Looking for Replacement Nav System Compartment Cover

05-14-2008, 10:26 PM

jimrockford jimrockford is offline

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Looking for Replacement Nav System Compartment Cover

I just bought a laser red 04 G35 Coupe. It's in great condition except for the cover on the navigation system cubby. According to the FSM, it looks like it's called the "center box assembly". The padded cover on the box has pulled loose and gets caught when the cover is opened.

The dealer (Toyota of Tampa Bay) was supposed to fix it as a term of the sale. They had it in the shop all day today and did a lousy job. They glued it back down but it started pulling back up again on the way home.

I don't think it will look right even if it's glued down properly because the foam backing is split and shows through as a wrinkle in the cover. I'd rather replace the thing but can't find a source for the parts. Is anyone parting out an 03/04 interior? I believe the interior color is called graphite.

I'd even buy new if I could find the part. I've looked online but haven't tried a dealer yet. I'm afraid they'll be crazy expensive.

Any ideas?

05-15-2008, 12:36 PM

pikush

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Man I have been fighting with this ever since I bought the car... If you come up with a solution pls let me know.

How do I fix this?

05-15-2008, 04:59 PM

jimrockford jimrockford is offline

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Quote:

Originally Posted by pikush

Man I have been fighting with this ever since I bought the car... If you come up with a solution pls let me know.

How do I fix this?

Thanks for the reply. Yep, that's exactly what mine is doing. I'm probably going to try a temporary fix but keep looking for a replacement.

My idea is to remove the door, reglue it with contact cement, and then wrap the whole thing tightly with a long piece of cloth until it dries. It looks like the dealer just glued it, pushed it down for a couple of minutes and called it good. The flat covering started pulling away from the curved door soon thereafter.

I'm surprised more people aren't having the same problem. It doesn't seem like that piece is affixed very firmly.

Did you ever figure out how to remove the door? From what I understand, a good portion of the passenger side of the dash has to be removed to successfully extract it, including the right side panel of the center console. The FSM covers the procedure but is hard to follow and doesn't go into enough detail.

If I give it a try I'll post my experience.

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| 2004 G35 Coupe 5AT | Laser Red/Graphite - Premium - Performance - Aero - Nav - Bose - Sunroof |

05-17-2008, 12:22 AM

jimrockford jimrockford is offline

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I spent the better part of my afternoon fighting with my dash but finally managed to remove the navigation cubby. It was even more complicated than I expected. More on that in a minute.

The dealership really messed things up with their half-assed attempt to reglue it. The foam backing was split and wrinkled and I couldn't redo what they did without destroying it further. So, I concentrated on gluing down the parts they missed. I'm 99% sure they didn't remove it from the vehicle. They reglued it with it in the car.

Anyway, here's the procedure I used to remove the cubby and reglue the cover:

Autotalk.com has a great writeup on removing the center console to replace the Bose stereo with a double DIN setup. That article contains all of the prerequisite steps to remove the navigation cubby. It was a lifesaver. Here's a link:

autotalk.com center console removal instructions

In short, the following must be dissassembled to remove the cubby (all explained in the previous link):
- Door sill trim on both sides
- Lower kick panels on both sides
- Lower glove compartment
- Instrument lower driver panel
- Center console side panels on both sides
- Cluster lid finisher
- Clock
- Shifter knob
- Console finisher (shifter cover)
- Console lid (stereo and HVAC controls)
- Two thin silver finish trim pieces
Once all that is removed (some parts just need to be loosened), the nagivation cubby will come out. It should be sort of loose at this point. To remove it, you push it firmly toward the passenger side of the car and then pull it back toward you. There are clips along the top rear of the cubby that will pop out of the dash when you pull it towards you. There are additional snap type fittings on the end of the cubby where it butts up against the door. I put a finger behind the plastic end cover and popped a couple loose by applying pressure toward the passenger side door.
Once the cubby is out, the door can be taken off by removing four screws from the hinges on the rear of the cubby.
To glue the cover, I pulled up the edges and applied spray adhesive to both the foam and plastic cover. Duro All Purpose Spray Adhesive was around $4 or $5 at Walmart.
I then mated the two surfaces and securely wrapped a 20 foot 1.5 inch wide tie down strap around the cover to hold them together until the glue dried. Think of the wrapping on a tennis racket handle. That's the sort of overlapping wrap I'm talking about.
As much as I tried, I couldn't prevent making a mess with the glue. I got overspray on the edges and back side of the cover. That made me a little nervous but I was able to get it all off with some Naptha without damaging the finish.
Finally, I reinstalled everything in the reverse order.

I'm pretty satisfied with the results except for a few slight bulges in the foam where the dealership tried to reglue it. The parts I glued lay flat and look great. I think I'll live with it this way for a while and see if it bothers me.

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| 2004 G35 Coupe 5AT | Laser Red/Graphite - Premium - Performance - Aero - Nav - Bose - Sunroof |

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