Add an Armrest to Chevy Cobalt
I added an armrest and it is very nice to finally have one. It has a opening top so things can be stored inside.
INSTALL:
Uses a 10mm socket to get the rear bolts off under the rear cup holder. Just pull that up and they are under it. Also have to pull up the plastic under the parking break to have room to move the armrest in or out.
The armrest does require a mounting bracket. A thick piece of metal it rests on. Takes up the entire space from top to bottom of the plastic to the floor. Basically where the cup holder is all that cup space is filled with a metal block/bracket under the armrest.
When I did the install I also had to unscrew some bolts and pull some panels on the front to lift the entire console (see the black center console pictured below) in order to get access under the console to mount the bracket to the car floor. Then attach the armrest.
One problem I encountered was the cigarette lighter in the middle. You have to disconnect it from the wires it has and that isn't easy to do when you are just lifting the console up. So instead of struggling to undo the wiring I removed the 12v lighter socket from the center console to get a better handle on it but the 3 plastic tabs it has holding it into the console are weak and tiny. I broke one of them so the lighter no longer sits flush with the console. See the bottom 2 pictures. There is 1 lighter in the top and one in the middle where the emergency brake would be. That middle one.
This is what you need to purchase. The replacement cup holder, the block, the bolts and the arm rest. Once you remove the original cup holder and dish tray you replace with the new short cup holder then the arm rest where the dish tray was.
It is all pretty easy to swap in an arm rest for a chevy cobalt just turn a bolt here and there until you try to lift the entire center console to install the block then things get tricky as stated above already. So just be patient rather than try to rip it all apart. In the end it is all well worth it to install an arm rest.
If I recall the center plastic that is under the parking brake cannot be removed because the parking brake is in the way and that is why you have to loosen the entire center console and then lift it up to get the metal block bolts in. Doing this means you stress the cigarette lighter in the middle by the parking brake so you have to either push the retainer ring in somehow and pop it free (don't ask me it has three tabs I think - which are inside as well against the plastic console) and or option 2 disconnect the lighter wiring connection from behind, which is its own frustration because of lack of room to access it you have to reach in and wiggle the wiring off but this is the recommended step/option so you don't damage the lighter socket trying to get it free. There is a "tool" to push in the plastic tabs for the lighter but I recall the tabs don't want to move. Anyway see the image below for why the center plastic under the parking brake won't lift off or maybe it will but you still can't access the rear because the entire center console is in the way and the block sits under the center console. As in trying to get the block through a hole (square hole) that is too small from the top.
