anybody have this happen to them? I have a 98 explorer and the plastic cracked in the middle of the armrest and therefore does not hold anymore weight. The design is horrible. Am I left with replacing the whole part?
This is on the Explorer FAQ web page at
Same vehicle - same problem. I took mine apart and used JB Weld to "glue" the plastic parts together. Easy fix and it has held up to a year of abuse.
Once you've fixed it with glue or whatnot, put your owner's manual under the armrest for support. It'll keep it from breaking again.
Yeah, I had exactly this same thing happen -- the vinyl cracked right at the spot where my elbow normally rests when I'm driving. I got by for a while by taping the area with some clear packing tape, but when the summer hit and things got hot (and the tape backing started melting) it wasn't a good scene, and I ended up replacing the lid.
Maybe you might try one of those vinyl repair pastes, but judging from the way the cracks in mine spider webbed after initially appearing, I doubt it would last for long.
I tried to get just the vinyl covering from the dealer, but they only sell the lid as a whole -- cost me around $100 as I recall. The parts guy at the dealer told me that it happens all of the time with Explorers. Lid replacement was easy -- open the lid and there are 4 phillips screws, took less than 5 minutes to replace (after swallowing hard while coming up with the $100...)
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