cracked plastic dashboard panels

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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 12:45 PM
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cracked plastic dashboard panels

All the dash board lower panels have cracks all of a sudden. While most the cracks are just below the Air outlets there are some long cracks around the Nav panels. There are none on top of the dash panel however. Now it has been cold during the night and morning here in St Petersburg FL, during the day the temp jumps up to around 78. The last time I drove the car there were no panel issues, but had to run the defroster because the inside the windshield had frost same for the outside. The humitiy was almost 100% with the temp at 68 so I ran the heater process to 76 degrees. The next day was a little warmer so the inside/outside frost was low, but then I saw all the cracks.

I never seen anything like this before and I assum there's a air leak in the inboard A/c unit which explains the inner windshield frost, but what caused all the cracks?

Last edited by Autocutter; Nov 22, 2018 at 12:51 PM.
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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 01:29 PM
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do you have any pictures? there are several threads about the dashboards melting/failing on here it may be a similar condition
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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 01:59 PM
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All G's use the same dash material, and the dashes have cracking and "melting" since 2010. Lots of threads in the Coupe and Sedan forums if you want to get depressed.
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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 02:50 PM
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do you not do maintenance on the inside of the car? they make products on the market that have uv protectant and lubrication properties for dash and plastic trims. in addition leather requires upkeep too to prevent cracks.
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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 03:34 PM
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The car is an outside car, but I would clean and use plastic protection every month. The site won't let me upload photo files from my iPad. Nevertheless, the cracks look more like clean tears and they are close by structure bends. The material is thin textured vinyl with foam underneath it.

Now the weather here has been totally strange the last week cold in the morning and then hot even before the afternoon. Now my SUV sitting next to car has no interior issues like the G37vert
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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 04:25 PM
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This is becoming a more common problem with these cars and, unfortunately, there is no real resolution to the issue. Cleaning/maintenance has nothing to do with the dashboard cracking/peeling/melting/etc. It has all to do with Nissan using cheap parts from cheap suppliers (in this case Calsonic-Kansei) in its vehicles. The Altima had the same problem but, ironically, Nissan owned up to that problem. They won't do the same for Infiniti.

As mentioned, plenty of threads on this matter. OP, if you are under warranty you might have some recourse/leverage, if not then you will have to look into other options.
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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 04:46 PM
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Originally Posted by ILM-NC G37S
This is becoming a more common problem with these cars and, unfortunately, there is no real resolution to the issue. Cleaning/maintenance has nothing to do with the dashboard cracking/peeling/melting/etc. It has all to do with Nissan using cheap parts from cheap suppliers (in this case Calsonic-Kansei) in its vehicles. The Altima had the same problem but, ironically, Nissan owned up to that problem. They won't do the same for Infiniti.

As mentioned, plenty of threads on this matter. OP, if you are under warranty you might have some recourse/leverage, if not then you will have to look into other options.
Well I totally agree with you about Nissan/infiniti having cheap parts & paints. The bummer is the car is a 2010 so there's no warranty. I swear I never seen an issue like this, but yup I've seen top of the dashboard issues on just about every make and model car here in Florida. These material cracks aren't the hard plastic bits that melt or crack via UV, rather they are thin vinyl material all slightly below the steering column level.
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Old Nov 22, 2018 | 08:35 PM
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Originally Posted by slartibartfast
All G's use the same dash material, and the dashes have cracking and "melting" since 2010. Lots of threads in the Coupe and Sedan forums if you want to get depressed.
LoL! I don’t have this issue (yet), but I’ve read most of the threads on this topic and it does make me depressed.
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Old Nov 23, 2018 | 11:20 AM
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Finally able to upload the pictures. Like I have said before, I have never seen anything like this in any car I have owned, or any friends cars either.
Attached Thumbnails cracked plastic dashboard panels-photo-2.jpg   cracked plastic dashboard panels-photo-3.jpg   cracked plastic dashboard panels-photo-1.jpg   cracked plastic dashboard panels-photo-4.jpg  
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Old Nov 23, 2018 | 11:30 AM
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^NOT cool! You can see those cracks easily on a light colored dashboard.
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Old Nov 23, 2018 | 11:44 AM
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What's also strange is my iPhone pic's changed the the dashboard fiber color since the color really was a medium gray, but the seats and carpet was the beige color. Course, the so-called wood trim was the correct color.
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Old Jan 1, 2019 | 11:14 PM
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Exclamation g35 Dashboard cracking and melting

How do we get a class action lawsuit together and get this fixed?
2005 G35 77,777 miles, always garaged and only cleaned with soap and water (mostly a damp cloth)

Last edited by s7mo; Jan 1, 2019 at 11:15 PM. Reason: additional info
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Old Jan 2, 2019 | 12:23 PM
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There is a link in the coupe forum dashboard thread to a law firm that has an online portal for providing information toward a possible class-action suit. I added my name a few weeks ago.
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Old Feb 6, 2019 | 07:26 PM
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Not going to be cheap, but probably the best fix is to have an upholstery shop cover it in a leather-like material.

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Old Feb 6, 2019 | 07:28 PM
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Or fill the cracks and use a grain pad to get the grain (get one that matches) and spray paint.

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