Hello Everyone,
I'm new to the forum and recently bought a blue 2018 Chevy Bolt Premier. So far I'm thrilled with this car and really enjoying the benefits of not having to spend time at the gas station. I bought the car used and so far it has been without issue. The only thing I noticed recently was a slight mechanical sound coming from the armrest. I traced it to the spring for the latch and decided to go do something about it. Needless to say, I embarked on a slightly more complicated journey than what I anticipated, so posting here for the benefit of everyone. Below are pictures of how I ended up removing the armrest, details of how to take it apart and what I ended up doing to remove the noise.
1) Armrest removal:
Start from the back seats and pry the back cover gently. I used a plastic pry tool to help get started. There are 4 clips on each side holding as can be seen from the pictures below:
Once you remove it, you can unclip the USB connector if you have a Premier version like mine.
2) Detach armrest from center console:
Once you remove the back covet, lift the armrest to reveal the hinge. You'll need a Torx bit to remove the 3 main screws plus 2 support screws.
3) Take apart armrest to reveal latch:
After removing the armrest, use the same Torx bits to remove 4 screws. The pry tool will come in handy here as the plastic cover is held by tabs. Work your way around this slowly. The final step is to remove the hinge cover, which also snaps out. You'll need to remove the hinge cover completely. This was a tricky step but you have to bend the hinge to slide it out. Once the cover is out, you can remove the hinge.
4) Slider piece bracket/roller removal:
The slider piece is held in place by a 4 screws that hold a bracket and 2 gear rollers. Remove the screws, brackets and lift out the gear rollers:
5) Remove slider piece:
Once you have the gear rollers, you can slide out the sliding piece out to reveal the latch and spring. Below is a picture of all pieces, the hinge, the cover, the slider and the upholstered armrest for reference:
6) Final Fix
The final fix was to add some felt strips under the spring for the latch. You can see this below:
Done! Hope you find this useful and happy noise cancelling.
