jeffahart

What's the best way to lubricate the plastic tracks on the retractable cup holder. Mine is sticking when I put it in the up position. Thought spring was broken but I took it out and reinstalled it and it was ok. I think it just needs some type of plastic lubricant.

Any ideas?

Jeff

Foxborough

I would think a silicone spray would to the trick. If it is hard to reach spray some on a Q-tip and rub it in a little. It wouldn't take much more than a drop to loosen it up.

Hillcountry

Labelle makes a hobby lube for the plastic gears in model trains and stuff..it has a long thin metal dispenser to get into narrow places...it would work. I worry about silicone or teflon or stuff like that because sometimes they can make plastic squeak...just a thought.

Baja

Whatever you use, it needs "body", not a liquid like oil, it will just get rubbed off by the friction and rough surface of the plastic. Gel silicone is good. Graphite powder added to grease is good. The graphite will get burnished into the plastic after a while. For short term, quick and easy, candle wax will work.

gotdiesel2

What Foxborough said. Silicone works excellent. Just don't get it on painted surfaces which you may want to paint again.

Hillcountry

Aaahh yes the candle wax trick...I forgot about that...I think crayon will work to. With my kids around I use crayons to lube drawers and stuff...works like magic.

tomm

I used an old sliver of bath soap to quiet mine down. Works great on sliding screen doors as well.

PapaPerk

I would use powered graphite only. But make sure it does not get on anything that is light colored!

rjm022

a dab of petroleoum jelly.

Spooler

Sometimes all it needs is cleaning. Coke, soda, Pop what ever you call it can be spilled and it will coat the mechanism. Also Coffee. When they dry they get very sticky. Used to have problems with this when I worked for Nissan. People would spill one of the above in the auto shifter and it would make it almost impossible to get out of park due to the park safety neutral switch not functioning. Sister inlaw did this one day and came up all mad. I pulled the covers and noticed wet carpet cable was all gooed up not allowing the solenoid to work properly. Took me about 5 minutes to fix it. I would say something was spilled and look for the goo.....

jeffahart

Good point, there's no doubt that there is something spilt where I cannot see it. I'm going to have to soak a small rag with some solvent on the end of a stick and attempt a cleaning before a choose a lube.

Thanks again
Jeff