MikeS6

My center console armrest is stuck in the 90 Degree upright position, and wont budge, or come down (Lay flat 180 Degrees). I don't want to force it, and possible break something in the hinge mechanism.
I did do a google search and found several Audi's out there (with in the last 10 years) that have had similar issues. Some of the threads on other forums have been people not realizing that the center arm rest has a "adjustable" feature built in. This issue though is definitely some sort of mechanical failure in the hinge I believe. As it's totally frozen in that 100% upright position. There are no buttons to push, etc. I wanted to post this as I saw no C7 - S6 Owners ever reporting it to a Audi forum that I could find. Also on the off chance that someone knows an easy fix, or perhaps I did overlook something?

elp_jc

Don't remember my manual saying anything about the center console lid being 'adjustable', but I accidentally found out when I was opening or closing it, and 'paused' in the middle of it and it wouldn't go down. Remember some other car having that feature, so raised it more and then it went down all the way. Well, at least it wasn't stuck closed, or you'd be in bigger trouble. You could remove it and try to figure out what went wrong, but your car is under warranty, so it should be an easy approval. Your car seems too new for that kind of trouble, but haven't seen that before. Probably a Friday assembly. He he. Good luck.

kczach

Hey Mike,
Did you ever get your armrest issue resolved?

MikeS6

Yes! Thank you for asking... while I was at the dealership, one of the SA's had said he had another S6 come in with the same issue a few months back. They took a look at it, and just said it got "frozen" and the Tech had to disassemble the whole hinge and reassemble it, now it works perfectly again. That bothered me the whole weekend! I can't drive the car like that, I need my armrest! :-)

MikeS6

Ugghh.. It got stuck again, My SA is thinking we might have to replace the whole hinge mechanism, they might just try to fix it one more time, idk I of course, would rather it just completely replaced. For anyone wonering, No I did not force it or put alot of presure on the armrest, etc. I'm am a total car freak, and am obsessed with the Cars maintaniance, care and cleanliness. I know every flaw in my paintwork, when it happened, etc.

leobg

I ended up having the same issue this morning. It was exceptionally cold (-23* Celsius), I lifted the armrest to plug my phone and it wouldn't come down. I was hoping when the temperature inside climbs to normal levels it would 'unfreeze' but now that I read the response below, it seems it would require a trip to the dealer?

evandersall

[QUOTE=leobg;25264848]I ended up having the same issue this morning. It was exceptionally cold (-23* Celsius), I lifted the armrest to plug my phone and it wouldn't come down. I was hoping when the temperature inside climbs to normal levels it would 'unfreeze' but now that I read the response below, it seems it would require a trip to the dealer?[/QUOTET

Try pressing and holding down the button/lever that releases the arm rest lid while moving trying to adjust the armrest, unless something is internally broken it should disengage the armrest from the back position.
If that fails to fix the problem, remove the ashtray unbolt the armrest and take a trip to a junkyard.

cacook2490

I am having the same issue on 2016 a6. It was about 15 degrees this morning, put armrest up to charge phone, stuck straight up at 90 degrees.

[QUOTE=evandersall;25376007]

leobg

Since the car was under warranty back then, dealer fixed it (disassembly is involved I was told and even found one of their proprietary tools they forgot inside, that are used to snap off vents on the back as part of the disassembly process. Apparently a piece of the closing mechanism gets misaligned. They got it unstuck but couple of weeks later same thing happened again. This time they replaced the assembly. So far - couple of winters later it has been behaving (touch wood!) I am, too, very careful when opening it (developed some sort of habit I guess), just pulling slowly when it is cold outside. I am sorry if this isn't very helpful, but I am afraid without pulling the armrest out, it may not be possible to fix.

cacook2490

This is helpful. I'm going to take to the dealership when I get it serviced and see what they can do. I'll definitely not be opening it all the way to the top anymore ... and very slowly. quite frustrating. Thanks for the response.