Hello, my user name is "tinsandwich" and I am new to Prius Chat.

A friend of mine has a 2011 Prius in which the female mini jack "AUX" connector dropped out of its mounting in the compartment of the center console. I don't know if this has happened to others but I thought I would share what I did to return the mini jack to its proper location and functionality.

First, the four bolts, found down in the same compartment as the "AUX" connector, had to be removed (these take a 10 mm socket if I remember correctly and an extender). Next, the plastic piece, against which the removable cup holder rests, has to be removed with gentle coaxing using a small flat-bladed screwdriver. This piece (made of black plastic in my friend's Prius) is held in place with tabs or clips and, once removed, reveals a fifth bolt that has to be removed. Finally, after removing this last bolt, the whole center console can be lifted out by gently pushing in the sides while simultaneously pulling back to free the console's tabs from the rest of the assembly.

At this point, now that the center console is no longer attached to the mounting, listen and check for a tiny black plastic backing piece that will most likely drop out from the underside of the console. This is the culprit/piece that has caused the mini jack to drop out of place in the center console and without it the mini jack will not be able to be put back in its place in the console.

When the console has begun to be pulled away from its mounting, an electrical (white in this case) connector can be seen which must be disconnected by disengaging the clip holding the male and female portions of the connector together. When the white connector has been disconnected, the center console can be lifted right out of the vehicle and turned over so that the black plastic housing, into which the mini jack (mounted on a very small circuit board) is placed, can been seen.

As mentioned above, most likely the black plastic backing piece that fits into the black plastic housing for the mini jack will have fallen off and have to be put back into the black plastic housing to hold the mini jack in its place in the center console. Return the mini jack/PC board to its place inside the black plastic holder and snap the black plastic backing piece back into the black plastic housing. Reassembly is the reverse of the disassembly procedure.

This little piece is the key to whole repair. You'll see that it is like a little back door that is not very substantial especially if would be iPod/mp3 player users jam their mini jacks into the AUX connector with too much force thereby causing the mini jack connector to drop out of sight in the center console.

 

Thanks! I hope my long-winded instructions will be helpful to folks and save them some trouble. I, myself struggled to sort out the problem of fully detaching the center console. It wasn't until I started looking for information on this that I was able to glean enough information to figure it out. I'm hoping I can save folks some time!

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks. Despite the tough winter we had in the NE, I don't expect to hit any potholes.