Hey guys. Just bought a 2008 LR2 and the dashboard has bad cracking spidering out from the passenger airbag area. I know other people have seen this as there are some threads about it. My question is... does anyone have any good leads on where to buy a replacement dash? The dealer wants over $1000 just for the materials. Does anyone out there have a parts car they are willing to sell the dash from?

 

This isn't directly answering your question, but it pertains to the same general topic, so I figured it's worth including. I have the same issue with the crack around where the passenger airbag is located and here is what I am planing on doing and my reasoning behind it:
Theoretically a used dash would be priced around $500, if you can source the dash from a junk car. This is going to be quite difficult considering that it's a relatively new/rare car that if there are junk/parts cars out there, they are likely there because of significant collision impact, which would likely involve pass. airbag deployment, thus destroying the dash. Even if I could source a new (used) dash for $500, I've learned one thing from doing dash work on my other car: if you remove the old dash and replace it, the replacement dash will likely not end up as tightly fitted as the one from the factory. Obviously the replacement dash will still be fitted tightly enough to feel solid, but will likely still cause some interior rattle noise when re-installed with all the other components.

Mainly for that reason I've decided to do a vinyl dash wrap, without removing the entire dashboard. I'm planing on removing the vents, speaker covers, and the center dash top speaker and surrounding trim. Removing these smaller trip pieces will allow for a seamless clean install of the vinyl wrap, without actually having to remove the entire dash from the frame of the car. The cost of doing the wrap, if you install yourself, is only $50, and can be done in a variety of different textures, colors, etc. Instead of simply covering up the cracks in the dash with the vinyl, I am planing on filling any recesses in the cracks with an adhesive clay type material then leveling out the area before applying the vinyl wrap over the area. There isn't anyone out there that has done this type of total vinyl wrap on an LR2 dash, but I'm planing on doing this project the week before Christmas and will publish a write-up on the process.

Just an alternative idea to replacing the whole dash.

Below is a link to a different forum where someone did a similar wrap on a dash, the only difference being they removed the dash first.
Club Lexus Vinyl Wrap

 

Has the dash cracked because of some defect, or was the vehicle sitting uncovered in the sun every day where the dash was exposed to heat/light for long periods of time?

 

Florida Car, sitting in the sun everyday. The dash around the pass. airbag is "perforated" to make it easier to blow out during a collision, that's usually the most common place for it to crack because it's thinner.