My Dealer Pulled The Speedometer Cowl Dash Piece For Me Today...

[Sensha]

I've been itching to do the Plasticizer trick on the interior shiny parts for some time now, but haven't had the time to do the prep work yet. However, after a long, long trip today, I took my

iQ

in to have the oil changed and tires rotated, so I asked my service advisor guy to have the cowl dashboard piece pulled for me. (I always worry about breaking clips and such if I can't see what's being pulled - it would be really nice if Toyota (and other makers) would publish guides for removing this stuff.)

Anyway, they pulled it for me (for free, with no broken clips or anything) and I brought it home to "shake it down", for there were some rattles emitting from the left side of the dash assembly. As the car structure was rattle free during the drive home, I planned to use my "electric toothbrush" method to chase down what in the cowling was rattling and buzzing.

This is done by putting the rubberized handle of an electric toothbrush against the free-standing part and let the vibrations transmitted into the part sort out the buzzing elements. I've used this for years on audio components, and the shaking imparted by the toothbrush invariably gets the shaking started just fine.

However, while at a stoplight, I did a little manual fiddling with the dash and made the alarming discovery that the rattles and buzzing was coming from - wait for it -

the shiny black plastic "thing" mounted atop the cowling

. So, not only was it a reflective nightmare when the sun is coming from the front of the car, it also was the major source of rattling in the car's interior.

After doing the flat black plastic/rubber spray on the part, I'll reassemble it with enough polyethylene cleaner bag material in the clip points to shut this down. Two birds, killed with one (admittedly less than simple) stone.

[tarquin]

Terry

Not sure what you wrote your post with but i can't read it. I am assuming your dealer simply grabbed the cowling and pulled it off

David

[Sensha]

I imagine so. However, I always worry about diving into car dashes without knowing what's holding it all together. I wish that Toyota would publish detailed instructions on stuff like dash removal and all.

There's a general manual somewhere or other, but I'm always hesitant to start prying and pulling, fearing I'll snap off a clip somewhere or other.

Putting it back is another story. Now that I can see all of the attachment points and how the clips work (these are different than any others used by Toyota over the thirty years that we've owned them), it's a simple matter to snap it in place.