So I purchased my 2010 GX a little over 2 years ago. After a little time I noticed the dash had a small bulge near the passenger speaker. I didn’t give it much mind, and wasn’t even sure it was something wrong… as of late it has gotten a little more bulgy and other parts of the area appeared to be pushing up as well. I did some googling as I was concerned it was the airbag, found a recall on the bag inflator so I brought it to the dealership… yes I know, it’s the first time since I’ve had it that I brought it to a dealership.
Prognosis: air bag is fine, it even had the inflator replaced as part of the recall in 2017. They said the dash is actually warping. The service team had never seen a GX dash so this.
Take a guess at the price to replace the dash….
I’ll give you a second….
1700$ part and 1700$ labor…
Yup…
Been looking into getting the part myself and replacing, or a dash cover, or just letting it ride as I’m the only one that notices it.
Here is a reference pic.
View attachment 3459120
My friend
@Roody dash not warped
View attachment 3459124
Anyone else have this issue? suggestions on procuring a dash?
Who’s pulled their dash? Is it really 10hrs of shop time??
This is long but may be worth the read.
First off, sorry to see that happen to your dash.
Second, probable cause. As I've mentioned on this forum before that heat kills polymers (a.k.a. plastics) As an R&D engineer in the medical device field, one of the tests we have to do is "accelerated shelf life aging" tests to ensure the materials and bonding adhesives used don't breakdown being on hospitals shelves too long, generally for less than 5 years, depending upon product. How it's done is by putting product in an oven at about 86º F to 104º F (35° C to 40º C) for "X" number of months and a percentage of humidity to accelerate the aging process. There are calculations to determine exact numbers for temp, length of time and humidity needed. The "X" factor is determined by how long the product is rated to be stored on a shelf, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, etc. The longer the shelf time, the longer the "X" factor in months for aging the product in the oven.
Okay, now with that preamble said, guess what happens
every summer when you park your car, roll up ALL the windows and leave it in the sun all day at work?
You are literally accelerating the aging of your cars interior! After just 20 minutes on an 80-degree day, the CDC says the inside of a car can hit 109º F. After 40 minutes, it hits 118º F, and after an hour, it can hit 123º F. The aging process mentioned above is usually, even on the long side not more than 6 months. Imagine ALL summer long, year after year in your car! Having a RTT that covers the sunroof on my rig, I ALWAYS leave my sunroof open since nothing can blow into it nor can any rain or morning dew drip in, so it's always venting. My rig doesn't fit the garage so it's outside 24/7 and so far (it's a 2013) no issues with any of the interior.
The solution before the damage:
You should crack ALL your windows and tilt open the sunroof! As we all remember from grade school science, heat rises and cracking all the windows along with your sun roof tilted open will vent extreme heat from the car. And yes, tilted film on the windows is a biggie also! Not to mention when you and/or your wife are wearing shorts, you're not as likely to burn the back of your legs on the seats or hands on the steering wheel.
Now the solution AFTER the damage:
Not sure if this will work, but since you're already thinking of replacing the dash, this doesn't hurt to give it a try.
Get some wood or something similar that would fit on your dash over the bulging area, then something heavier like the weights in the corner of the garage you always promise to use but never get to. Get a heat gun. You're using the wood so you don't leave an impression of whatever heavy weight you use on the soft heated dash.
Heat up the bulge with the heat gun and when you can press down with your finger without burning yourself, place the wood on top of the bulge and then a weight sufficient enough to hold the wood down on top. Let it cool. If you have an air compressor, you can cool it faster blowing cool air on it.
Try that a few times on the offending areas and see if that helps get it back into shape. You may have to tray it a couple times to find the right heat to soften it up enough to deform again.
Note, you don't want to over heat the dash. You don't want it so soft that the wood will leave an impression when you weight it down.
Also be careful of the windshield. Maybe use some painters tape and tape some sort of heat barrier to the inside of the windshield, perhaps a couple of pot holders from the kitchen?
