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In June of this year I bought a 2008 Lexus RX 400h, with 106K miles. Nice car, with what appears to be the standard suite of this model's problems: cracked dash top and malfunctioning center console clamshell doors.
A Coverlay dash cover arrived two days ago, which should fix the dash problem.
About the console: the open/close buttons work, although the "Open" button seems to be permanently in a partially depressed state. When pressed, the clamshell doors partially open and partially close. I can easily move them the rest of the way with my fingers. (The cupholder door works perfectly.)
To simplify clamshell door repair, I bought a console assembly from a scrapyard, with the idea of just swapping the existing console with the replacement. All the doors and buttons on the replacement work perfectly.
Only one problem: the fake wood trim on the replacement is different enough in color to be noticeable. So, two questions:
Can the plastic, fake-wood trim pieces on top of the console be removed without damage? If so, then I could swap them out.
Failing that, can the door mechanism be removed from top of the console? If so, then I could swap console tops.
The job turned out to be easier than I expected. I removed the console box from the console I bought from the scrapyard (which works perfectly) and replaced the malfunctioning box in my original console with the good one.
Center console door problem
