Cheap material - xA - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

mmk1452 · 05-30-2006, 08:26 PM

I bought a xA in about two months ago and I love the car. It gives me nearly 40 mpg on the highway and that is all I wanted from this one for commute.

Yesterday, I decided to clean the interior with an Armor All Cleaner. I did this as soon as I got the car so this was the second application. As the sunshine is becoming stronger every week, I thought that I would apply one more coat to the plastic.

I used a very soft detailing cloth that I use on all my cars (xA and SLK55 AMG) and it has never caused any issue. To my surprise, as I rubbed the bashboard lightly with the Armor All on it, msall black particle came off the surface. I looked at the surface closely and noticed that the texture (small dimples) disappeared in a large area!!!! The material of the dashboard came off!!!!

I took the car to the dealer and showed a young service rep what happened and he said to me :oh, you should not use Armor All products on the plastic because theu do this to the material". I basically told him to p*ss off and asked him to bring the manager out. The manager looked at the surface and said "hmm, Armor All should not do this. You must have used something else". I said to him "are you saying that I used a solvent or something like that? Listen, I am an engineer and I DO know what not to use when it comes to cleaning plastics. Just replace it right away otherwise, this is going to be my last Toyota".

He wanted a Toyota rep to look at it so we made an appointment.

Have anyone else experienced this wtih your Scion? It seems that they use some cheap material.

Let's enjoy our ride while it lasts

mmk1452 · 06-08-2006, 08:24 PM

Still waiting for a rep from Toyota to arrive and look at the proble.

Everything else is great. I get almost 40mpg and the car runs great. I will not use any commercial cleaner on the interior anymore although the manual states that we may use a commercial cleaner".

Cheapt stuff!

Cheers

fargoal · 07-19-2006, 09:22 AM

What armor all was that!? I have never had any problems with my cars, but I'll avoid it!

***HATEnFATE*** · 08-03-2006, 09:50 AM

You Shouldn't use Armor All on your dashboard to begin with. It intensifies the glare from the sun and causes more damage then it protects against. I don't know if you noticed or not but your dash is/was a flat black. It's that way to minimize glare into the passenger compartment. Armor all just ruins the finish of dashboards like that and it will eventually end up looking very splotchy and degraded. use ONLY a damp cloth to clean your dashboard and nothing more. (I work for Toyota and that it the cleaning method listed)

I agree Armor All shouldn't have stripped it and you should get a new dash but for future reference, no Armor All on your Scion dash.

Me-N-theXB · 08-18-2006, 10:30 AM

Whoops I got some armorall from a freind and I used it last weekend. Now I am afraid of what is going to happen. It sure made it look alot better though. Nice and shiney. Damn!!!

The question is then is there any thing out there that we can use besides water to clean the dash to make it look better?

***HATEnFATE*** · 08-18-2006, 12:44 PM

the dash is supposed to be flat black. Unless you paint it or have it dyed, it's supposed to stay that way.

Grateful11 · 08-18-2006, 05:12 PM

Has anyone seen or tried one of the cloth dash covers in person? It might cover up the mistakes that the amorall folks have made. I'd like to have one just to protect the dash. I'm definitely not amoralling anything on my xA.

I once read about a guy that amoralled his rubber step plates on his riding lawn tractor and liked to killed himself when tried to get on it with wet shoes. I bet that was quite a scene.