Cracked Dash 2008 Silverado LTZ CC VMax

LTZHoe · January 3, 2015

I have a 2008 Tahoe LTZ and I just noticed 2 cracks in my dash as well, one just above the instrument cluster and the other by the passenger airbag cover. I had the "smaller" dash cover (closest to the windshield) replaced at ~48k miles because it eventually had pieces fall off from cracks propagating. That frustrated me because the dealer said "that's a common issue" yet it was all out of pocket expense for me.

The frustration has continued since then with the dash cracking recently AND my instrument cluster malfunctioning. I have also replaced 2 door lock actuators, the BCM, 2 outer door handles (broke off in my hand), 2 TPSs, water leak from the rear hatch, I'm sure I'm missing some more things. I am a Senior Engineer for a very large medical device company and I think the materials/build quality of this truck has been disappointing, it seems like every time I have fixed an issue another one arises. I have owned GM vehicles all my life but my next truck might be a Ford!

Colossus · January 4, 2015

All the door lock actuators will eventually fail, 08 was a bad year for those. I had to replace all 4 on my 08 crew cab by 40,000 miles. 3 were done under warranty thankfully. I did the 4th myself.

Otherwise, sounds like normal wear and tear on your 08. They still are not bulletproof by anymeans but every auto out there be it Toyota, Honda, BMW, VW, Ford, Dodge, GM, all have their flaws which many would want to say is poor quality control. FYI, You'll have more things fall apart and fail on the Ford then you will with what you have now. Their engines are ok, but everything falls apart around them. I've owned enough to know this for certain as have many others on here. Also let's keep in mind that you are trying to compare medical equipment vs automotive equipment.. the standards and level of quality required are completely different. Should they be? Probably not. We all want the best for the money we pay, but given the costs associated with medical devices vs basic mechanical things such as automobiles.. you really can't make a fair comparrison between the two. If I even made any sense.

Colossus · January 4, 2015

One final thought. One can have the best quality control and testing procedures out there, yet until the product is widely distributed and gets some good use behind it, problems generally won't tend to show up until well after a few years run of production. Thus why they have TSBs and for the issues that are safety related, recalls.

suprdav2 · January 6, 2015

Talked to my local Chevy dealership today, and was offered $500 to replace, as a good will.....

LTZHoe · January 11, 2015

Talked to my local Chevy dealership today, and was offered $500 to replace, as a good will.....

I got the same price quote from my local dealer as well. He said the job total was $850, they calculate the amount they take off the price based on the year and mileage of the truck.

In searching around on this topic it seems these molded ABS covers are becoming popular as a cheap easy fix:

Dash cover on eBay

Here's a video of a cap being fit on an example dash, not sure I'd want to use adhesive onto the original dash. It looks better than I would have anticipated though:

LTZHoe · January 11, 2015

All the door lock actuators will eventually fail, 08 was a bad year for those. I had to replace all 4 on my 08 crew cab by 40,000 miles. 3 were done under warranty thankfully. I did the 4th myself.

Otherwise, sounds like normal wear and tear on your 08. They still are not bulletproof by anymeans but every auto out there be it Toyota, Honda, BMW, VW, Ford, Dodge, GM, all have their flaws which many would want to say is poor quality control. FYI, You'll have more things fall apart and fail on the Ford then you will with what you have now. Their engines are ok, but everything falls apart around them. I've owned enough to know this for certain as have many others on here. Also let's keep in mind that you are trying to compare medical equipment vs automotive equipment.. the standards and level of quality required are completely different. Should they be? Probably not. We all want the best for the money we pay, but given the costs associated with medical devices vs basic mechanical things such as automobiles.. you really can't make a fair comparrison between the two. If I even made any sense.

I have to disagree on your statement of "normal wear and tear". My last truck was an 03 Z71 silverado and in the 7 years I owned it the only repairs it needed was a crank sensor and upper intake gaskets. The things I've had issues with like the BCM, instrument cluster, and dash should never need to be repaired/replaced. Also to your comment about Ford, a colleague of mine bought an 08 Expedition almost exactly when I did and he hasn't had to have a single repair while my list keeps growing.

I never said it was poor quality control, I said the materials and build quality were disappointing. I won't take up pages explaining this for those who aren't engineers (maybe you are?) to understand but it's a quality assurance, not quality control issue. I also have experience in the automotive industry and the design controls for something like a dash cover are well known and probably haven't changed much in the past 50 years. Do you think this is their first time with design inputs and process development for a polymer dash cover? No. But when cost savings is the driver for your design outputs then you end up with a common problem everyone experiences, cracked dashes.

I also made no comparison to medical devices and automotive materials or the quality requirements, I stated my profession for context when saying the materials and build quality were disappointing. I manage a program world wide for ensuring the quality and validity of testing data for polymers, I am a subject matter expert on molded plastics. And for the record the quality requirements should be quite different for medical devices and automotive industries.

It's interesting to hear automobiles referred to as "basic mechanical things", and even more so to hear that medical devices aren't. Do you know how many separate modules (computers) there are on my truck communicating over what GM calls CAN? 28. There are also literally hundreds of sensors. Some modules even perform diagnostics when your truck is off such as measuring the vacuum in the gas tank when the canister purge valve is closed. You'll get an EVAP emissions code if the delta in negative pressure exceeds a threshold over a given time frame next time you start the truck (and you'll get the check engine light on). Yes, a lot of medical devices have electronics but have you ever seen a hip implant or the tools required to execute the surgery? How about for a knee transplant? No electronics present, just pure mechanical engineering.

suprdav2 · January 13, 2015

I'm just replacing the dash myself. Found a new one on GMPARTSONLINE for about $280. Need a good weekend project to keep me busy during this dreary weather, so I'll work on this, yank out the seats, and give her a good cleaning inside.

jmbach · January 15, 2015

My 2010 Silverado 1500 has developed a crack in the same area about 6 months ago.

As with everybody else, not real happy about this. Truck had 36k miles on it and a little over 4 years old when it happened. Thought I was stuck with it but now I see there are some options. Would seem to me some kind of design flaw. Will contact GM first to see what they have to say. With the other design flaws they had along with the cover ups of the same and all the recalls and congressional investigations, not looking very good for consumer satisfaction and confidence for them.