GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

When I was snapping my trim back to the left side of the dash, I pushed it in and noticed the entire top half of the dash on the left side moved. Sure enough, you can grab the dash and move it back and forth with not too much effort! It's just the top half that is loose. You can't pull it back too far. But something tells me I shouldn't be able to move it at all!Haven't checked the passenger's side yet to see if it is the same over there. I did develop a rattle coming from between the windshield and passenger air bag here recently, wondering if that is part of this issue. And this new rattle is louder than the half dozen of various other rattles scattered about the dash. If the right side of the dash moves as well, I'd say that is a good possibility.What's going on there? This has me wondering exactly how it worked itself loose! Has anyone noticed this? I don't know if it's "normal" or not, since I haven't noticed it before. Haven't checked the passenger's side to see if it is the same.I'm going check raging's dash removal how-to and see if there is anything I could do to tighten it up a bit. But I'm not diving too far into this, especially in regards to the area surrounding the passenger's air bag. That's something the dealer will need to look at. Hopefully it's covered under the extended warranty.

If you want, we can examine it when you come out for the NY auto show in a couple weeks...

Sounds like a plan to me. You've got plenty of expertise in all things pertaining to Vibe disassembly.

As I was driving home from work tonight, I decided I would pop off some trim and see what the heck was going on with this thing... I've confirmed that the passenger side does not appear to exhibit this same symptom.Got home, removed the 'A' pillar trim, gauge trim, and mirror/dimmer control trim. The top of the dash near the windshield isn't being held in by anything it seems. You can grab hold of the dash with the side window defog vent and give it a bit of a tug, pops right up. Even more so if you grab the dash by where the 'A' pillar meets the dash.This is where the dash normally sits. Look at the amount of black showing at the bottom of the windshield for reference.And this is how far it will pull up without much tugging on the thing...Can't seem to get it to snap down into anything... Pure speculation, but I think that may be the source of my snap/crackle/pop coming from right where the dash and windshield meet (noise only seems to come from the driver's side) when I drive over a rough road on certain occasions. That has plagued this car for some time now...

There isn't any way the dash "secures" down against the windshield. When you slide it into place, there are some little doodads that slide under the windshield...perhaps one of them broke...

Ah, I see! I didn't try to push forward with it, just down. Maybe I can try to loosen some of those screws and try to push it back...But it's probably broken. That's why we have super glue, double-sided tape and duct tape.

Well, I'm finally going to get something done about this, or at least attempt to. I figure I'll let the dealer handle this crap... So, it shall be looked at on the same trip for my steering issue, and the intermittent popping when lowering the driver's window. Add an oil change on top of that, and I'll be stuck there for a while. lol!Tomorrow, I'm going to return the car to "stock" condition - the LED's under the dash are coming out (yet again!) and I've already yanked out the light sensor switch that I put in there. Really don't want to give them any reason to say that this was "my fault." Which if it were, damn, I'm good - I must be able to break things at a distance, since I haven't touched anything that far up in the dash.. We'll see... Hopefully they can fix it, as I don't think it would be a good feeling having the entire dash fly back and land on me if I'm in an accident.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »We'll see... Hopefully they can fix it, as I don't think it would be a good feeling having the entire dash fly back and land one me if I'm in an accident. No it wouldn't...that might leave a mark... Glad you finally decided to get it fixed. Hopefully they won't accuse you of breaking it, because there's really no way you could have. At least this isn't my dealership...I wouldn't hold out as much hope for a warranty repair if it was. LOL

Thursday, 8 AM. Dash, screwed up steering, and an oil change. Woo hoo, good times for me! lol

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Thursday, 8 AM. Dash, screwed up steering, and an oil change. Woo hoo, good times for me! lolSounds like a day-long project...or even longer if they have to order parts. Fun fun!

I say compare it to a new one, mine is a little soft up by the light sensor, maybe it's normal

Having witnessed it myself...I'm fairly sure this particular movement is not normal. You can actually lift the dash up and cause the trim on the left side of the windshield to move. It's got quite a bit of play in it...more than it should have, definitely...and unfortunately.

I've compared it to my buddy's 03 - nowhere near the same. His dash stays put when you pull back on it. Mine lifts right up, especially near the windshield. And like Kari mentioned, it moves the 'A' pillar trim with it.The passenger's side is still ok. But the driver's side is royally screwed.

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »Junk yard if you can find one. To look for what? LOL Hard to find what you need if you don't know what's broken...

I'll let the dealer mess with this crap. I'm not too keen on messing around with air bag related components and the like... I'm not paying for it... And sadly, they would have to actually sell Vibes around here to have them in the junkyards... If I needed parts, I'd probably have to go several states away to find any. lol!

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »I will call it quits, this is 2 against 1 here.... My woman does not post on here and have my back... I will run away now... Um, ok... What's that supposed to mean?

Na, it isn't like that man... It's just that she's saw the damage in person.

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »I will call it quits, this is 2 against 1 here.... My woman does not post on here and have my back... I will run away now... No battles here I was just curious as to what you were suggesting he look for in the junkyard...no further implications were intended...

It's all good man...

You know Beavis, it doesn't get any better than this.....Quote »B CUSTOMER STATES THAT THE DRIVERS SIDE TOP HALF OF DASH IS LOOSE.CAUSE: CONDITION NORMALR&R UPPER DASH PAD. INSPECTED FOR LOOSE RETAINERS. FOUND ALL OK. CONDITION NORMAL DUE TO VEHICLE DESIGN.Yeah. So it's not fixed. Maybe a bit tighter than it was, maybe not. It's still loose, the passenger's side is still fine. At least they were cool enough to not charge me to remove and reinstall the top half of the dash.Whatever.

Question for anyone who might know: What exactly does "R&R" mean in this particular instance, anyhow? Whatever it is, it's exactly what they did to my climate control trim...which in this case seems to have meant, "Remove said trim, stare at for approximately 2 hours, remove sticker, put on new sticker crooked." I'm still not understanding how it can be "condition normal due to vehicle design" when no one else's car has this particular issue, and the opposite side of yours doesn't either...

Probably remove and replace, or maybe more accurately remove and reinstall, it's sort of the CTRL-ALT-DEL method of repair, take it apart and put it back together, see if that fixed the problem. I guess if you take it apart and can't see anything to fix, the only thing to do is just put it back together.col., So, the dash moves forward and backward? I can push on the top left front of mine by the light sensor and it gives some, vertically, like it is not anchored up by the windshield, but the edge away from the windshield is pretty solid.I had a dash brace by the glove box fall out of my dash (see the bottom part of http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=5933 ) I have never had the dash apart enough to know if there is anything similar on the drivers side of the dash, but maybe one fell out of your dash or was never installed, and the dealer didn't notice it was missing. Can be hard sometimes to identify a missing piece if you don't know its supposed to be there.

Yep, it moves forward/backward. Also, it can be lifted up as well. So it kinda moves in every direction if you let it. It doesn't flop around on its own, you have to push or pull slightly on the dash to get it to move. Basically, my guess is it's not latching onto whatever it needs to latch onto properly... Obviously from what it looks like, there isn't much that physically holds the top of the dash in - a few screws and a few tabs that help it snap into place from what they were saying. Nothing is broken, but I'm curious if the plastic may be warped or something which doesn't allow it to sit exactly how and where it needs to... Don't know if there would be a brace messed up, I haven't found anything in there yet...I dunno, hard to say what's going on. I spent some more time checking it out today, and it does seem to be slightly tighter but it still isn't as tight as the passenger's side.

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »Worsrt case, EPOXY. But what happens if you glue the dash on then something major happens behind it and you need to get it off again? Not sure glue would be the best idea then...heh.The dealer just needs to really dig to find out what's wrong, and sadly, most don't seem too willing to do that here lately.

"Question for anyone who might know: What exactly does "R&R" mean in this particular instance, anyhow?"R&R = Remove and replace

My dash is loose and moves back and forth also and the squeeking sound is driving me nuts. I'm taking it to the dealer tomorrow to have them try to fix it. The noise wasn't there this past winter but now that it's starting to warm up, it's very noticable.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic » I did develop a rattle coming from between the windshield and passenger air bag here recently, wondering if that is part of this issue. I have this same rattle. It seems to be coming from that direction somewhere. Is yours kind of a loud clicking rattle? Very annoying.