i have a 2011 f150. when we first purchased the truck i was overseas. my wife had the truck detailed a few months before i came home. i dont know what they used when they cleaned the inside of the truck. i use mothers product inside and out. we just moved from to hawaii to colorado. we have had the truck for a year now and on warm days the dash is sticky to the touch, but when it cools back down it feels normal. what could cause this?

 

It could be as simple as the residue from whatever was used to detail the truck, or as complex as the dash is dissolving from the choice of detailing fluid. When it is sticky, and you slide your fingernail across it, do you get dash material to come up?

 

i will do a small scratch test today. i didnt think about it eating the dash. thanks for the info.

 

gotta watch what some of these detail shops use....they think some of those products they use are of the "all in one" type....when they're not.....

 

I would wait for one of those warm days and just clean it with a good cleaner of your choice and see if that makes it go away. I suspect its just whatever product they slathered on to make it shiney. More than a few "detail" shops are nothing more than a guy with gallon jugs of 409, ArmorAll and BlecWhite.

 

my biggest fear is they used armorall on my interior. my dad has warned me for years not to ever use armor all on my interior for the same reason that i having now. i called him this morning about what he uses and he said he has used dow bathroom cleaner on his plastics and vinyl for 30 yrs and never had any problems. he suggested i try that to clean my dash.

 

yikes, that's why nothing but a damp cloth on a cold day touches my dash. Mine will get ever so tacky on hot days and I won't even attempt to wipe it down. My dash has never seen a cleaning chemical yet (warned dealer to not detail it at delivery). I think manufactures are trying so hard to get "soft touch" plastics in cars they don't care about maintenance of these items. As long as Motor Trend likes the soft feel it's all good in their eyes.

 

hydro1 you said yout dash gets tacky on warm days? so maybe its just how my dash is on hot days? i mean 85 and up temperatures. on cooler temps it feels normal and not tacky. should i just place a dash cover on my dash or just use a wet towel on cold days to clean it?

 

Yep, I only wipe it down in the morning or colder days otherwise the lint from the towell will adhere especially on the rubber piece in the middle of the dash. I wouldn't cover it unless you don't mind how that looks. I do use a windshield shade religiously.

 

i don't want to cover the dash. i have the truck getting repaired at a paint shop right now due to hail damage. i will just keep an eye on the dash and try wiping down when its cooler outside. i have several plans to clean this truck up with a few aftermarket touches. i already added a snug top tonneau, bedrug, magnaflow exhaust sido, weather tech mats, and window tint. now that the body shop is painting the roof and hood, i decided to go with a reflexxion cowl hood instead of the a factory hodd for 2 reasons. 1) the factory hood was almost $1,000 and the relexxion hood was $550. 2) i like the look of the reflexxion hood better