Front Cup Holders
 

Not sure if anyone has had these out yet, but I have a bad case of "we don't want to grip anymore" from the little tabs in my front cup holder. I figured it was something dumb, and it appears I was right, but can anyone else confirm what I'm seeing here? Are the gripping tabs (the tabs that extend into the cup holder to hold your cup) really sprung by a RUBBER BAND?

Mine are both dead, cups roll around in there freely.

You are correct!
 

Rubber bands are what makes the tabs “springy”. I had that same problem for the last few months, finally got tired of it and started disassembling the center console. My suggestion:
1) order replacement bands first (if you can find them) or a whole new cup-holder assembly.
2) plan to do the job over a weekend
3) start early on a saturday
Access to this cup holder is amazingly tough. Half of your car will be in pieces. You will be taking the armrest/storage cubby/phone module out, both sides of the carpet & trim have to come completely off the center console, the iDrive controller and shifter come out, before you can ever get to the cup holder.
Sorry for the bad news. I started into it, thinking “it can’t be that bad”. It’s that bad. But you’ll be happy you did it after 😃 No more spilling drinks! I just put regular rubber bands back on mine, didn’t even bother trying to order the fancy silicone rubber band. Works great!

+1 on it being an involved process. Here are some instructions.

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...nsoles/Oy0vio5

I'm wondering if a metal spring might be more permanent?

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/5fc...0&odnBg=ffffff

Metal Springs
 

I doubt metal springs would work because of space restriction. There is literally just enough room for a thin rubber band and it is laid around the two cupholders in a figure 8....

Thanks all. I doubt the appropriate OE bands are available anywhere (on purpose). I might start digging around online for some bands that would perhaps not only fit but also give me the durability I'm looking for. In other words, not break down like a regular rubber band from Office Depot would.

While I have replaced the electronic brake lever, I've not been down any further on this car. I'm certain I'm going to have a "large" time dismantling that mess, then trying to put it all back together. Thanks for the instruction link!

Not sure Id look for OE bands. The office depot ones are almost surely an upgrade....


:cool:


A friend who is a BMW master tech says the failure rate seems to be 100% by 100k, at least here in hot California....

Wow. Well, I'll see if I can figure out the highest quality rubber band at home depot.

Yeah, I get the heat. Dries everything out. I lived in SoCal for 8 years, in Fontucky. 116 degrees in the shade. Still not as bad as Phoenix was thankfully. Now I'm in Charlotte, NC and it gets nasty hot here but with a lot of humidity. There are days where I just want to give up breathing altogether.

lol Fontucky. Nice track there tho...






;)

+1 involved.


I just completed this job to repair a sticking tambour cover over the ashtray, which I use all the time to store my keys. Follow the TIS to the letter, record where each screw came from, record each electrical connection you disconnect, and budget about 5 hours. One tip: don't disconnect the battery like the TIS says. You need power to move the front seats forward and backward during the procedure, unless you remove the seats. The clips holding the rear A/C faceplate are especially brittle, and particularly tricky to reinstall at the right angle to avoid breaking them.


Good luck.

Would an O-ring work? I would think they'd be more durable than an OD/Staples rubber band.

O-ring, maybe.
 

It has to be a pretty flexible I-ring though, because if you place a rather large bottle or cup into the holder, all 4 of the tabs will expand the band. Too stiff and it’s going to break something. I put 3 regular rubber bands on. Attempted 4 and wasn’t able to get the tabs to move smoothly anymore...

Thank You for sharing... I started on this in mid 80 weather... bad idea. Lol.
Thanks for the link, will do a DIY and post it up when done.

I am going to have to do this same tear down and not looking forward to it. My cupholder no longer has the roller covers to it, and I want them. Found on eBay and purchased replacements, then realized how involved it is to replace.

Before I get into it, does anyone know if the roller blinds are spring loaded? I have a feeling I will get everything apart, and then the replacement blinds wont stay in place and I will need to replace the entire unit.

Not spring loaded - just slide in the slot.

Believe it or not, I still haven't started this job. I bought a house, moved, and have been fixing everything in the new house.

What I am going to do is start searching for the right size rubber bands or rubber o-rings to use. Does anyone have an idea of the correct size of rubber band or o-ring?

Cool. That should make the install a little easier at least.

If you are still searching in a week or two, I will let you know when I pull mine out.

For the amount of work it is to get in there, I would definitely NOT use any type of rubber band. With the summer heat it's going to dry them out and fail again, and I'm sure BMW used a "better" type of rubber which still failed. I would look into using some type of metal spring on each tab which won't wear easily -- think close-pin type spring but a bit weaker. Mine are shot as well but I've just refused to tear into it but it's annoying as hell that they don't work. If anyone finds an easy way to do this please share.

I definitely understand what you are saying, and I was also wondering about the quality of rubber used at the factory vs an everyday set of rubber bands, but as posted previously, a metal spring that would fit in the space is likely not available. If I could keep the car apart for a while, I could spend time searching for the right size spring and testing different ones from amazon, ebay, or some online supply house.

Is there a resolution to the OP's search for the perfect rubberband on the cup holders?

Well bad news, I’m now trying to take my console apart to find the roller blind covers. They broke into so many pieces I cannot get the last few out to have the new ones slide all the way in. The TIS instructions mentioned here are gone, the site says its no longer exists.

Yeah, BMW has been scrubbing the internet and removing every instance of TIS instructions they can find. They simply don't want us working on our own cars without them getting a piece of that pie. They'll be more than happy to sell it to you for a few hundred bucks though, or rent it to you by giving you access to it online for a couple days.

I moved on to an F15 X5 M-Sport in 2021. Thankfully all I had to do in a set of spark plugs, and put a new oil pan on it. Transmission is due. BMW wants to buy it from me and sell me another overpriced lemon. Not happenin.

Removing the center console without the TIS instructions would be quite a challenge, as the order of removing parts is important. The TIS can still be found online via a Google search, and the TIS is also embedded into the ISTA diagnostic tool which is invaluable when working on these vehicles.


A few years ago I removed the console (extra interesting with the rear seat entertainment built in) to get at the cup holders so that I could lube the rollers properly and get them rolling again. It worked for about 2 years, then they got sticky again, then they broke altogether. I've just left them open ever since as I've not built up the desire to spend a boat load of money on new cup holders nor take the 5+ hours to put them in.