[1st Model 3 in Huntsville]

More pictures of my install here...

USB Module and wire holder clip. Squeeze the sides of the clip to remove the holder. There are 2 of these on the module.

Notice the cross hair marks I made on where to drill my pilot hole for the 1 1/8" drill bit. 24cm down from top of plastic wall. Follow the plastic support down on each side.

Follow the plastic support rail down and mark center line at 24cm from top of plastic wall.

Left side, 24cm marked from top. Follow plastic support down to 24cm.

Outline of 1 1/8" holes, center mark and positions next to USB module and connectors. A lot of measuring and fitting done here before carefully determining exactly how the connectors would wrap around the sockets.

This is the drill bit I used, bought at Home Depot
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-1-1-8-in-SHOCKWAVE-IMPACT-DUTY-Hole-Saw-49-56-9820/204994422

No turning back. Holes cut.

Used a Dremel to cut a notch to hold the socket cover I purchased separately for the 12 volt socket. This notch keeps the cover from turning.

Notch on cover for 12 volt socket.

More pictures on next reply...

 

[1st Model 3 in Huntsville]

More pictures from my install.

Both sockets mounted with nuts.

Module in place. This was a tight fit and I had to reconnect the plugs and wire clips before re-mounting the screws and securing the USB module in place. I could not plug the wires in easily with the module in place first.

Pictures of the empty console before reassembly.

I used 14 Gauge wire and installed in plastic wire loom and soldiered to the existing 12 volt socket wires in the picture. Sorry, I did not get a picture of the wire run and soldiered connection.

Wiring connected to the outlets. I soldiered the wires together into one set going to the rear of the console. While there, I added and extra set of + and - wires for a future radar detector. I ran that extra wire down to the side of the console where I could access it from the carpet panel, later.

More pictures here of the clips on the bottom and back of the cubby.

While I had everything apart, I also decided to change the lighting inside the console with a brighter LED strip and also added another beneath the screen. Both light up when the cubby door is opened. In hindsight, I don't love the one beneath the screen as it reflects back at me in the gloss of the cell phone door/cover. I bought the small strip light at O'Reilly Auto Parts for $19 and the square light at Advance Auto. I ran the wires upend behind the dash with a coat hanger to get from the cabin temperature sensor cover and cut a small notch on the cover to pass the square light wires through. Light had double stick tape and fir the cover perfectly. I also replaced the armrest pocket light with the 2nd strip light in the package. I cut the connector for the existing cubby light and soldiered the wires for the new lights to it. Did the same for the armrest pocket light.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...19b/custom-accessories-light-bar/23840/4904871?q=custom+accessories+light&pos=0

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...-quadfire-haloz-peel-and-stick-led-halo-for-4-pod-lights-white-78019/11381941-P

Pointed the cubby light down so it would not reflect back up on the phone tray and onto the glossy black bottom of the tray.

 

[1st Model 3 in Huntsville]

Final pictures of my install..

Reflection of square light in the console that I am not pleased with. I am however about to wrap the top on Abstract Ocean's Brushed Titanium, so the reflection may go away afterwards. I will also note, with the phone cover/door open, you do not see the light reflection and it does create a soft glow that is fine.

I also bought a 90 degree USB connector for the Sandisk 128Gb wireless flash drive for the dash cam. You can see it makes the drive touch the bottom of the cubby wall, but it is ok. I did find a slightly shorter adapter, but have not bothered with it. Adapter here.

Lastly, I bought this Samsung 256Gb USB drive for my MP3 collections and it works great in the other USB outlet.

 

[babula]

Thats slick, well done sir.

 

[babula]

I haven't seen all of the pieces removed, but i1Tesla did remove the phone tray cover to make an iPad Mini Dock

I suppose there could be some useful applications here but I'm not crazy about the way this looks.

What are some other things that you can put on there? Everything he demoed can be done on the superior M3 screen IMO.

 

[SoFlaModel3]

I suppose there could be some useful applications here but I'm not crazy about the way this looks.

What are some other things that you can put on there? Everything he demoed can be done on the superior M3 screen IMO.

I agree and definitely wouldn't do it

 

[yonkiman]

Afterwards, I was speaking with my mobile service technician a few days later and I asked him if he had ever removed or disassembled a Model 3 center console and to my surprise he had. His way would have been the easier way as it involved removing the entire console from the car and it was much easier than I ever imagined. The steps he described involved removing the carpet side covers on both sides of the console; remove the 2, 10mm bolts on each side; remove the 2 screws that are recessed inside the cubby under the phone shelf; remove the plastic trim on the rear of the console and remove 2 screws there; and finally as you are removing the console, unplug the Mini USB cable and power wires connected to the USB module on the back side of the cubby and also unplug the other wires feeding the 12 volt socket and USB ports on the rear of the console. This would have prevented me from having to remove the cubby to gain access to drill the holes and mount the sockets. I would imagine I could have taped the power wires for the 12 volt socket there.

Thanks to this impressively detailed 2nd-hand summary I am tempted to try to remove my console so I can wire up everything cleanly. Newly available parts catalog (center console is here; you need to log in as general public first) seems to back up this summary. I'll take lots of notes and photos and publish if successful.

 

[Canikony]

Awesome write up.

 

[yonkiman]

Well I did it. Removed the entire center console, rerouted the power for my USB hub, and put the console back in and everything seems to have gone fine.

First a note: after you remove your console (actually it's after you disconnect the wiring harness in the back of the console), you can not drive your car. So bear that in mind! Power seats work fine, probably everything except driving, but I forgot to do a thorough check.

Basically, I just followed 1st Model 3 in Huntsville's retelling of what the Tesla Ranger told him, and it worked exactly as described.

First, remove the carpeted side panels. The two 10mm screws you need to remove are on either side of the yellow tape. For the passenger side, I found the carpet easiest to remove by pulling from the top under the dash. Do not start there for the driver side panel!

This is why you don't start at the top front on the driver side: This hook is holding that corner in place. I found the driver side panel to be a lot harder than the passenger side. I ended up starting at the very back of the panel.

Once the driver side panel is removed, remove the two 10mm bolts on that side as well:

The biggest challenge I had was the "remove the 2 screws that are recessed inside the cubby under the phone shelf" step. It took a while for me to find them. The screws (Torx 20 heads) are right under the hinge for the phone tray:

You want to unscrew the recessed ones, not the other ones. I just did this (and later replaced them) blind/by feel. Wasn't as hard as I thought it might be.

Now, pop off the cover at the rear of the console:

And disconnect the connector. IIRC you push down on that little metal middle clip and it pulls apart:

Then disconnect the USB cable at the front passenger side:

It's now ready to be removed! I pulled back on it to disconnect it from the HVAC up front; it slides back a few cm. Then I lifted up and back from the rear while lifting the front as soon as it seemed ready and then worked it out the front passenger doorway. You'll be moving the seats back and forth throught this procedure, but for this both seats should be all the way back and as backs as far down as they will go.

I have to say it wasn't particularly hard.

I'll start another post showing the minor mod I made and a lot of Deep Inside Tesla Model 3 porn.

 

[yonkiman]

Here's what the car looks like without the console (this is prior to my thorough vacuuming):

The front of the console (with USB hub):

And here's the bottom of the console (I hope everyone appreciates the juxtaposition of the "Eat Awesomely" shopping bag with the King-Size Butterfinger):

 

[yonkiman]

Finally, here are the details of my minor mod (routing 5V to a microUSB cable in the front compartment for a powered USB hub).

To get the wire from the compartment to 12V power under the cup holder, I drilled a 4mm hole at the bottom of the small "ledge" under the phone trays. I just drilled from the plastic side with no prep; inside the compartment the hole looked clean despite my laziness.

I then cut the big USB connector off a microUSB cable and fed it through the hole. The microUSB side of the cable is inside the compartment, the is then run through the hole, along the bottom, and up to where the back of the 12V outlet is under the cupholders. I don't have a lot of pictures here, but how to remove the cupholder top has been documented earlier in this thread. The last photo shows a little light leaking through from the opening where all the cupholder connectors are:

I don't have any photos for how I connected it under the cupholder and that's mostly because no one should wire it the way I wired it (I'm an electrical engineer so I know how technically wrong what I did was but also know it will work but also I know I could probably be sued if it seemed like I was recommending it). Basically I tapped the 12V from the power adapter, ran it to a 12V to 5V converter (I don't have a part number - it's an old module I've had for 15 years that I never used until now), connected the 5V output to the black (GND) and red (+5V) wires in the USB cable, hotglued the whole mess together to isolate the connections and prevent wire movement at the connections, put some foam in strategic locations to keep it in place and not rattling, and put the cupholder back on.

Happy to answer any questions anyone has!

 

[1st Model 3 in Huntsville]

Wish I would have gone this route of removing the entire console first and glad to see you did. So was your entire project to just provide USB power to a micro USB cable for a hub? What are you using the hub for?

 

[yonkiman]

Wish I would have gone this route of removing the entire console first and glad to see you did. So was your entire project to just provide USB power to a micro USB cable for a hub? What are you using the hub for?

Shortly after I got the car I added a powered hub so I have ports for the 2 phone docks, a corded extension for my wife to use her phone (up close) while I drive, and 1 or 2 USB memory sticks. Before I had a USB adapter plugged into the 12V outlet and ran the wire under the trim on the side of the console. Routing it this way is a lot cleaner and frees up the 12V port for other stuff.

But the main reason I yanked the console was just to see if I could and hopefully enable other people to do the same with (like yours) more interesting mods.

 

[SemoTech]

Great job yonkiman and 1st Model 3 in Huntsville!!!

I have been planning to do the same mod, and add 2 x 12V sockets to the front of the console by the existing USB's, but could not find details on how to get there without damaging anything.

One other thought I had was to drill a hole in the inside bottom center of the 1st cubby section of the console, passing under the cup holders, and one in the rear section of the front cubby, and just run the 12v plug and cable between the 2 openings cleanly.
This way I can use the existing 12V socket with a car socket splitter that also has dual USB, like this one:

I was worried that I may damage something in the bottom center of the console, but it seems that it's doable, no? Can you please advise? Thanks.

 

[crackers8199]

Shortly after I got the car I added a powered hub so I have ports for the 2 phone docks, a corded extension for my wife to use her phone (up close) while I drive, and 1 or 2 USB memory sticks. Before I had a USB adapter plugged into the 12V outlet and ran the wire under the trim on the side of the console. Routing it this way is a lot cleaner and frees up the 12V port for other stuff.

But the main reason I yanked the console was just to see if I could and hopefully enable other people to do the same with (like yours) more interesting mods.

why not just add two 12v sockets similar to what @1st Model 3 in Huntsville did? wouldn't that be even cleaner yet and give you more flexibility as to what you can plug in there?

 

[yonkiman]

Great job yonkiman and 1st Model 3 in Huntsville!!!

I have been planning to do the same mod, and add 2 x 12V sockets to the front of the console by the existing USB's, but could not find details on how to get there without damaging anything.

One other thought I had was to drill a hole in the inside bottom center of the 1st cubby section of the console, passing under the cup holders, and one in the rear section of the front cubby, and just run the 12v plug and cable between the 2 openings cleanly.
This way I can use the existing 12V socket with a car socket splitter that also has dual USB, like this one:

I was worried that I may damage something in the bottom center of the console, but it seems that it's doable, no? Can you please advise? Thanks.

Sorry for the delay - haven't revisited this thread in a while.

I wouldn't recommend you drill a ~1 inch hole in both cubbys and try to fish the 12V plug through. Both for practical reasons (I don't think you'd be able fish the plug from one end to the other - it's really tight and twisty) and aesthetic (please don't drill two huge holes in your console just to run a small wire through them). I'd recommend you disassemble one of the two ends of the assemblies, desoldering the wire, fish the thin wire through (using one of the two techniques in this thread), then resolder and reassemble the rest.

 

[yonkiman]

why not just add two 12v sockets similar to what @1st Model 3 in Huntsville did? wouldn't that be even cleaner yet and give you more flexibility as to what you can plug in there?

1) I'm not crazy about the 12V connector bulk and cord management involved in 1M3iH's otherwise very elegant solution. Right now I just have this very compact USB hub being powered by a 5V line coming through a 3mm hole in the bottom corner of the cubby.

2) I currently sorta wish I had done what 1M3iH did, because I realized that all I really want is 2A/plug of charging for my phones - they don't need the data - and for that I need 12V instead of the 5V I ran. I plan to fish the cable from a 12V USB power thingie through to replace the 5V line, but that will likely take a few hours vs the minutes it would take if I'd done what 1M3iH did. However I'll still have less cabling bulk in the end so I don't mind too much.

Both approaches have their merits.

 

[Madmolecule]

My console removal. I had trouble with my new sockets being flush mounted like you show in the pictures. I could not get my console back in with the sockets flus mounted. It was probably my poor skills but I would try to find the most shallow socket you can find.

 

[crackers8199]

1) I'm not crazy about the 12V connector bulk and cord management involved in 1M3iH's otherwise very elegant solution. Right now I just have this very compact USB hub being powered by a 5V line coming through a 3mm hole in the bottom corner of the cubby.

fair enough. i've been back and forth since reading this about whether or not i want to try exactly what he did or if i want to do just two plain 12v sockets to give me more flexibility...right now i'm leaning towards doing the same thing (2x usb + 1 12v), because it will give me the ability to have two USB for the phone dock, two USB for music/dashcam, and a 12v socket for my xm unit (if i don't just hardwire that to behind the console entirely), but i'm still up in the air. the crappy thing is that i can't have true fast charging for my phone and my wife's phone because we both have oneplus devices, and there's no right angle dash charging cable...

 

[crackers8199]

My console removal. I had trouble with my new sockets being flush mounted like you show in the pictures. I could not get my console back in with the sockets flus mounted. It was probably my poor skills but I would try to find the most shallow socket you can find.

it looks like you mounted the 12v significantly lower than what @1st Model 3 in Huntsville did (and which matches what i've seen in other videos on youtube)...i can't say for sure since i haven't done mine yet, but my guess is that is probably why.