Just purchased a pre-owned 2001 S40. Does anyone have any experience with replacing or repairing the in-dash cupholder? Or a link to more information? The retaining arm no longer has any spring action and the piece that goes under the cup is missing. Thanks!

 

Yep, seems that installation is not very good and breaks often. Mine is the same way. Volvo parts want a lot of money for a new one and I am too lazy / cheap to fix mine.

 

I replaced my 2001 S40 cupholder by purchasing a used one on ebay. They cost between $40-60.

To remove the current cupholder, I followed the following steps:

1. Put car in low gear (to enable the radio room to be pulled out).
2. Remove radio (be sure to turn off power and record your radio code first).
3. Remove the bracket containing the cupholder and the info dial. It requires removing three screws and unplugging the electrical connection to the info dial.
4. Looking at the back of the bracket, I inserted thin plastic wedges on the top and the bottom (between the cupholder box and the bracket) so that the 4 wedges on the cupholder box clear the edge and you can push the cupholder out.
5. One can then simply insert the new cupholder in the empty space and reverse the steps above.

Note: There are directions on the web suggesting that you don't need to remove the bracket and only need to put wedges on the bottom part of the back of the cupholder. I tried this but couldn't get it to work. Looking at the cupholder (after removal), I don't see how these instructions could work. Perhaps they redesigned the cupholder to have wedges on both the top and bottom, so those instructions don't work anymore? I don't know.

 

note tascaparts.com and eeuroparts.com also should carry replacement parts for the cup holder. Excellent write up by the way! much appreciated.