Hman

I wish I saw this thread last year. I have an 03 GX that only has 50k miles on it and is garage kept. I work from home so this vehicle rarely sits outside in the sun. We have no children and there has been no hitting or kicking the dash. A 3 inch vertical crack developed over the glove box. Obviously a defect since the car is always in the garage. After being told my extended warranty did not cover such an issue I made a phone call to corporate in California. Long story short, they provided the new dash free of charge (it would have been $700 in parts) and I had to pay labor which my dealer gave me a break on and came to $300. I was worried about the fit on such radical surgery but the new dash is seemless and looks great. I still feel that I should not have had to pay for this at all. Their trim clause is a joke. I have owned serveral cars in my life, usually luxury European models, and i have NEVER had this mysterious crack in a dashboard before.

Another issue that pisses me off is this. The two lighted seat heater buttons near the shifter. One of them does not glow/light anymore but still works fine. I thought perhaps it was a fuse or a bulb went out. Took to dealership on last oil change and they told me the entire switch needed to be replace for $250 lol. I will drive with it dark.

My master key also blew apart when I simply turned it in the ignition to start the car.

mann777

If you actually see this forum discussion on the Front dash crack, the affected models are 2003/2004 & 2005 mostly. This purely is an production issue that lacked the quality of the skin used on the dash. I did my best to tell them, but they just did not care enough, as this was at the early stages and not many had such issues, When the specialists had a look on my dash, all were puzzled, and all they could ask me was hows and whens. Long story short, I purchased the dash and did the job myself. They quoted me 1100/- where I could get the dash for 400/- It was the labor which was expensive, And I said to hell with these jokers, As this was not rocket science to dissassemble or assemble. As my career has been with jet engines assembling which is highly complicated, I suppose this was a peice of cake to do it this small peice of dash, You just have to enjoy doing it with patience.

volman3

To follow up on my earlier post: Went to the dealership where the regional parts and service rep met me. He and a couple of other Lexus "reps" looked at the dash, asked me a few basic questions like how many miles, how long have you had it ......Anyway the guy told me that he was going to give me $500 toward the purchase and installation of a new dash pad but had to have it done at a Lexus dealership. They quoted me $1106 for the part and $320 for labor, grand total of $1565 w/tax. I walked because I thought this was a little on the low side due to A: the car being less than 5 years old and B: the car has less than 70K miles. With Lexus reputation and build quality, the dash should NOT have cracked period under warranty or any other time. Think I will have to fix it just to sell. Weighing what little options I have. DISSAPPOINTED

Randy20g

Another issue that pisses me off is this. The two lighted seat heater buttons near the shifter. One of them does not glow/light anymore but still works fine. I thought perhaps it was a fuse or a bulb went out. Took to dealership on last oil change and they told me the entire switch needed to be replace for $250 lol. I will drive with it dark.


Hman, the bulbs are a few bucks ($5-$6) and take 1 min to replace. I have been through a few of these.

TexasGS

My wifes 2004 with 49,000 miles on it now has the cracked dash problem. It started about a month ago and spread like wild fire. One day no cracks, next day cracks above the glove box and above the IP. Once it started, it hasn't stopped. Now there a cracks have spread completely from end to end. I will take some photo's and post them shortly. Crazy this is happening. The interesting thing about this, is that we were looking at purchasing a GX that was owned by "BURL" on this site that had a cracked dash. I talked to BURL on the phone about it and figured is was worth taking a chance on his GX with the cracked dash because he kept extreme care of the truck. When we called the dealer back about buying it, his GX was alread sold. So, we ended up finding a nice local pre-owned in Dallas without the cracked dash. We have had the car about a year and a half now and suddenly...cracked dash. My wife is not someone to mess with..what wife's are?, so she will be all over Lexus corporate about this. I will post back once we get some info from them.

burl

Hey there Texas GS. Sorry to hear about your dash problems. As an update, the Mercedes we bought last July has just turned one year old...NO problems, never been back to the dealer except for oil changes.

Katizzo

Fingers crossed that my dash never cracks!

Snouti

My '04 GX (75k miles) is in the same fate... cracked dash and instr panel. After reading this thread, I can understand the frustration. Mine GX started to crack 3 weeks ago. I took the vehicle to Parkplace Lexus in Grapevine, TX. They were polite with my concern and offered to take some pictures to send to corp. Interesting that they did not mentioned "we've never seen this before". I honestly think they have dealt with this situation before and offered me a quick response... we'll take some pics and you should call Lexus 800 customer service. I smiled and walked away knowing the outcome. Even if Lexus offered me the part for free but I have to pay labor... I would reject based on principle.

My hope now is that Lexus will fix this problem free of charge... I doubt it after reading this thread. Oh well... it's just car.

Lojak

My 03 GX also has this problem. Mine is cracked from driver side to passenger side. I actually just purchased my GX a few weeks ago with the problem in tact and since I once worked at a dealership I figured I could get this fixed by one the the leather repair guys and get a better deal on the purchase, but it seem this fix is not worth it. I agree with others that this seems like some bad dash panels that Lexus should pick up the tab on!

TexasGS

Well, my wife took the GX into Park Place Lexus in Plano to have the rear end clunk TSB fixed and showed the service advisor the dash. He said they would order/provide the dash at no cost but we would have to pay the labor. If I remember correctly they said about $700. We are thinking about it right now and will most likely have it replaced for the $700 deal. We got such a good deal on the truck to begin with that this is a small price to pay to have an almost perfect truck.

twocik13

" think the talk of a class action lawsuit is far-fetched. The part is not really safety related and if it's out of warranty Toyota has no legal obligation to replace it. It shouldn't have cracked if it's been treated properly (no damaging "protectants" applied to it), but IMO Toyota isn't "legally" obligated to replace parts that are out of warranty. Mine isn't cracked despite spending almost its entire life outside in Florida, but even if it were, I would not participate in any class action lawsuit. I might be mad, but I wouldn't participate in a lawsuit."



Think again, these are harmful chemicals in this material that we're breathing in, not to mention our baby's that ride with us. Sign us up !

Our dash is destroyed and tried having it repaired from a local company, didn't work. Then we were told from a guy that this type of material has chemicals in it that are very very harmful to breath in just like saw dust, drywall, etc.. Lexus or should I say toyota recall you need to come forth and fix our cars, how much money did you make off of us anyway $$$$$$, should be enough repair our cars so no one here gets sick from this crap !! Maybe I'll see a doctor too, then see where we're at... god who knows what's in this stuff

mann777

Well the Main culprit behind the chemical Composition of the Dashboard are Thermoplastic Olefin, which when open and exposed, induces bad odor which are harmful pollutants bad for lungs when inhaled. These are not bio-gradable plastics, so hazards always remain. Take my advice, Don't waste haggling, have them replaced or replace it yourself, you will live longer.

diamondrb

I have an 04 GX with multiple cracks. Lexus in Hawaii has refused to help. Not unusual as Lexus has a monopoly in Hawaii. They and many others are owned by Servco and they really don't care if you eat s&$t and die, IMHO.

I would be interested in where I can buy the dash for $400.

Aloha

mann777

I had them ordered in Singapore thru my business partner and he had them shipped.

diamondrb

Sounds interesting. Any way I can get a line on the source? The least expensive I've found in Hawaii is $1049.75 through another dealer at cost. As they say here, "lucky you live Hawaii."