My wife drove the Accord to work a couple of days ago. Last night she mentioned that the console armrest was hard and uncomfortable compared to the Pathy she usually drives. I had to concur. I have a 2003 EXLV6 and while the leather surface is fine, the padding underneath has basically flattened to nothing. It sorta feels like a leather covered piece of plastic now.
So, last night I took the sliding armrest piece off (2 screws on the hinge) and took it in the house. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to disassemble the mechanism to be able to pull off the piece that the leather covering and padding surround. My wife would like to repad it, then pull the leather back over... so it's like new again.
The hangup is that I cannot get to the screws under the back side of the sliding top part. The lid slides on tracks, and I don't know how to disengage the track so I can get to whatever holds the leather to the part your arm actually rests on. There must be some release, or it snaps on/off or it's press fit, but I cannot tell at all.
If the car were older or junkier, I wouldn't be afraid to possibly break it by pulling the pieces apart physically, but with the way the car is today, it still passes for new.
Does anyone have a schematic of the armrest lid from Honda? If not, has anyone ever done this or had it reupholstered and watched them do it?
I have seached and Googled. No luck at all.
Otherwise, I will have to just live with it... unhappily.
