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-   -   USB port dislodged - Any quick & cheap fix? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-entertainment/217947-usb-port-dislodged-any-quick-cheap-fix.html)

My parents have a Hyundai i10 Sportz AT (2012 model). I just got my mother a new phone and she has this new found passion for songs while driving, partly from sitting in my i10 (we have 4 in the family, long story).

So I went about trying to fulfil this wish of hers but to my amusement, I found out that the USB port (the actual inner part) has been dislodged from its position.



Now the FM modulator and all are present as alternatives, but the voice clarity is always dicey plus my mum is not much interested to spend any money on it anyhow.

I am home on vacation and would love to have a DIY on this (probably the PCB needs to be pushed back into place). The entire assembly costs 4K on oriparts, but again I'll have to present the bill to my parents.

Anyone has done any DIY on this? Or any cost effective way out the someone tried and got successful in doing so? Tried looking up videos for getting to this part but somehow I was unsuccessful.

USB port can be re-positioned. This would be the cheapest and the easiest to do.

I bought a used i10 for a little while (nice little car). It had this aftermarket gear lock which protruded out and used to hit my left leg. I too off the panel around the gear lever. A few screws and 4 clips is all there is to it. I looked at the parts catalog of the floor panel on boodmo to get an idea of where to pull it out, and later removed the gear lock myself.

You can try the same to access the USB port. The link has the part number too so you can order the combined port if it is irreparable.

Just go ahead with the DIY, have fun.

can you position it back using a glue-gun to fix the port ? or are the connections broken ? Alternately, a USB cable extender so that the pen-drive can be kept at a convenient place and not fixed. (Fixed, sticking out pen-drives can be prone to breakage if we brush against it too hard).

I tried to put my data cable into the port but the edges of the assembly limit its reach. The USB port is at the farthest back inside the assembly. I will try to open the plastic casing around the gearbox tomorrow and see if something works.

I am presuming its the locks only which were broken. In case the USB port is fine, I'll stick it with a glue gun. I'll try to get a USB extender which is not having any plastic casing.

Alternatively, hopefully the Aux port should not be damaged. An Aux cable will do just fine too.

I should have been more clear there - I was refering to opening that board and then fixing the port from the inside to the back of the board.

Aux ? I have never had seen good output with Aux ports. The volume is just too low.

Typically this is how the central panel is taken apart:
Take off the gear knob, typically by turning. The flat bit of the central partition will have to be pulled up. The divides should be behind the gear lever between the seats, and in front where it can be seen in the picture. Use a plastic flat tool to pry, not a screw driver else you'll scuff it bad. Then it's just a question of hot gluing the port, if it has only shifted.
That's how it was in my hyundais.
The better way would be to stop at any road side mechanic. It should be a 5 minute job, tops.

If the port cannot be fixed from inside, I would suggest buying a male to female USB cable and extend the USB connection. This way the pressure wont be applied on the panel and this would prevent further damage.

From the pic, it looks like the circuit board (or assembly) inside has shifted, because I can see that the aux port has moved also. Dismantle and reposition the board to align with the openings as others have suggested.

The other thing I can suggest is to get one of these tiny USB drives that do not jut out much. They look like the Wi-Fi dongle that comes with a wireless mouse. I had to run around to get the USB port replaced after it was torn from the circuit board after a protruding USB drive was accidentally hit by a laptop bag. Finally got it replaced at a mobile repair shop.

A L-USB extender cable will work too.

Lots of good ideas here to fix the port.
Once you are able to pry the casing out of place, you should be able to jiggle just the USB port into place. The constant wear on the USB port can cause it to move out of place. The amount of jiggle depends on the quality of connectors used for the USB port. Once that is done, I would use a hot glue (thermo plastic adhesive) they work great on small electronics devices to hold in place. You can also create a small rectangular cylinder out of a plastic bottle, and jam it from the other side of the gap, to keep the port in place. Once it is in place, connect a USB port extender, and use that from then on.

I see such port misalignment all the time on the development boards I use at work. In my case, I just make the hole in the outer casing bigger, as I do not care much for how it looks. You can do this too, if you have issues removing the casing. Just heat a safety pin, and trim the edges of the casing to reveal the entire USB port.