Replacement center dash panel for my Gen 1 2003 Prius.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165535023000?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=4N_RwaN8R9C&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=FTThic1nT2a&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

This is also available through a local Toyota dealership for about $200. Benefit being the plastic is new and will not likely crack up like the old ones do.

 

Will that be the case it'll be new it'll be new all stock that's been sitting on a shelf for how many years I don't still think they bang out these parts for a 2001 Prius I could be wrong but I seriously doubt they're injection molding plastic parts for this car still not like dash parts and that would be very reasonable no question about it I was going to say the place on that place that Mendel posts all the time . They seem to have almost every part for a lot of these cars I'm not sure about gen one but gen 2 looks like it

 

Anything you find will be same brittle even if it is in one piece, even don't look hard at it. I did the same to replace broken illumination lamps and it just shattered in bits. I ended up with welding it and reinforcing cracks with pieces of wire, can't say it is as new but at least it is in one piece.

 

car-part.com lets you search the inventory of many auto recyclers. It is possible that one of them has the part and prices & policies to suit. Good luck!

 

AlexY, that looks pretty good for having shattered into pieces! Can you provide any more info about how you welded the piece? I haven't welded plastic before but I have some big cracks in my panel it would be nice to fix sometime.

 

As always google and youtube is your friend. I used method similar to

(actual welding from time 3:50) except I didn't use any zip ties, just the material from the panel itself, weld it on not visible side of course. I don't have any photos of reinforcing with wire for this but same method I use at work to fix some industrial cases where spare parts are not available, without reinforcement thy fell apart almost instantly. Below some photo of the process, here it is additionally covered with resin glue. Wire, best if it is steel core (check with the magnet) but not really mandatory, need to be shaped in the way it will not get through the plastic and will grab both parts, place them every 2 - 3 cm (or every inch) + extra one at the ends of the crack. Smaller bits can be secured with some fast bonding glue (super glue) before welding, but be careful with fumes during welding, do it outside or with good ventilation.

 

But it won't have been baked and UV-irradiated for all those years, like one installed in a car would.

I've got all sorts of plastic items inside my house that are decades old and just fine, having not been subjected to the same environment conditions as a dash panel.

 

I got one from my local toy dealer for a little over 200.00 he told me that there were only 7 in the states and there were 2 on back order. I got it in 1 day

You can get a new center dash for a little more than 200.00 for your dealer or surche new center dash for 2003 pruis

 

Just a heads-up. I recently purchased the above-mentioned panel for my '03 Prius and in ordering, the local dealer commented that there are only half a dozen or so of these panels left in the entire US Toyota system.

The Gen 1 Prius family is now 20+ years old and it seems Toyota is allowing its inventory of spares for this family to become exhausted. I would expect that more uniques for this model will soon become 'unavailable' from Toyota.

If anyone has insight into the Toyota spares situation for this generation of Prii, I'd appreciate your comments.

Maybe this deserves its own 'sticky' along with "Who should and should not own a Gen 1 Prius".

 

Follow-up: I just finished replacing the center console panel on my '03 Prius (sun-baked and cracked), and I understand why this bit costs $200. It is a VERY complex and precision moulded part, with lots of finnicky bits and places for optical elements (to shunt around the light from the panel bulbs) and buttons. I'd guess the production yield on this moulded part is not particularly high... and there's really no room for error. I'm surprised Toyota made the decision to go with such a design.

<edit> The additional reason for the job was that all the bulbs behind the climate control knobs had expired, and so I had to replace them all... which meant replacing the panel facia, as well. So after I replaced the bulbs (an evening job, so I could check my work at night before I did the panel) I saw that my Outside Temperature reading had changed from Fahrenheit to Celsius. After I redid the panel, it flipped back to Fahrenheit.

Does anyone know how to make the temperature go to Celsius on a permanent basis?

 

Now that's interesting there. Did reattaching the panel involve reattaching any ribbon cables you had unhooked? If so, they may have the display looking at whether some pair of pins might be shorted or not, and in the US panel wiring there might be a short built in for Fahrenheit. Or there's a secret contact that gets pressed when you attach the US panel, but that seems too elaborate to be very likely.

I wish you had discovered that while I still had my Gen 1. I'd go out and play with it.

 

There should be a way to change the temp reading on the information center screen

 

I poked around on the MFD on my Prius and checked the owner's manual a few weeks ago and there sure doesn't seem to me to be any way for the end user to change the temperature unit.