research, this is apparently a pretty common Porsche problem. As I said, I don't use the cupholders anyway, so I'll just try to alert passengers the keep their hands off.

If there was a way to "permanently" latch it closed, I would do that.

andy7777

Gaffer tape on my '07 Boxster S. Added benefit, you can pry it off easily, no residue, to open up the cupholder when you want/need caffeine.

Yogi911

My passengers always seem to push it too so youre not alone. I wonder if you sand the little picture off if people would overlook that there is something there? Obviously we dont want to screw up the beautiful (and expensive) carbon fiber.

Autocutter

Once it becomes difficult to latch it will soon break and not lock closed. The internals are really cheap plastic. What breaks is a very tiny gear that lifts the locking latch as the door closes. Now you can manually lock the cup holder once it does break. On the right side of the center post is a tiny white latch lever, unwind a paper clip, hold the lever half way and close the door. Once the door engages the lever pull out the paper clip and finish closing the door.

A replacement cup holder unit costs about $300

billwot

Thanks for that. I had found the "latch lever", but hadn't yet figured out exactly what role it played.

I have no interest in replacing the unit, at any price. Even if it worked, it's clunky and inconvenient, IMO. As long as it stays shut, I'm happy. I may consider some double-sided tape, if necessary.

I have no real need for cupholders for daily drives, and I bought a $10 piece that slips between the seat an the console I can stick in if I feel I need something for longer trips.