Z4 cup holder failure

[GazHyde]

One of the more useful features on the Z4 is that they have cup holders (assuming the previous owner paid for them). They work really well, but they are a really bad internal design and I've joined the list of owners with a broken one. Not cheap to replace at around £60 each, and the new ones still have the same poor internal design anyway!

I took a photo today after stripping it down and found the plastic had split.

Thought I would try and resolve the issue with a cable tie, because cable ties fix pretty much everything!

However in this case, a cable tie didn't fix the issue. It's too thick as the small swinging arm needs to rest against the side wall. With it in place the floating arm which grabs the cup doesn't fit properly when retracted and jams the mechanism.

The next plan will be to remove the cable tie, then clean as much of the grease off the failed part and apply liberal amounts of plastic glue.

Will let you all know how it goes, for when yours goes!

 

[BMBabe]

Hope you get it fixed

 

[t-tony]

That's God's way of telling not to drink in your car mate.

Tony.

 

[oldcarman]

How about plastic weld?? JIM

 

[smiffy]

well it will break if you keep standing wine bottles in it!

 

[GazHyde]

Game over... No amount of glue is gonna put this back together.

 

[ppavuk]

Game over... No amount of glue is gonna put this back together.
View attachment 38891

3D printing might be a solution if you able to draw this part in any 3d editor. Then you can use an online service to print it from abs plastic. Don't go for pla, you need abs! http://www.shapeways.com/ for instance. Could cost you a couple of quid if part is small enough.

 

[GazHyde]

Interesting idea, but I'd have to take the other one apart to try and figure out what it looked like before it disintegrated! I've kept all the broken bits so may be able to go from there I suppose!

 

[ppavuk]

Interesting idea, but I'd have to take the other one apart to try and figure out what it looked like before it disintegrated! I've kept all the broken bits so may be able to go from there I suppose!

You can glue them together with superglue if you still have all pieces. To measure it and make an drawing you don't need it to be very strong. But, you will only know the printing price once you upload a model, so this is a bit of a game. But unlikely this will cost you anywhere near to new part. Of course if you can't make 3d model - this is useless, as modelling service will be bloody expensive. I've tried to made some simple 3d models in past for my hobby projects, and this requires some skills and time. Nothing really that hard, but still. I've used sketch-up software (free for personal use).

 

[Redline]

If the part is structural or takes any load you may also have to add some strengthening ribs to a printed component. Would need to check that there is space for it to fit into whatever space it needs to fit. Am assuming that because it is broken it is indeed load bearing.
Once you've got the file you can get them done online, but not cheap.
I've a mate who has a printer - he owes me some stuff - I bought him a reel of plastic but can't recall what type. If you can reconstruct this mess to something approaching its original, I may be able to get him to create a facsimile of it in his CAD software and print it.

 

[ppavuk]

If the part is structural or takes any load you may also have to add some strengthening ribs to a printed component. Would need to check that there is space for it to fit into whatever space it needs to fit. Am assuming that because it is broken it is indeed load bearing.
Once you've got the file you can get them done online, but not cheap.
I've a mate who has a printer - he owes me some stuff - I bought him a reel of plastic but can't recall what type. If you can reconstruct this mess to something approaching its original, I may be able to get him to create a facsimile of it in his CAD software and print it.

If stuff is printed from ABS - most likely it will be roughly the same strong as original part was. Also original parts of our zeds are 10+ years old, so plastics somehow degraded. I'd say it most likely broke because of plastic degradation rather extensive use. If you build something from scratch - it makes sense to add some strengthening ribs but for replication I'd just make it same as it was.

With regards to printing services the key to right price is to supply them with a model. If you do model yourself they only charge a fee for each cubic centimetre of plastics used and a postage. I can't remember what exactly the cost was, I think it was about a 2 US dollars per cm3 at the time, and I believe it was calculated on material used, not overall model volume. a cubic cm isn't that small as it looks like, say a part 1x10x0.1 cm is actually a cubic centimetre of material. I am not sure what the current prices are, but quickly googled and found that it is roughly 10x cheaper now! http://3dprintingpricecheck.com/ . The object of cell phone size is cost about 7US bucks to print now! Of course FDM printing method (like in household 3d Printers) is cheapest. But it well enough for such a part!

 

[oldcarman]

I find 3D printing fascinating, to go from a drawing to a finished project in one's own home I think the sky is the limit @ppavuk. What sort of pieces have you had made for your hobbies! JIM

 

[ppavuk]

I find 3D printing fascinating, to go from a drawing to a finished project in one's own home I think the sky is the limit @ppavuk. What sort of pieces have you had made for your hobbies! JIM

A motor support for a boat model. It was a display model converted to RC so all internals has to be custom made. The technology is amazing, though those time was pricey. Now major vendors starting to sell consumer grade 3D printers under a grand, like dremel. So I am starting to think to get one at some point. If I only could offset it against company taxes I would get one tomo, but this is not doable...

 

[GazHyde]

Found a cheapish second hand one off eBay in the correct colour! I'll strip it down tomorrow, check and reinforce it if needed before fitting it.

 

[Brian H]

Seems to me that these are easy to knock with your legs if they are in use when getting in and out of the car, do you know what causes them to fail? Wear and Tear?

 

[GazHyde]

I think the internal failure above is down to pushing it shut without holding the arm in the closed position. Try to fold the arm in then push the tray in to avoid stressing the internal ratchet mechanism.

I'm sure that whacking them with your leg doesn't help either, and I've done that a few times too!