Interior Console Panel

[Nookie]

Reaching out to my American cousins here to see if anyone's had any experience, either do-it-yourself or through your Ford dealer, with the replacement of the (knee) panels on the centre console (where the SYNC2/3 etc. is housed).

My car (one of those ones with the steering wheel on the wrong side) arrived (new) from the US with a chunk taken out of the left hand center console panel as below.

It went back into my local Ford dealer yesterday to be fixed under warranty, at which time they shocked me somewhat by telling that they were replacing the entire dashboard (what they meant by entire I don't know as I couldn't get the information out of the guy on the service desk).

The thought of them dismantling my new and cherished car to such an extent to replace a single small panel is, to be honest, scaring the living sh1t out of me, as while you lucky guys have had the pleasure of being able to buy, own and work on these cars for years, and equally have dealers with experience of working on them... this is the first car my dealer has done anything more involved than a pre-delivery inspection on!

Long and short... my question is... does anybody know if removing and replacing the entire dashboard is necessary to fix this, as it looks to me like it should be a case of removing this single panel?

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[Chef jpd]

Unfortunately, it is one Huge assembly.

I also noticed you have a real cigarette lighter. I haven't seen one of those in a car in years!

 

[Nookie]

Unfortunately, it is one Huge assembly.

I also noticed you have a real cigarette lighter. I haven't seen one of those in a car in years!

But surely that particular panel must be removable on its own... somehow???

Re the cigarette lighter... if you live in the UK you need cigarettes (to calm your nerves)... they won't let us have guns .

 

[Chef jpd]

Check out this image.
The Big Green Thing is your dash assembly.

 

[JaxS550]

Just let the dealer fix it, they know what they are doing. If they don't, its on them...either way you are covered.

 

[88mph]

If you really don't want them to dismantle your entire dashboard, maybe attempting leather repair (done by a pro) will do the trick? Probably they can make the damage invisible or nearly invisible.

Something like this done by a pro could work (check the video): https://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Repair_Kit.php#!prettyPhoto

 

[Nookie]

Check out this image.
The Big Green Thing is your dash assembly.

Thanks for that [MENTION=22912]Chef jpd[/MENTION] ...you're a legend

That's pretty astounding that they've got to do all that work just to fix such a ridiculously small bit of damage (I was in denial until I saw that pic)!

There's another guy on the UK forums with exactly the same damage in exactly the same place... perhaps something during the build process... but will never really know, and as long as they fix it.

Just scary to think of what they're doing to my nice new car!

Thanks again to all who have replied... I knew someone over there would have the answer :cheers:

Edit: Also explains why they said they wanted the car for 3 days... I thought they were having a laugh!

 

[jwats15]

its a modular unit, its gotta come out if anything behind it goes bad too...like AC evaporator core. only a couple bolts holding it in, seems like major surgery but its a simple task since its one large piece.

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