Has anyone else out there ever had a door panel crack and break-through about where your elbow would be on the "arm rest"? My local dealerships (Uebelhor Toyota, of Jasper, In. _ the place i purchased my 2008 FJ) service manager says he wont "eat the price" (actuall words) of a new door panel because i modified the original. (He acted like the price of a new door panel whas coming straight out of his pocket, VERY RUDE) The modification is that i trimmed a little plastic off the back-side of the door panel to clear an aftermarket speaker. This modification is nowhere near where the panel broke. I would like to find out if any-one else has had this problem, and if their dealership warrantied the broken door panel. Thanx.
J. Diedrich-'08 FJ Cruiser w/ Factory Off-Road package & killer sound-system.
Hell ya I still have it. I had taken it in to get warrentied and the dealership determined that I abused my fj to much and wouldn`t replace it. How in the hell can an elbow abuse my fj that much? I just fabricated a plate to put over it. Dumb azz dealer.
Mine (2007) just cracked a few days ago exactly where you are talking about. I had no idea how it happened until it pinched my elbow as I adjusted myself into a centered seating position.
My driver's side elbow armrest area cracked about five months after the warranty ran out. No help from the dealer. Just a cheap plastic panel. Based upon the type of vehicle, Toyota should have used ABS plastic on the interior and we would not be having this problem!
Has anyone had any luck repairing the cracks? I tried J B Weld and it lasted about eight hours after a 48 hour cure. I called J B Weld and they said it will not work on that kind of plastic, only works on ABS plastic. My crack follows alot of the folds in the elbow/armrest area, so it is hard to reinforce. I was thinking about trying a fiberglass repair kit.
The panel itslef is not cheap, I had to replace it after some douche bag broke into my FJ and ruined the panel. It was $550.00 for the panel alone.
We have a couple of business here in town that repair/recolour car interiors(plastic, vynil, leather etc) this kind of thing is right up their alley. Their work is fantastic, if you did not know where the repair was you'd never know.
i work at a dealer and have seen one break so far, the guy was out of warranty by 10.000 miles but the service mgr split the cost with the owner and installed it no charge
Not to bust on your chops or anything but Toyota seems like they don`t see alot of things wrong with these trucks. The door panel they wouldn`t warrenty they said I abused my truck. I didn`t know I had such a tough elbow. I was still under warrenty and they wouldn`t fix it. they also don`t seem to see the fender bulges and tears that so many of us have or are starting to get. Mine is out of warrenty now and i`m pretty sure toyota is thrilled about that. I really dig my truck but there are alot of issues with certain things on these things that are being ignored.
I broke the first one at about 15Kmiles. They replaced it as a "one time courtesy"and said " you must have dropped something on it"..ya my arm!. Alot of BS. Ive never had a door panel fail in any other car ive ever owned. Im 6'3" so, I sit way back and my elbow hits right at that inside corner. Perhaps the flimsy flex is actually helping those that sit farther forward. Anyway...it cracked again about 10K later. They kept postponing having to meet a factory rep first for approval. Now its way out of warranty and I suspect a dead issue in their book even though I have records they were aware of it. This panel is only about 25 thousanths at this spot ( I measured it when it cracked). I have an 07' and noticed at the recent auto show that the new fj's panels dont flex as much as mine. I have the color corodinated inserts as well. I thinks they are now making the plastic thicker but no proof. Mine is total junk and obviously made way to fragile. I dont think adhesives will work well on this material. I plan on fabricating a custom padded arm rest for this area with a backer plate on the inside. I suspect more and more will eventually fail..so perhaps I'll have a marketable item down the road. That is unless Toyota steps up..this is first toyota i have purchased I was told they are great with customer service...dosent seem that way so far, they try to make it so inconvenient that youll quit.
My driver's door armrest is also cracked and broken severely. I do have 100k miles on mine, but it broke at around 40k miles. It has continued to crack and break... I put several layers of gaffer tape over it simply to stop it pinching my arm. Does anyone know if there are door panels available from salvage yards, or is it only from the dealer. The price I was quoted for the door panel was more like $1100+
My armrest was broken when I bought my used FJ. I found a panel on eBay but it was for a black diamond FJ. Toyota actually has different part numbers for each paint color. The seller had it listed buy it now for $199 or best offer. I offered $150 and the seller accepted.
Once I got my broken panel off I was able to swap my sandstorm colored insert and power window controls onto my new part. The whole job took 15 minutes.
It was kind of interesting to see that the body matched trim pieces are actually painted with the same paint as the cars.
I have the same cracks on my driver side panel where my elbow rests. It actually cut my elbow a while back when the skin was pinched in between the cracks as I re-adjusted my seating position.
I've just learned not to put my elbow there anymore, pretty lame considering my FJ only has 30k on it.
Question, geico has a policy if your car is kinda new they offer a 5 year 100k miles pay something like 5 dollars a month they pay to fix anything wrong with the truck, now if that's something wrong wont they pay to fix it ?
does anybody have a picture of the back side of the panel? i wonder if a gusset could be fabricated to apply to the back side to prevent this from happening.
I just threw my broken one out. The felt is held in place with 4 spots of hot glue. the plastic underneath the armrest has no structure to it. It is very slick too.
I also bought my fj with a broken door panel and the place I bought it from also said they would not replace the door panel. I'm having a hell of a time finding one outside of the dealer. I haven't gone to see how much it'll be but, I'm sure It won't be cheap.
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