Jesstzn

Before you jump ship .. check out other brands ... customer service is an issue you see all over ... VW is supposedly horrible too.. mind you I have not seen that.

pinito

When I do, it will be for the Lexus GS300 AWD.

Will likely do so in about six months (too much going on now) - may sell first and buy when 07 GS is out (no more first year cars for me!) or I may keep TL until the 07 GS comes out and trade it in.

Batman-JGII

It was either Vanilla or Jasmine Mist. Those are some damn good air fresheners

MichaelBenz

iTrader: (2)

Just got a bottle last night at the store after reading your post and taking your recommendation. Stuff works great! Highly recommend.

Maguiars NXT Tech Protecectant.....works wonders! Thanks for the recommendation!

trancemission

Im sorry Jogan but @ the dice.....

JoganJani

to you for lauhing.

Anybody know what it says?

cable2

I too was getting some serious fadding going on even with using 303.
I tried the Maguiars NXT Tech yesterday evening, so far so good, it seems to have evened out the areas around the airbag, the white patchy areas have all gone away, if it stays looking good I will switch to the Maguiars and hopefully it will be something less I have to worry about.

XtraKrispy

I just picked up some Meguirs NXT product. My car is only 1 1/2 weeks old so I'm going to try some preventative treatment.

TBone2004

No shine?

I passed on it in store cause it said something about shine - so I put it back.

It stays flat?

DMZ

The reason I prefer flat finsh on the dash is that a gloss finish will reflect on the windshield which can be distracting while driving.

smd

I went to my dealer today to fix numerous issues, and spoke to them again about my ever fading dash. They said that Acura finally issued a TSB on the Dash Fade. Their big solution is to clean it off and spray the Honda Dash Cleaner on it that lasts for a few weeks. Pretty sad for a $ 35k car. Should never have sold my BMW................

cable2

If you wipe it on let it sit for a few minutes then wipe off the excess you won't get a shine.
Even so I don't think we should have to do this for a car in this price range.
Maybe if enough people complain Acura will addresses this issue.

KeithL

I came from 2 Infiniti's and their Customer Service was leaps and bounds ahead on Acura. Between poor cusotmer service and clearly cheap cost cutting interior this is my first and last Acura. Hell I'll takeka Hyundai over this crappy TL! This TL has so many quality issues, bad tires, head liner issues, fading and squeaky dash, buzzing rear deck, noisy center tail light, and on and on. Never seen such poor quality in a Japanese car, and I have owned numerous of them. My 87 Sentra for $6500 had better quality than this $32k Acura!

pinito

AMEN!

TLuvinit

I bought my Silver/Black Navi in April 2005 and first noticed the dash fade around August. After 8 weeks of procrastinating it was really starting to look terrible (milky/ashy surface described previously) - so I found this thread - read all entries to date and decided to try Zaino's Z-10 "Leather in A Bottle" conditioner. I treated the dash with a generous coat early October and followed it up 3 weeks later with a second. My dash looked great after the first coat and I noticed no additional fade before I applied the second. Currently the dash looks practically new.

A new thread mentioned that Acura might have released a service bulletin on the dash fade problem. Perhaps they will eventually get around to offering a repair/replacement. However - if this Zaino product continues to work as well as it has been... I'll take that over the squeaks and rattles a dash replacement will result in.

Recommend trying the Zaino product - it seems to work well. Will post again in several months with an update on durability.

abirvalg

i know i'm the one who recommended zaino ...however
for me it started to work strange after several applications
may be i over applied it or something
it was starting to get blotchy all over the dash
it wasn't faded ... just very uneven
so i tried other things

i gave a second chance to NXT
if i wipe it off right away i get "milk" all over the dash in in a few hours
if i let it sit it's pretty damn shiny!
but wiping it after a day still didn't work well, as it tends to wipe off unevenly
again leaving me with the same look or worse as zaino
mind you i'm a perfectionist in many aspects of my life not just my car
i want my dash to be one color and not shiny

so here's a couple other things i've tried so far

Pro Honda (the one dealers are supposed to use)
well i don't know what they do with it
but the only way i can see that stuff being applied evenly is by soaking the dash in a tub full of it
it dries out to a fairly matte finish, but i found no way to make an even application
and i tried really hard

NUVinyl - very watery, leaves NO gloss whatsoever, as a matter of fact leaves such a dull looking surface you will start thinking about may be putting some gloss on
dries out on the spot
leaves you with fairly OEM looking dash in a bad meaning of OEM ...
you'll see all the blemishes again but it won't be as milky as before
which made me think that this may be an excellent stuff to remove all the other chemicals i've put on my dash

KIT protectant (yellow spray bottle with racing flags)
i think this one might have been a lucky guess
it's only been 3 days, but i've never seen my dash being so even, not even after the first zaino
i applied it right after NUvinyl, went on a bit hard , it was beading as if the surface was very water repellent (which i imagine it was) but this one could be wiped right off or could be left on, either way it gives some luster but no shine and definitely evens out the blemishes not just the milky veins

i'm going to see how it holds and post updates
all in all i've decided to find the right stuff
cause even if one day i decide to replace the dash i want to know how to keep it in a good shape

pinito

Complained to ACS and got a call from Alan - yet again proving how WORTHLESS ACS is. In essence, he ignored the fact the DPSM blew off our scheduled meeting. He told me he was sorry the DPSM blew me off only after I pointed how it clearly shows a lack of care for the customer.

He went on to say that I had to put up with the fading until Acura develops a long term solution, in which case they will contact me. However, he was not aware of Acura working on a long-term solution.

ACS and their total luxury care is total BS.

Obey

I want to keep this thread going///// I am calling tomorrow to complain not only about the dash fade, but the dealership that backed my car into a parked car during an oil change. Yes thats right, my car is in the body shop, thanks to my fantastic Orange County California Acura dealer. If Acura is overwhelmed with calls, maybe it will expedite the fix! Thanks

pinito

Good luck, just be ready for the attitude and their normal "we're sorry but we are not going to do d*ck".

cable2

Anything short of replacing the whole dash I don't see what else they can do!
I'm pretty upset too about a dash that's fadding on a $33,000 car but I'm not sure I want the Acura tech pulling the dash cover off and breaking or scratching other parts, not to mention the rattles after they have finished! The car will never be the same no matter how many times you take it back to the service department.
It's going to be interesting to see how Acura decides to handle this one.

abirvalg

by the way NUVinyl as a "primer" and Kit as a conditioner is holding up good so far
better than any other stuff i tried

Andrew McCarthy

Hi guys- new to the board here with a couple dash-related questions...

Do you use the 303, etc. over the rubbery fine waffle surface that's over the top of the driver's side instrument panel?

Mine has some white spots on it that were there when I got the car and I haven't been able to get them off with water.

Also, the dealer's body shop made a small scuff mark in this area when they tried to remove it. Of course they said the spots were taken care of but the spots remain and now the scuff- not even where the spots were! It looks like someone swiped it with fine sandpaper. Almost unnoticeable- but still!

Anyone know how I might get rid of the spots and/or scuff?

Any advice on that would be appreciated!

CFIMEI

My dealer put leather conditioner on my dash to try and hide the spots (and a scuff mark that they called a defect), I noticed the spots a couple of days after the initial delivery, I brought the car back and they said "they would do whatever was necessary to make me happy", well their only offer was to replace the dash!

I talked to the service manager who said they were using Lexol Leather Conditioner on the dash.

Lister00169

303 once every 3-4 months has kept my fade at bay. I've had my '05 TL since Sept '05 and 303 has done the job

Oh, and I use it over the entire dash, including that waffle mesh area.

CCogan

The regional Acura rep here recommended Turtle Wax "2001 Super Protectant" for the dash. I use it about every 90 days or so on my '04 TL, and the dash looks great.

CCogan

I forgot to add that before I used the Turtle Wax 2001, my dash looked pretty bad.

I would try anything & everything before having my dash replaced! Believe me, they never go back together quite like new, and there will be a lot of squeaks and rattles. Just treat the dash occasionally with one of the products mentioned and accept the issue as an idiosyncracy of your TL. All vehicles have them.

subinf

i still dont have anyh problems with the stuff the dealer sold me, that honda cleaner. as mentioned above by another member it is difficult to get an even application (and that is kind of annoying) but its been three months? since i came back from the dealer and have not had any more issues with the fading.

kosh2258

For those that haven't looked at the sticky on the main page that has a number of Acura Service Newsletters, here's the one that discusses the cause and fix for the "faded" dash.

http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SN/B051200.PDF

There's a cleaning step that needs to be done, before applying a treatment or protectant, to remove the residue that makes the dash appear faded.

Xpditor

It says "I could've had a V8"

Bobzmcishl

I like your Mustang. I have a 66 convertible, as well as my Acura TL. I don't have any dash problems on my 40 year old Mustang! What get's me if how they sluff off their problems on the customer. As long as car is under warranty they should do the cleaning every time it is brought in for service. Also why is this still a problem on the 2006 TL? It should not take three years to fix an issue like this. It should have been rectified on the late 2004 TL's. As much as I like Honda reliability I am not happy with this situation.

subinf

^
I love all Mustangs built before 1969, my girlfriends dad has a '66 and its beautiful. And no kidding about the dash fade on them, convt. parked in the sun still looks new x amount of years later.
Anyway, when I took my car in for some warranty work they took care of the dash, but blamed it on me for using an alcohol based product and poor upkeep. They used the Honda cleaner the first time and recommended that I buy it and continue to use when needed. I've done that and it has not been much of a problem, just so long as one area does not look darker than the other.

I do agree that by 2006 Acura should have gotten their shit together and figured out what type of material was causing the fade/dandruff/etc. In any event, hopefully the response in this thread has reduced the 'pain in the ass' factor to where we can drive without being distracted by the odd looking dash.

honda nut

iTrader: (1)

I started using vinylex made by lexol when new. At first it did not seem to work, but after multiple applications it started to look better, now after a few more applications it looks great! Also now it seems like applications are only needed once a month or so. I apply it using a paper towel soaked with vinylex. Now the dash and the other vinyl parts have the same shine.