The passanger side. dash mounted cup holder on my 1999 ML 320 will not stay closed. Does anybody know how to get the thing out of the dash so I can have a look at it? I did a search but surprisingly enough could not find information on this.
Thanks for the help!

If there is no spring tension any more, then you probably had the spring pop off inside the cup holder.

All you have to do is pry either side of the cup holder (middle pivoting piece) until you can pull one tab out and wiggle it out.
There you will see the spring inside the housing.
You have to reinsert the spring into the hole on the cup holder and then into the slot on the housing.
It may take some studying to see how it goes back in, but once the spring is in, you have to pop one of the tabs back into place(start with the side that the spring is on) and then pry a little bit to get the other tab into the hole and you are done.
This is a pain in the behind the first time you do it, but the next time you will be a pro.
The hardest part of it is holding the cupholder and the spring in it's seat in the housing until you pop the spring side into it's seat.

Let's hope this is all you had happen and did not bust one of the roller mechanisms.

Not sure why, but adult passengers seem to "knee" the cupholder when they get out of the vehicle and jam the unit stuck into the receptable...my wife does it all the time.

It's not intuitive as to how it all goes back together, so the first time it happened, I carefully removed the driver's side cupholder and inspected the spring mounting points to determine how best to reinstall the passenger side cupholder...

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

See attached thread. I described how to R&R it and included pics.

Cupholder spring on a 99 ML

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Thanks for the help guys.
Sunedog, the R&R and pics are fantastic!

De nada

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Behind every great man is a great woman. Behind every great woman is a great behind.