Dasboard Lifting from front vents

[Razor]

Hi

My 1993 Camry's dashboard has lifted off the front windscreen vent, you can see the yellow foam from outside.

Can I fix this without taking the dash off?

Thanks in advance

[Rolla Boy]

Common problem with this model, use to fix them all the time at my work...

Take your car to a Toyota dealer and ask them if anything can be done...

[Whip Cracker]

Seen that happen before as well.

Consider it a DIY custom job :P Go into Spotlight or a custom car shop and get some of the fake leather material they use to sheet interiors on cars and do something different :)

[manu_boy]

I had the same problem with mine, i ended up getting this guy who restores and repairs material (like couches, furniture, restores old cars, etc) sorta like a handyman... we working on it for a while .... what we ended up doing, was pretty much DIY style,..... we got a heavy duty glue, tryed to glue down what we could, held it till it dried, then it was a matter of getting a paint that of simliar colour to the dash and ended up painting the more noticable bits of the yellow foam and it is now not recognisable, so it seemed to do the trick... when i get home i can get some photos of the finished product if you want... where are you based? coz if you are in melbourne i can find the number of the guy that did mine... he was reasonable too...

when i did the research i came across people saying that they would need to take the windscreen out and charge excess amounts, and other people said to buy a carpet for the dash but i dont like the look (or idea) of them, so yeah.... let me know if you want either the number or the photos?

[Austprodriver]

Surprise, surprise. It didn't take long to run out of fingers and toes to count how many Camry dashboards were lifting around the windscreen defogger vents not long after I purchased mine brand new in April of 1993.

The most common way of fixing the dash, as I've been told by numerous auto trimmers, is to take out the windscreen, and re-glue the dash. Once the new glue has been applied, there are weights placed across the entire length of the defogger vent. This has to sit for at least 10 hours odd, before everything can be reassembled, i.e, the defogger vents reinserted, and the windscreen refitted.

This will cost around $150 to $200, and the problem should not reoccur.

The warranty repair is to replace the dash, with better, lift prevention vents, and better dash sealing. However, Toyota Australia was very coy about letting people know about the dash problem, saying that it was not covered by warranty. I first mentioned the problem to my dealer (in the Morningside region of Brisbane) in Sept of 93, and they denied that there was any solution, warrantable or otherwise.

Throughout the next 4 odd years, I noticed a considerable number of 93-95 model Camrys without the lifting problem. When I did a bit of research through a few Toyota service departments, there in fact, was a warranty on the dashboard, which went for a total of 4 years, irrespective of the manufacturers statutory warranty(2 years/50000km, at the time in 1993).

I went back to my service department in Morningside, and they finally admitted that there was a warranty on the dash. Because the 4 year period was up, in 97, the claim was denied. I then told them that I will be calling my solicitor, and I will be taking them to task on warranty fraud. "It will now be a matter for the courts to decide," I said."Don't ever take a customer of 11 years for granted, or attempt to swindle me ever again. This will cost you, be assured."

I received a call from the dealer principal, stating that the dealership would wear the cost of the replacement dashboard. He apologised for everything that happened. But, admittedly, things were never the same since.