Dash cover play in the middle - is this normal?

[JasonPAtkins]

Hi all,

I have a ‘11 Avalanche that has been mine for about a year. I live in West Africa most of the time, and that’s where the vehicle has been for the last several months. Having it on the rough roads over here has shown some of the parts (of an otherwise tough vehicle) that seem to have been designed not with rough roads in mind. There are a lot of plastic clips, and in some cases they don’t seem to be tough enough for the abuse over here.


Today, I’m working on the dash cover. The middle three clips had broken. I’m putting them back together with epoxy and also adding some small steel reinforcements to them to toughen them up.


My question is on the upper dash cover. The part in the middle, just in front of the center speaker – should it be attached to something? It seems to me like the fact that this is floating (if that’s how it’s supposed to be and not just missing a bolt on my truck) is leaving a lot of room for bouncing and flexing. I know some of these were prone to cracking on the sides, mine hasn’t, fortunately, but I have to wonder if all of this flex contributes to that problem.


With the dash cover removed, the upper dash cover above the speaker has a least a quarter of an inch of bounce. Is this normal?

If so, has anyone tried shimming under it to try to take the play out of it? I’m thinking about some little rubber pucks or something, just so it’s sitting on something instead of hanging in air. I know returning the dash cover will help support it a little, but there’s still going to be bounce on a washboard dirt road (which is most of my driving, unfortunately.)


Any advice?

 

[gooffeyguy]

My 2011 did that because the couple of rectangle shaped receptacles were broke also. The hard plastic forward vent cover between the dash and windshield clips into them to help hold the dash up. I did place some foam under that middle speaker area to help support it and it worked, but then a month later she got hit by a drunk driver and totalled, so I can't say how well it stood up over time.

2001 Yukon SLT
2012 Yukon XL Denali
2011 Yukon Denali RIP 5/20/18

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Tonyrodz]

Hi all,

I have a ‘11 Avalanche that has been mine for about a year. I live in West Africa most of the time, and that’s where the vehicle has been for the last several months. Having it on the rough roads over here has shown some of the parts (of an otherwise tough vehicle) that seem to have been designed not with rough roads in mind. There are a lot of plastic clips, and in some cases they don’t seem to be tough enough for the abuse over here.


Today, I’m working on the dash cover. The middle three clips had broken. I’m putting them back together with epoxy and also adding some small steel reinforcements to them to toughen them up.


My question is on the upper dash cover. The part in the middle, just in front of the center speaker – should it be attached to something? It seems to me like the fact that this is floating (if that’s how it’s supposed to be and not just missing a bolt on my truck) is leaving a lot of room for bouncing and flexing. I know some of these were prone to cracking on the sides, mine hasn’t, fortunately, but I have to wonder if all of this flex contributes to that problem.


With the dash cover removed, the upper dash cover above the speaker has a least a quarter of an inch of bounce. Is this normal?

If so, has anyone tried shimming under it to try to take the play out of it? I’m thinking about some little rubber pucks or something, just so it’s sitting on something instead of hanging in air. I know returning the dash cover will help support it a little, but there’s still going to be bounce on a washboard dirt road (which is most of my driving, unfortunately.)


Any advice?

With the heat there, I can't believe your dash hasn't cracked.

 

[Doubeleive]

the problem is the center speaker has no support under it so it makes the dash bounce up and down, you can pull the speaker cover off (easily it just lifts off with a small tool) then take out the 4 screws that hold the speaker in, lift up the speaker enough to put some kind of material under it between the bottom of the speaker magnet and the interior dash inside I used a big thick piece of Styrofoam you will need to try various thickness to get it just right but I think it needs about 4" of padding (i just used a razor blade and trimmed the Styrofoam until it was just the right thickness), once you have it just right the speaker will fit in snug with the screws back in and the dash wont bounce anymore, I would recommend using Styrofoam or some other similar material so it wont squeak or make noises. ***and be careful the surrounding dash plastic can crack or break easily just go easy on it