My ash tray on my 92 bird won't open. You can move the little button back but it won't pop up. It used to come up when you pulled back the button, it went up similar to how the hatch pops up. I have looked to see what it uses but I can't see anything. How can I fix this?

 

There's a metal plate under the ashtray door on my '90 that broke off in the past and the previous owner epoxied into place. It's some sort of heat shield for the ashtray to protect the plastic door. Sure enough that glue didn't last and when it broke again, the metal piece slid into the cavity behind the ashtray, where the door slides into when it's open. With that piece stuck in there the door wouldn't open. I just played with the door and eventually carefully forced it open, and wrestled the metal plate out and threw it in my centre console, no more problem. If you smoke you should try to reattach the heat shield, or better yet, don't smoke in the car.

 

I have a suggestion. Go into your garage. Open the drawer on your tool chest and pull out a screwdriver of your choice. Nothing too small because you won't want a lot of flex but nothing too big either. Something right in the middle. Then go into your car and stick the end of the screwdriver between the crack in the ashtray. Then proceed to pry the SOB open with all out brute force.

 

bes217 . . . well obviously you like to replace your ash tray alot . . . along with other various parts that you use with your "All out brute force."

Sean

 

Yeah brute force isn't the way to go. Personally I'd leave it closed and forget about it before using enough force to break the door. Just play with it (slide a thin piece of steel in from the hinge side and poke around) until it opens.

 

i can open the ash tray, but it will not open by itself once you press the button. It used to pop up by itself. Now it just stays down but I can lift it up with my hand.

 

Ah, so the spring is broken. I'm afraid you'll have to take the console apart to figure out what is broken, and to match it to a replacement spring.

That reminds me, the spring on my centre console box door is broken.

 

On my 87-formula the ashtray door where really slow to open, and it squeeled rather annoyingly, so I just unskrewd the whole center console, took it all out and into the kitchen. There I could play with it, and get the motion up to new standards. At the same time I got to clean it thorougly, replased a faulty bulb for the shifter and greased the ashtray door up and mounted it back.

It was just a little cosy afternoon job, I would rather reccomend that before prying to hard, and maybe break something.

And its just two small screws under the glovebox door to remove it.

 

When i bought my car the lil button was not on there so i went to a local car lot..there aszho|es anyways and i broke on out of a thirdgen..well i broke wrong so mine dont wana stay closeds..i ahve to play with it to stay closed..id rather have on that didnt open then one that wont close..

 

speaking of ashtrays, mine rattles when i drive, how can i stop this? i don't really have much use for it, but then again when i need to plug in a phone charger i'd like to have the plug accessible, but i just want the rattling to stop cuz it's driving me crazy...any ideas?

 

Just spray it with some WD-40. That would be the easiest of all, and it would probably work, unless its loose and vibrates. Gum?

It's not that big of a job to take out the console and do it right, but if thats too hard, consider glue, a lighter plug with cord and socket.

 

Has anyone ever replaced the spring in their ashtray? That's the situation I'm in. Mine is permanently open. It's probably too much effort to take apart the whole thing for a little spring, but maybe I'll give it a go. Can you get a replacement spring like... at the hardware store?


Cheers.