[dtro]

My wife spilled a drink on the floor shifter. It made quite a sticky mess, even on the inside. I took off the shifter handle and the shifter housing. In the process I also knocked off the indicator housing and indicator piece (PRND21). It is a fairly small plastic piece......well it got away from me and fell way back under my armrest. A new one is $58 from Toyota, unbelievable.
I see two screws for the front on the armrest and it looks like one on either side, but the only way at them, looks to be by removing the seat.
There must be a better way.
I can't find a Haynes or Chilton and I even tried subscribing to ALLDATA (only goes to 2003).
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[j.Ngo]

Did you try moving the seats back or tilting the seats? also i believe a short phillips head would work.

I had to remove my armrest in my old civic for a new shift boot. and thats all i had to do.

whatever you do dont buy a new one!

 

[Jeff]

Something worse happened to me a couple months ago...

I got home to my apartment one Sunday night about 8 pm, and couldn't find my keys to the front door anywhere. They weren't in any of my pockets, and I spent 20 minutes searching my Rav over and over again. Even though the car keys and house keys are on different rings, I normally keep them clipped togther, however often during the winter I unclip them so I can leave my car running but still be able to lock/unlock my front door, as was the case that day.

Sometimes I'll put keys in the armrest center cupholder (which holds my change and assorted parts to the car), and that's what I must have done when I got into the Rav on my way home. Well after tearing apart my Rav looking for the keys, my eyes settled on the e-brake handle slot. When the e-brake is pulled up it leaves a nice big opening where stuff can fall down into the console. I remember saying to myself "God I hope they didn't fall through the e-brake handle slot". I got out the flashlight and took a look down into the console, and what do you know, there are my keys.

After the initial stream of expletives finished coming out of my mouth, I thought "how the hell am I going to get them out, all my tools are locked inside the apartment". In true MacGyver fashion I proceeded to make use of the implements I could find in my car, which included a philips screwdriver, a few paper clips, electrical tape, and an old drinking straw. Well after a good 20 or more minutes of busting my hands on the center console, I was able to get the darn keys out without having to smash the console to bits.

Normally I carry around an extra set or two of car keys, but I usually don't carry an extra set of apartment keys. I guess I learned an important lesson.

When I was trying to figure out how to get the keys, I loosened all the screws I could find with the philips screwdriver I had in my glove box, however that was no help. I ultimately was able to pry back one of the sides of the console from the hump in the floor and reach up under from the bottom, which really hurt my hands but got the job done. I made an instrument out of the straw, paperclips, and electrical tape, which I used to move the keys over to where I could reach them with my hands. I tried to pull the keys back up through the slot but apparently the key ring got bigger than the slot somehow...

 

[dtro]

someone has told me that there are bolts underneath the little piece of carpet on the inside of the armrest. I will try that next. I'm just waiting for it to get above zero here :shock:

 

[Jeff]

I think there are, I just didn't have the right tools when I had my problem.

 

[dtro]

well it finally warmed up here enough to look at this again....well, there were no bolts under the carpet . What I ended up doing was taking some duct tape and a coat hanger and a little praying . I got it close enough for my wife (small hands) to reach in there and get it.