My 97 E420 has the type of cup holder that is hidden in front of the armrest. When you flip back the wooden cover it reveals a silver button. Pushing the button makes the cup holder gracefully swing up and out. Love it very James Bond.

The problem is that to close it you are supposed to just push down on the same silver button and it "locks" itself in the closed/retracted position. When I push the button the cup holder seems like it is going almost all the way down, but not quite. It will not "lock" itself in the closed/retracted position and I have been forced to use a very embarassing workaround. Basically, I have to hold the button down with one hand and then yank the wooden cover back over it to force it to stay in the down position. So now merely flipping back the wooden cover makes the cup holder jump out at you.

Help! Does anyone know how I can fix this without taking it to the dealer who will charge me $90 per hour. I'm sure it will take then at least 3 hours to diagnose and repair such a complicated problem :-)

Thanks in advance all!