Dash warping issue (1 Viewer)

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JDUB fab

JDUB fab

Joined
Jun 29, 2021
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Location
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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.
D5D8B4E2-7E5C-45A7-8581-ADD7C902E348.jpeg

My friend @Roody dash not warped
010C7EB1-1A68-4B6D-846F-DE0F46455815.jpeg


Anyone else have this issue? suggestions on procuring a dash?
Who’s pulled their dash? Is it really 10hrs of shop time??
 
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I wonder if that's as a result of the previous airbag work? Maybe a connector/tab/latch/glue didn't get reinstalled properly and that section has just slowly worked its way up.

A buddy of mine with a Grand Cherokee has a similar issue and was quoted $3000 to replace the dashboard by the local Jeep dealer. I think replacing that piece likely just requires the complete, tedious disassembly and reassembly of the whole dash and with all the electronics and airbags involved it's not a simple task.
 
Wow that's crazy. I'm sure it was because of the airbag work. My 2010's dash is perfect and it spent its entire life minus the last 3 months in hot Texas in the sun and not in a garage. If a warping or buldging would be possible naturally it would of happened to my rig. That sucks you've got that issue. I'll be following to see the dash work as I'm curious on how to take it out myself. ( but for a different reason)

image.jpg
 
Yeah I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's more of a story here behind what happened before the GX was in Joel's ownership. @JDUB fab you ever have the windshield replaced or notice water/humidity intrusion in the corner by the passenger side? Anything look weird if you pull the glove box out?
 
Roody said:
Yeah I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's more of a story here behind what happened before the GX was in Joel's ownership. @JDUB fab you ever have the windshield replaced or notice water/humidity intrusion in the corner by the passenger side? Anything look weird if you pull the glove box out?
Click to expand...
Ooooh moisture! Yea that would make perfect sense!
 
JDUB fab said:
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??
Click to expand...
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?
 
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I’ll have to investigate, I do have a snorkel bolted the the A pillar in that side I’ve been wondering about that too.
The rig does sit for long lengths of time as it’s not my daily, I have a sun visor in the window.
 
Roody said:
Yeah I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's more of a story here behind what happened before the GX was in Joel's ownership. @JDUB fab you ever have the windshield replaced or notice water/humidity intrusion in the corner by the passenger side? Anything look weird if you pull the glove box out?
Click to expand...
With all due respect Roody, polymers, except nylon, polysaccharides (e.g., dextran, alginate, chitosan, agarose, and pullulan) and proteins (e.g., albumin, gelatin, collagen, lectin, legumine, and viciline). are hydrophilic, meaning they will swell and deform with moisture. Polypropylene (PP), Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), Styrene maleic anhydride (SMA), Polyphenylene Ether (PPE), and Polycarbonate (PC) are the materials commonly used in an automobile dashes, non of wich are are hydrophilic, so water/mositure doesn't affect them.
 
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r2m said:
With all due respect Roody, polymers, except Nylon and a few other materials which are hydrophilic, meaning they will swell and deform with moisture. Polypropylene (PP), Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), Styrene maleic anhydride (SMA), Polyphenylene Ether (PPE), and Polycarbonate (PC) are the materials commonly used in an automobile dashes, non of wich are are hydrophilic, so water/mositure doesn't affect them.
Click to expand...
Very interesting--- I learned something today! Disregard my prior comment/question then, lol.
 
I really cant imagine a dash replacement is 10 hours of actual labor, but I am sure it isnt easy. I have done it on a dodge neon once years ago and I would NOT do it again.
 
Book time and actual time aren't two in the same. And that goes both ways; Some jobs are more labor intensive than the OEM allocates (many warranty jobs fall under this) and some are less intensive and quicker to do than the OEM says (like replacing brakes). 10 hours for the GX... I wouldn't be surprised. I took out a good bit of my GX's dash to install the Grom CarPlay unit and it definitely seems to have some complexity to it.
 
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The good news is the wiring really isn't that bad when you compare it to other luxury cars or even your run of the mill Grand Cherokee or Tahoe. It would be time consuming but I bet you could do it yourself as long as you had a helper to help hold it while unbolting / bolting it up to the firewall.
 
MrTorgue said:
The good news is the wiring really isn't that bad when you compare it to other luxury cars or even your run of the mill Grand Cherokee or Tahoe. It would be time consuming but I bet you could do it yourself as long as you had a helper to help hold it while unbolting / bolting it up to the firewall.
Click to expand...
There's a decent likelihood that I would be said helper in this case... will start my stretching now to be limber enough for reaching the firewall by the time we tackle this lol
 
At least you guys don't have GX470s. Sometimes while sitting at a traffic light I'll see how far I can push my thumbnail into the soft/cracked dash (surprise: as far as I want). It's showing some foam now in a few spots. Luckily I snagged a OEM dash for $700 and will be installing it soon. Literally every GX470 (perhaps unless it's lived in Alaska....) needs a new dash at some point.

@JDUB fab , if it were my rig I'd try setting a weight on it and possibly lightly pre-heating the area with a heatgun.
 
Here is PDF from FSM of full dash removal

Undoubtedly shortcuts but this may give you an idea of what is needed.

I was gonna see if I could find any discussion on failed heater cores or AC evaporators but those issues are still quite rare on 460 and nothing triggers memory yet.

Closest thing I can find on CL is someone’s wife possibly losing a diamond earring in the dash and considering removal to find it. They apparently opted not to.


A bunch of 460 dash removal videos here (Search for GX 460 on the channel)

 
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