be aware: cupholder design flaw

d3m0n · March 24, 2015

the cup holders on the 2014/2015 standard cap fold down center seat consoles (40/20/40) are not sealed.

I had a coffee cup leak out the bottom into the cup holder, and due to designed in slots, the contents of the cup holder saturated the foam and seat upholstery instead of just filling the cup holder with coffee. Add in the angle of the console...the liquid contents will travel the length of the seat cushion. This seems to be designed to specifically ruin the maximum about of seat with minimal amount of liquid lol.

While this example of mine is a lot of liquid saturation...even typical condensation will get into the foam and support mold growth inside the foam.

is there any action that can be taken here, besides a deep extractor cleaning?

darkfox1 · March 24, 2015

You are absolutely right about this.

I noticed in my truck that the foam underneath the cup holder is discolored from something like this happening. I wonder if they'll change this in a future revision or something. Unless you live in nevada your to go cups are gonna sweat.

As far as fixing it:

pull rubber up toward lid and remove 2x phillips screws. Remove rubber from center of cup holders and remove 2x pillips screws, entire cup holder assembly will lift out.

Remove 2x phillips screws for inner bucket on lip where lid latches, pull up to disengage bucket.

You now have access to all of the seat foam.

This will help you clean it out. As far as fixing it.. Silicone around the grooves in the plastic piece? It wont be readily visible with the rubber trim in and will keep this from happening. Your cup holders will fill up with water instead.

d3m0n · March 24, 2015

Your cup holders will fill up with water instead.

like every other cup holder on every other vehicle in the world lol

darkfox1 · March 24, 2015

certainly better than filling your seat with coffee huh?

I wonder if they've changed this in the 2015s.. (probably not.) This seems like a big oversight.

pm26 · March 24, 2015

certainly better than filling your seat with coffee huh?

I wonder if they've changed this in the 2015s.. (probably not.) This seems like a big oversight.

No, it is not an oversight. It was CHEAPER to make it this way.

haider320 · March 25, 2015

I could swear my 3 cup holder in the center console is a solid piece of rubber. I'll have to check when I get home later.

Newell33 · March 25, 2015

I could swear my 3 cup holder in the center console is a solid piece of rubber. I'll have to check when I get home later.

I swore the same thing yesterday. Then I looked last night and found that I was mistaken. I always wonder who signs off on these designs. I'm guessing it has less to do with the engineering team, and more to do with the team of bean counters.

darkfox1 · March 25, 2015

Before this thread I thought mine was too.

It does explain though why my foam had a stain on the inside of my seat when I took it apart to get the wire harness out.

Fishingbear · March 25, 2015

I originally thought that there was supposed to be a piece of rubber that sat at the bottom of the cup holders like my 2007 Sierra and that the dealer forgot to install it when they received my truck... so I assumed that those slots were to hold that rubber down. Now that I've had a few loaner Sierra's while my truck has had various warranty repairs I've noticed that none of them have any rubber insert in the cup holder and that the slot is there to allow the rubber to flex to accommodate different cup sizes. This is a serious design flaw and gross overlook by GM for not sealing the cup holders and allowing liquid to empty out into the inside of the center console fabric. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention.