dash board problems..opinions please.

[Rick]

Ok now that you mention it the previous Beetle we had, on the top part of the door panels where you would rest your arm while cruising had the paint comming off of the plastic. It was more like a plasticy coating over the black plastic underneath, but it was peeling off. The guy at the service counter said it was very common and they ordered a lot of them. The door handles also had the same thing going on so we replaced about half of each door panel (luckily they sell them in pieces).

GB287,
Yes it smells like Crayons. I posted this a little whlie back (no odor eliminator worked either). Apparently on VW's they hot spray a coat of wax on the floor boards (like thick candle wax, not car wax) for sound insulation and to prevent rusting. Well in 01 and early 02 they had a tainted batch. It didn't smell right away, but rather after it got hot enough to remelt and absorb in to the carpet pad above it. It's really not a bad smell but it gets disgusting after a while. It absorbs in your skin and clothes. Taking a shower and changing clothes is the only way to get rid of it off of you.

To get it out of the car you have to gut the interior, this includes seats, dash, lower trim and central wiring harness then scraping all of it up. For someone who knows what they're doing apparently this takes at least a full day to do. Then you have to put some sort of noise insulation back in and sprinkle some baking soda under to get what you missed. I was thinking a hot high pressure steam bath would have worked pretty well personally. I offered to go for it, but the parental units wouldn't let me. So if you happen to be in the market for a 01 or 02 volkswagen and it smells like crayons run.

BTW, it bothers me that it doesn't bother them.

[gb387]

Very interesting rick. Never heard of such a thing.


Sorry for getting off track in the post.

[2000]

Originally posted by Aurora40
I think most interior plastics are painted. It's more like spray-dyed than "painted". It isn't like the exterior paint. But I believe this is quite common, it's just rare that it fails and you can see it.

I worked at a used car dealership for a little while I was "unemployed" (I obviously wasn't actually unemployed, I worked at a used car dealer, but I wasn't employed in my profession), and can recall how just about every X5 that came in had the color chipped off of the inside door pulls. It seemed that area was very prone to chipping. They would get refinished/painted at the store before they went out on the lot (was a CarMax, so they do a lot in-house).

well I think that helps , that should prove that #40 should not hurt the paint/dye right? good explanation on the paint.

[2000]

ok, here's what the dealer told me. all gm dashes, from the first one in the vehicle to any new replacments ordered, come "dyed" from detriot. the dye is painted on as aurora40 has all ready pointed out. (thanks!) so it does not go all the way threw the plastic, as it does on other parts (not sure why they do this with some parts and not others?) he said it is very rare for it to fail, but has seen it 2 or 3 times before. he did say that the dye is suposse to bond with the pastic better than paint so it is different, but they both do the same thing. just thought so of you might want to know this.

[2000]

as a final follow up, I recieved the new dash and you can't tell a difference in the new from the old, so the last guy I spoke to must of had the info right. I'm happy with it, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm propaply going to worry that it's going to happen again.