I bought my MY01 with 19,000 miles and the paint on the silver trim around the shift boot (see example below) had a few wrinkles in it (maybe from heat/weather exposure?).



I took a dime to it lottery ticket-style and scratched all the paint off and now there's a nice chrome looking finish showing. I don't know how long this will look nice before it starts to fade.

Has anyone else had this wrinkling problem? I doubt the warranty will cover it since I already removed the evidince but could anyone let me know how I could take this thing off to paint/replace it? If anybody has taken this trim piece out maybe you could enlighten me. I just need to know how to go about the removal procedure. I'm afraid if I tried it on my own I would end up having to rebuild my transmission and get a new top and/or exhaust manifold

 

It won't fade. You can polish the chrome.

 

Yeah. I've been doing that (Oakley sunglass bag!!) but I thought it might eventually yellow out. Thanks

 

trim piece isn't difficult to remove. but if you replace it, its expensive - ~$300 bucks if I remember correctly.

best option - take some rubbing compound and remove the entire top layer - nice and shiny underneath, matches e-brake button and Ti polished knobs too!

 

Actually the best option is to get it replaced under warranty like I did. :-) Of course you can't voluntarily scratch off the coating otherwise they probably won't replace it.

David

 

it'll just get scratched up again - its just cheap plastic. that's why I vouched for the best option to scrape it off. it seems to match better, but that's just my taste.

 

How do you remove it? Just pry it off?

 

nope, please dont pry it, its weak plastic. it will just break and split.

check out rick's site here:
http://www.ricks2k.com/info/install.html
and look at the shift boot installation.

but you dont need to remove it to do a good cleaning job with rubbing compound. but the entire console is replaced if they replace it at the dealership.

 

for some reason the new one seems different to me although it looks pretty much the same. I think the 02's are made out of solid plastic that they use for all the trimmings rather than plated like on the 00 and 01s. So far there isn't a scratch on it. I think I scratched the first one within the first month of ownership. Anyone hear of an 02 owner who had this problem?

David

 

cottonball and rubbing alcohol will remove the paint. no need to remove the piece from the console.