How to repair the rear cup holders in a tiguan

[Trex]

did u remove the 2 torx screws?

Okay,
I now have it installed and sort of working minus a couple of bits of plastic.

A general description may help others

The thing consists of three layers
Top (the clamps that grabs the cups)
Bottom (the rear door cover) and
Middle (the hinge that bolts to the car and holds it all in place)

The layers are joined by two struts that clip to the bottom layer
The front strut is sort of fixed to the middle layer by spring and detent mechanism and clips to the top layer
The Rear strut is pinned to the top layer and clips to the other two.

The clip arrangement is probably designed to release if someone treads on the thing (almost certain to happen)

There are a couple of positioning lugs on the bottom layer that don't do much.

Top front connection is difficult to re-attach

The whole back panel comes off with some work

First remove the vent noting the two retaining clips

[The Squire]

This is an old thread, but I want to thank @borbor1313 for taking the time to post his reply. I had the same problem with my recently-purchased 2009, and would never have figured it out without this post. Fixed it this morning in about 10 minutes. Step 2 took more force than I had expected — I ended up pushing it hard with a screwdriver.

[nautynigel]

Ok - Another thanks a few years on. I thought i'd add some clarity to the previous posts. This is fix is for my Tiguan R-line 2015 model (the last of the old shape) and seems to be relevant to everything here. I wont focus on how to repair existing cup holder mechanism because I broke mine and had to order a new part which comes with both the cup holder mechanism and the frame - was only $75 AUD from ebay and came from South Australia fairly quickly - The part number I used was 7N0862533 and it matched perfectly. I can see there are previous diagrams in this thread that show you how to repair the mechanism if it has simply come apart - I tried that initially but ended up breaking some of the plastic in the mechanism but the frame it folds into was fine. So this reply is just for those of who you have brought a replacement part.

• Removing the whole panel to work on - You don't have to twist uncomfortably with a torch in the back of your car. You can easily take the whole panel including the cup holders, cigarette lighter port and airvents off. They come out all attached. Simply take out the 2 torx screws in the back of the cup holder panel and remove the whole thing. Once you take the screws out, grab both sides of the bottom (either side of the bottom of the panel) and lift up - it will come free and lift out. You will need to unplug the wire connector to the cigarette lighter port as well. Then you can work on it over at your workbench. Yes it is very easy to put back in again

• Option 1 - Trying to replace the whole cup holder part - This part comes as a full unit with both the mechanism and the frame it folds into but unfortunately the existing plastic frame is plastic welded via plastic lugs (yellow arrows) into the whole panel. So you would need to break these existing plastic welds you see here in the pic to remove the whole part in one go. There seem to be spare plastic lugs (red arrows) that you could probably use by rigging up a solder or heating up a tool to then weld the spare plugs to the new part. But for me, I am unfamiliar with melting plastic and I didn't want to take the risk when there is another option. If you have broken your frame or the hinges that hold the mechanism to the frame then this maybe your only option.

• Option 2 - Replacing the cup mechanism without removing the frame - This was my preferred option because, whilst I had broken the cup holder mechanism itself, the frame it sat in and it's plastic hinges that holds in the mechanism in the frame was still perfectly intact. This option involves only using the cup holder mechanism from the new part and installing it into your existing frame. Take your new part and separate the mechanism from the frame by getting a screwdriver and carefully prying apart the 3 hinges you see in yellow in the below picture (this is the frame with the mechanism removed). You can then easily install this working mechanism into your old frame by installing it back into the same 3 hinges in your old frame that is part of the overall panel. Obviously you should remove your old broken cup holder mechanism from the old frame if you have not done already. Hey presto - took me about 15mins. You will have a spare new frame left over and any of the parts from your old mechanism - I will throw these out as I cannot see how I would use them if/when it breaks again.