eddie420

DISCLAIMER: This is for educational purposely only. If you follow these instructions and damage your car or injure yourself and/or anyone else, that is your own sole responsibility!
WARNINGS: If your car was running, do not disconnect the battery for at least 6 minutes after you shut off the engine. Then wait another 2 minutes before touching any air bag connectors.
NOTES: PRT stands for Panel Removal Tool. All bolts are 10mm but air bag and telematics receiver are 12mm, steering wheel is 19mm.


Get Techstream from TIS or go to your local Toyota/Lexus dealer and ask them to disable the "Autoaway/Return function". If you do not follow this step, you will not be able to remove the dash (ask me how I know :P). You have been warned!


Remove passenger side trim by pulling up.



Remove driver side trim by pulling up.



Remove the radio trim. Grab from either side or both sides with your fingers and pull it straight back. If you can't get a grip with your fingers, use a flat screw driver or panel removal tool. Once removed, disconnect the start engine pushbutton connector.



Remove the left and right side bolts under the radio. There are two of them.



Slide the radio out and disconnect all the connectors. I have extra cables from my Beatsonic mirroring kit, don't worry about those.



Remove the two bolts/screws from the shifter plate and pull it up towards you. Disconnect all the connectors.






Now with the shifter plate out of the way, pull the cup holder straight up towards you. Disconnect the connector.


Remove the two black screws and single bolt from the stabilizer bracket.



Go to the rear and pop the rear vent off towards you, disconnect the connectors, and remove the two bolts. This will allow you to lift the entire console box out of the way or at least hinge it backwards towards the rear seats.


Go to the driver side, grab the black plastic piece sill from both ends an pull it up towards you. If you have lighted sills, disconnect the connector. Do the same for the passenger side.



Remove the side air vent and plastic weather-strip garnish by pulling it towards you. Use a PRT if needed.

eddie420

Pull the air bag cover towards you. Take a needle nose plier and rotate the little black piece 90 degrees. Then pull the cover towards you. Do the same for the passenger side.





Remove the driver side dash trim by pulling it towards you. Use PRT if necessary.


Remove the three screws near the driver footwell. There are two little clips you need to pinch to release. Disconnect all the connectors.




Grab a corner and pull towards you and disconnect all connectors.





Remove the four air bag bolts. Careful not to drop the air bag!



Remove the clock by pulling it towards you. Disconnect all the connectors.




Pull the meter garnish towards you.


Pull the trim around the steering wheel towards you and disconnect the connectors.



I highly suggest getting the steering wheel out of the way. It will make your life much easier. This part you can go on YouTube because an explanation won't help. It's very simple once you understand it. Then loosen the 19mm bolt, yank the wheel towards you until it frees, then remove the bolt.



Remove the two top and two bottom screws from the meter, disconnect the wire clamp, disconnect the connectors, and remove the meter.

eddie420

I forgot to take pictures here but there is a trim around the nav screen, take that out, take out the four bolts, disconnect the connectors, and remove that nav screen.


Remove the AC vent by pulling it towards you. Disconnect the connector.



Go to the passenger side foot well, pull the trim downwards, and disconnect all the connectors.





Now open the glove box, remove the three screws. Then close the glove box. Underneath, remove the two bolts. Disconnect the extra two connectors that come out.





This part is not necessary but this is here for anyone that wants to swap out their trim. Get under from where you removed the glove box and remove the two screws where the arrows are (hard to see). Then pull the trim towards you.




Remove the three bolts and remove the DCT telematics receiver. Disconnect the connectors.



Pull the AC vent towards you and disconnect the connector.




Take a flat head screw driver or a PRT, and lift up the driver side speaker mesh. Remove the two speak bolts and disconnect the connector. Repeat the same process for the passenger side speaker mesh. NOTE: A use of low profile bolts or wrenches here is an absolute must. The windshield makes it very difficult. I did not have them so I struggled with needle noose pliers and various wrenches.




Do the same thing for the center speaker mesh.

eddie420

Now go back to the passenger side, disconnect the orange and black air bag connectors. Use a very thin flat screw driver or blade and pull the yellow tabs down. Once they are down, pull the connectors straight down to disconnect them.




MILESTONE: Now comes the "exciting part". Remove the single black bolt on both the passenger side and driver side.



Then remove the black bolts on near the speaker openings on both passenger and driver side.



Remove the nut near the steering wheel and meter area.


Go to your nav display area and disconnect the connector on the right hand side (and left hand side if you have a HUD).



Go to the steering column and remove the three screws. Then remove the top and bottom covers.



Disconnect all the connectors from under the clockspring assembly and remove the thing.




Disconnect this white tube (forgot what it's called). Some kind of resistor or sensor.


Now everything should be loose. Some help here would be nice but it is doable by yourself (like me). Pull the dash towards you from the passenger side, then the driver side, and keep wiggling it slow until you remove it. Make sure to disconnect or move away any wires you may have missed. Slow is the key here. Now you can access whatever you need to do here and make the necessary repairs.


This next part deals with disassembling the dash piece itself. From here on out, I will show a picture with the screw removed, laying next to where it came from since there are so many.


Flip the dash upside down, remove the single screw from the passenger side and driver side duct.



Remove the three defroster screws.


Remove the screws from the secondary driver side and passenger side duct.

eddie420

Remove the screws from the center ducts.


Remove the screw from both white spacers.



Remove the screws from the meter mounting bracket on the driver side.


Remove the five screws from the center nav display bracket.


Disconnect the cable and remove the light sensor near the defroster vents.



Remove the air bag from its plastic bracket by pulling down on the bottom. Then remove the eight bolts and take off the plastic housing.




Now remove the 28 silver screws (or 27 if you have a HUD). Panorama shot.


Once the screws are out, you can remove the dash sub-assembly panel. This is good for replacing UV damaged panels.


This part is only necessary if you want to retrofit a HUD (if your car did not come equipped with it). Follow the lines to cut into the dash, a rotary tool like a Dremel








Now follow the reverse steps to put it back together. Before putting on the ducts, install the HUD.







Now put the dash back in the car and push it back as tight as possible to the windshield. You will need to go back and forth between the passenger and driver side to make sure the main four bolts and nut you removed at the MILESTONE "exciting part" above all align. When those align, everything else will be easy to put back together and will align without issues. Make sure you get all the wires routed in the correct location (hard to mess this up but still...). Then put the parts back in reverse order, literally.

eddie420

Finished product showing no errors on the meter and with the HUD in action.

peasodos

iTrader: (1)

Wow nice detailed guide.

Actual when I installed my HUD I purposely didn't disconnect the battery and put the car into acc(push start twice no foot on the brake) to move the steering wheel out of the way when needed. This allowed me to remove the instrument cluster/ install hud projector after making the cut in the dash.

However for an entire dash removal I would defiantly go with the techstream method or I think Carista might have the option.

eddie420

Ah, that is definitely a good idea. I intend to replace my HUD with the color version eventually so this tip will come in handy. For the dash removal, I did not want to take any chances with the SRS airbags accidentally engaging, especially when trying to remove the connectors.

jtrue28

Ha...this is amazing, and also crazy frightening. I somewhat believe I could take it apart, but then looking at your photo without the dash, I'd feel overwhelmed putting it all back together.

Also, did you not put the trim piece back around your Nav screen? Something looks off there...

Fantastic write-up!

sonyfan

iTrader: (1)

Wowwow, thanks! Now I can find out what’s ticking behind the driver side AC vent

Kevin4GS

Eddie the type of guy who takes apart his whole dash in a long sleeve button up shirt xD
Spectacular guide, bravo to you sir.

eddie420

LOL. Yes, believe me, it definitely looks overwhelming and initially was since it was my first time doing this without any how-to's from someone else. But once you start doing it, your confidence builds up and the anxiousness goes away. Plus now I understand and appreciate my car more lol. EDIT: And yes, I bought a new front camera so I needed to hook that up before putting the trim around the nav screen back. Crazy you noticed that! lol

Thanks guys! Long sleeves keeps the scratches away

bclexus

You're the man Eddie!
...

AJLex19

Kudos! Awesome write up and thanks for sharing!

Dons07

This should be made a sticky.