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No it is not the two big tabs in the rear. Its like it needs to go back another 1/10 of a inch back to seat properly but it wont go back that far unless i break some tabs or remove the console.
If I have the console off, it just clips into place. With it there the plate is too far forward.
You just have to finagle it a bit. Mine did the same a couple of times. Just remove and reinstall a few times until you get it just right. It will fit.
No it is not the two big tabs in the rear. Its like it needs to go back another 1/10 of a inch back to seat properly but it wont go back that far unless i break some tabs or remove the console.
If I have the console off, it just clips into place. With it there the plate is too far forward.
I had exactly the same problem when I tried to re-install the plate after taking it out. I spent more than 30 minutes and got myself all sweaty trying to figure that out. What ended up helping for me was, first leave the ashtray out. Now, you can see exactly how the two front tabs should snap in place when you push the plate down. The main issue is that the two tabs that stick upward are two rigid. The two notch on the plate need to be placed just behind the two upward tabs, in order for the plate to snag in place. Some people had suggested that to heat the tabs a little to make them a little more flexible, so that you can force them to get in front of notches. I thought that would be my last resort. Before that, I tried practicing push the plate back, then take it out, push it back again a few times with the ashtray out. After maybe 4,5 times, the front tabs became a little easier to bend forward, then, I put the ashtray back in place, and did one last push just like I practiced earlier, and it worked.
It's not you, Bro! The first time I did it, it went very easily. The second time, it took me about an hour to get it back in to place. And I can't seem to put my finger on why it wouldn't go, and how I finally got it in.
In case anyone else come trying to find the solution, you need to remove the shifter boot first. This will give you access so that you can push the two plastic tension clips into place.
The only way mine would go back in was to loosen the two screws that hold in the piece that the front clips have to clip behind, push that piece forward, then retighten the screws. I don't know if the part swells over time or what, but there was no way it was going back in without moving that piece.
I got this issue, simply hold forward the two snap-clip posts that the cover snaps into for a minute or two and
before they can relax back into their original position quickly insert the rear tabs and snap the cover back into place.
Before i broke anything i went to bed and woke up with a more patient attitude and fixed this issue,
this is hands-down the finest car a poor boy ever had!
Same issue tonight, first time removing it (part of replacing rear HVAC registers)—so pleased to find this thread, thought I was going nuts!... after reading all the posts above, both squinting with a flashlight and via boroscope, it appeared—with cover resting in the position from which it refused to snap down—that the aluminum catches were sitting on the somewhat large flat top of the plastic latches, so they couldn't respond to gentle or less-so persuasion (surgical blows with fist) as they weren't on the ramping face of the latches.
I got a 3" length of a broken flat ******* file (why asterixed out? That is what they are actually called!) and made a few strokes across the sloping faces of both plastic latches at the same time (the short piece allowed side-to-side filing with no risk to surrounding trim), reducing the pesky flat top and increasing the horizontal width of the ramping area. I went with a slightly shallower angle rather then parallel to original so as not reduce the horizontal latch width—the surface that latches against the aluminum.
(M^2 sketch below)
On trying to replace the cover this time, there was a stiff but springy resistance instead of a dead block... a couple of calibrated blows with the heel of hand and it popped perfectly into place.
It looks as though the square aluminum projection in its raised hole can bend the base material (that the latches are part of) with forward pressure on the cover, which would rotate the latches forward—seems like that's how the latches may unhook and explains the instructions for cover removal?
The cover's aluminum projections need to land on the sloping part of the latches to bend latches forward with downward pressure, and allow the snap action.
removal?
Re-installing Shifter Plate What am I doing wrong?
