Good idea with the letter and the local news. One of the news teams does a piece on consumer problems. I hadn't thought of that.

Regarding my friend's purchase, I told him to get it written in his contract but they talked him out of it but assured him it was covered and he wouldn't have a problem. Too inexperienced with a good sales pitch and the dealer's pressure.

sorry to hear about your dash. maybe you should swap your dash with your friends, have him take his up there and say " fix this problem you said i wouldnt have." may be a pain in the ass but worth a shot! good luck with everything else.!

That idea would probably work if he were willing to do it. I have know idea what is involved with taking out a dash though.

well.. from what I understand. Drop the glove, drop the steering column (6 bolts), remove the center console trim, remove the center speaker (PITA) and the seats are optional but the work is easier if you remove both driver & passenger seats. The rest is pretty intuitive, be careful with the rear air vent, reuse the upper dash support on the new dash.. it'll take you a day in the garage if you go easy and take your time. I'm thinking of doing mine but I'm so broke right now I'm going to do the fix and see how it works out first. I can post the real step-by-step from the service manual if you're interested.

i also have a 2004 and have 2 same crack as chapu in the same place !! the ex owner told me that it crack because of the armoral- !!! they don't have a recall on this ????

It's a defect and they don't want to deal with it. It has nothing to do with the Armorall.

Don't use Armor-all on your dash. It's a shine and it really doesn't protect as it advertises.. also rumored to cause damage from what I'm hearing. The dealership will say anything to you.. bottom line.. you're going to end up paying them if you want them to fix it.

chapu saludos mira soy de Puerto Rico tengo tu mismo carro 2004 silver negro por dentro y tengo el mismo problema que tu pero mi carro acaba de cumplir las 50K dime a donde fuistes a ver si voy yo tambien y se puede hacer algo pq definitivo que esto es un defecto de fabrica y deverian hacer un recall !!!

Hey hermano .. No son muchos aquí hablan español, pero le sugiero ir a Acura y ver si repair en tu tablero de instrumentos gratis. Si no arreglar el tablero de instrumentos gratuita, a continuación, las opciones se limitan a la reparación de vinilo o de instalar un nuevo tablero de instrumentos. Instalación de un nuevo tablero de instrumentos por sí mismo será de 1 / 2 días de trabajo. Te informaremos de todas la actualización y la bienvenida a Acurazine! - les pido disculpas por mi pobre español ..

^ FYI guys the mods are going to edit your posts. They are going to advice you to use english only.

Check your emails, I have a story regarding that.....with a happy ending in my case.

sorry about talking in spanish, i will try to go to acura to get it fix for free, since this is obious a problem of these cars mostly seen in the 2004 TL, the thing is that my car just got to 50K miles, but i will let know acura that i know that this is a problem with tl, and i am also very concern that in an accident the air bag could not deploy properly. so let see i will let you know !! thanks !!

Hi chapu I add you as friend but since i am new in the forum i can't recieve p.m. or emails righ now please write me to manuelfs2000@yahoo.com i was going to go to acura in the kennedy but since you have the same problem as me i think that is beter to go to the same place you did so they realice that is a factory problem. An may be I get lucky who knows jeje

This is a really interesting thread with lots of info..

Could all of you who stated their individual problems with the dash summarize their result and what they had to do to get it fixed?

I have a co-worker here in PR who is thinking about getting an 04 WDP with about 60K miles on it.. only one owner all service done at Acura dealers and has the extended warranty on it.. it is owned by an older woman and her asking price is 16.5K which he managed to lower to 15K but he is worried about the dash issue because when he told me he found it he was all pumped until he saw the dash cracked in a couple of places.. I told him I would try to research a bit for him on Acurazine..

I know that this thread would be of a lot of help to any potential buyer but it would be 20 times more helpful to any current 04-06 owner experiencing this problem..

It's a recurring problem on some TL's so the info should be pretty much handy so anyone can solve this as others have done it.

So maybe something like..

MEMBER - YEAR - MILES - DEALERS INVOLVED - MANAGERS CONTACTED

that is a great idea i think that i was the only one with this problem and i was willing to fix it myself but since i am concern that this is a problem with this car i will fight until they repair it!

El ban if you are RUM_ACCORD_H22 in C.N.
give me a call you have P.M. there !!

TL on "20":

Check your e-mails, I'm also from Puerto Rico and I have some info for you.

TL on "20":

Upload them again, they are tiny

damn you guys.. that is the most extensive dash cracking I have seen yet..

done !!!!

Did you guys notice the cracking around the airbag first? I have two strange cracks near the air bag but not right over the seam and not as extensive. I suggest getting a window visor to protect the dash when you get it fixed.

yeah its sucks!! having a $40k acura TL dash looking like the grand canyon lol this is not a 1982 toyota 1.8 to have the dash like this !!!

Two different cars and the crack is exactly the same.

Yes, my first crack was the one in top of the airbag.

i purshase the car like that i am worried that it will get worst and righ now my car is tinted 20% and is 85% the time in the shade !! and the little time is in the sun i have the sun roof tilt and the window visor!!

segreba I am going to print that picture that 2 pictures is worth gold !!!!! that is the picture i need to present in acura jeje

use 05Smoke_GreyTL's pic too..

that sucks, I had to replace the dashboard when I get the car of the auction, the dashboard was $723.00

please all the users that have pic. of the dash crack please post the pictures this will help me alot whith the reclamation at acura !!

Have any of you guys seen this? My car is a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle and they don't want to honor the 1year/12,000 extra warranty

http://www.acura.com/content/pdf/Warranty.pdf

Looks like the common place to crack is around the passenger airbag; the portion around the airbag is thin or 'pre cut' so the airbag can bust through it

How often do you guys have your cars out in the sun?

will these cracks can affect the airbag deployment ???

No, the airbags are controlled by accelerometers which are triggered by high forces attributed to collisions. The dashboard cracks are a cosmetic issue

I have an 04 with 37K miles, Last week I notice a crack that is starting to form on the lower right corner of the airbag. There is also another crack on the driver side. I will take pictures today or tomorrow. I havent taken the car to the Acura dealer here in miami, I guess i'll have to take it to see if they replace it for free. I recommend you guys buy a windshield sunshade so it doesn't get worst, at least that what i did.

I think this is not supposed to happen on a $40,000 dollar car, is there anyway we can make Acura to do a recall for this?

This was my dash:


Replaced w/o problems by Acura Service.

Yes, but you were still under warranty. I went to the Acura service center one week after my warranty was out, the car only had 35K miles.

Christopher Means - 2004 - 26,000 - McDaniels Acura, Hendrick Acura - Service managers and Acura Client Services - No solution to problem. They claim that the dash is "Trim" and not covered under the warranty.

sagreba32 - 2004 - 40,000 miles - Centro de servico Acura, Guyanabo PR - Malaret (se encarga de las garantías), Debrah Rodriguez (parts manager), Jose Carlos Villares (Vice President of sales), Santos Antonetti (Service Vice Prsident), (I have also called Corporate Acura to let them know about the problem)

They told me two weeks ago that they were going to pay for the dashboard but not for the labor. The labor is $500, and I don't want to pay that for a defect, in which Acura is supposed to pay for. I'm going to keep pushing and pushing. I've been dealing with this since Septmber.

Good luck