[Andrew224]

I know it's been discussed here in numerous posts, but after searching quite a while, I haven't found anyone with answers.

I have the sticky button problem with my radio controls and other buttons and knobs on the dash. I'd like to take them out and send them in to be redone.

Has anyone here been able to remove the trim pieces and get the buttons out? Could you please point me in the right direction. If nothing else, I guess I will take it in to the dealer ($$) so I don't wind up breaking things ($$$$$).

 

[JalanJalan]

been there, done that

sorry no pictures, but its definitely do-able, especially if you've done anything like install a car radio, in fact easier I would think.

this is for the coupe, not GS:

the display screen has thin slots on the sides, nearly hidden by the leather. a very flat blade screwdriver can be used to pry out both sides a little at a time, be careful to cover the leather first. once its loose, unplug the wires.

the area around the shifter (CC) has a tiny hole at the bottom, more like a notch at the bottom of the circular piece that houses the shifter. you need something like a hook to get in there then pull straight up the round shifter unit. if you are not careful, you will chip the finish off the metal here, be careful. even a tiny hook covered with heat shrink would be good. unplug the wires

there are I think a few screws at the top of the metal console at the top behind where the screen was, and a couple more at the bottom under the shifter that you just removed.

unscrew all that.

lift the center console panel out. disconnect the wires that go to the A/C controls and the buttons beneath for the sport, MSP, etc.

take the screen, and the panel indoors spread out a newspaper on the kitchen table. tell wife to shut up.

you will need a very very tiny phillips head the take the back off the lcd unit. the black plastic on mine was extremely brittle, like spun sugar, it did snap. even just tightening the screws too much on re-assembly with snap the circular part that the screw head is on right off! be careful.

the a/c and button units dissassemble with a medium phillips head.

you will eventually get all the buttons completely out. you have to take apart just about everything. as you do it, take careful note of how the units were assembled. the order of the buttons is in the manual but exactly how to re-assemble everything is not. the turn around time is 1 week.

Installation is reverse of removal. I can't stress enough how brittle all the black plastic parts are, do not overtorque anything unless you mean to break it cause you will.

Good luck!

JJ

 

[Andrew224]

Wish me luck

Thanks JJ. I have a Coupe as well.

I'm going to attempt this probably the first week of December as I hate to be without my car in the event of a nice day (not too many left here in Illinois).

I will take pictures (lots of them) to facilitate putting everything back together properly. I will share what I come up with here in the forum when I do.

Thanks for the tips... I'll just tighten the screws down enough so they aren't loose.

 

[Andrew224]

Diving into it!

Ok, I started one of my winter projects on the Mas.

I took the center console apart today and have the sticky buttons / knobs / vent out and ready to be shipped out to STICKYNOMORE.COM. I just sent them an email requesting a quote, shipping info, etc... Hope to hear back soon and have my Mas. back together soon.

I've taken a lot of pictures and will be doing a step by step DIY for anyone else that might be interested in doing this to their cars.

Brittle is the best way to describe some of the plastic. Some just disintegrated in my hands even with trying to be delicate with it. Hopefully everything goes back together ok!

I must admit, I'm a little nervous.

 

[DesertDawg]

That seems fairly daunting... not the removal process, but the fact that certain pieces were falling apart in your hands - YEESH!

Does anybody know or can pinpoint what precipitates the sticky-ness the most on the plastic finishes? My car is an '02, but I don't have this going on, really... is it humidity? heat? Cold & hot seasonal temperatures combined in alternating seasons? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?

 

[Andrew224]

I think it's just the coating breaking down. There have been discusions about this before, here and in F-Chat and there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer as to why this happens. If your car doesn't have this problem, don't push it. Don't press too hard on the buttons and don't use any type of cleaning agent on them. The only buttons that are bad on my car were ones that get pressed often. Possibly, once they started going bad, the previous owner tried to clean them or fix them and made them worse. With my car, most were fine but a few were horrible. Ferraris have this problem too, it's been around a while and it's very common.

I got my car with the buttons like this and was the biggest eyesore on my car as far as I was concerned. It made the interior look wore out.

 

[cardiffGiant]

Hey Andrew. My Coupe is still at the shop, but I was thinking about tackling this project this winter as well. I would be very interested in seeing how the buttons look like when they come back from StickyNoMore. Robbie redid most of the my interior pieces last year and they look great, but the radio/climate/window cluster still looks terrible. I'm a little concerned about how the decal method will turn out. Hopefully we can meet up when you're done and the weather breaks a little, I'm just in Naperville.

 

[285ferrari]

After doing hundreds and hundreds of parts, I believe this -- The plastic from the factory is not the greatest to begin with. Cheap plastic is used on Maserati/Ferrari cars. I have seen plastic with gouges, scrapes, lines, etc under the coating. ABS plastic once molded needs a chance to "outgas" just like fresh paint. Maserati/Ferrari do not allow these parts a proper outgassing time period before coating them in the soft coating. Over time, that plastic starts to outgas and break down the coating.

Think about how many Ford's or Toyota's interior parts do this? None, because the ABS plastic is colored, molded and left like that as a finished piece, not coated usually. Given plenty of time to outgas--Hence, a big portion of the "new" car smell. That new car smell is adhesives, glues, plastics, carpeting, etc all outgassing so to say...

I have done parts for Enzo's, numerous F50's that basically don't get driven and live in a climate controlled environment away from UV light. Those parts should never get sticky, but they do. So that rules out cleaning products, UV light and touching....

That is my best guess as to why this happens....

 

[DesertDawg]

That new car smell is adhesives, glues, plastics, carpeting, etc all outgassing so to say...

Damn, and I always thought that "new car smell" was a combination of charred asbestos & ceramic, melted molybdenum, and re-vulcanized rubber... so you say I've been doing it wrong, then? lol

:ninja2:

 

[285ferrari]

Damn, and I always thought that "new car smell" was a combination of charred asbestos & ceramic, melted molybdenum, and re-vulcanized rubber... so you say I've been doing it wrong, then? lol

:ninja2:

Just what I have always been told, could be wrong though... I have actually heard people saying that the dealer sprays a special spray in there to make it smell like that...kinda funny....

 

[Andrew224]

Robbie redid most of the my interior pieces last year and they look great, but the radio/climate/window cluster still looks terrible. I'm a little concerned about how the decal method will turn out. Hopefully we can meet up when you're done and the weather breaks a little, I'm just in Naperville.

Sure, you can can have a look when everything is said and done. They can't look any worse than melted globs of black goo with white showing through around the edges.

I can't say that I'm happy about spending money to fix buttons on a radio that stinks. If I ever decide to put the money up for a custom touch screen set up, I guess that I could sell my StickyNoMore buttons.

For now, my biggest concern is the radio going back together properly. The plastic back cracked in a couple places and the plastic disintegrated around a few screws as I unscrewed them. I'm thinkning I'll have to use some washers to secure that plate once it's time to put everything back together. I doubt that I can obtain a new piece alone.

 

[lozcb]

That seems fairly daunting... not the removal process, but the fact that certain pieces were falling apart in your hands - YEESH!

Does anybody know or can pinpoint what precipitates the sticky-ness the most on the plastic finishes? My car is an '02, but I don't have this going on, really... is it humidity? heat? Cold & hot seasonal temperatures combined in alternating seasons? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?

Think it must be a weather thing (hot climates ) doesn't seem to be an issue in the uk and northern europe , on the uk forum we have a few from the middle/far east with the same problem stickynomore is the common answer

regards loz

 

[285ferrari]

I can't say that I'm happy about spending money to fix buttons on a radio that stinks. If I ever decide to put the money up for a custom touch screen set up, I guess that I could sell my StickyNoMore buttons.

Andrew---If you ever do a custom setup, I'd be willing to purchase the stock buttons from you....

 

[Andrew224]

Okay, it's been a few weeks... I just got back from a trip to Thailand, which I must say was a beautiful country, not to mention the gorgeous women!

First let me say that Robbie at StickyNoMore is a grade A businessman. Initially there was an issue with some of my buttons as it seemed that somewhere along the line, a previous owner had tried to refurbish the buttons using another method (which looked pretty bad). Robbie attempted to clean them up but ran into problems and the buttons were ruined as the old gunky finish would not strip off. He went out of his way and obtained a new set of buttons for me at no additional charge. The other radio buttons were refurbished without a problem and look great. He kept me abreast of what was happening and even with the problems he ran into, had my buttons returned to me in about 10 days. So when I returned home today, my buttons were waiting for me.

I couldn't wait and put everything back together this evening and the dash looks so much better. The job was very professional. I would not hesitate with doing more business with StickyNoMore. The interior of my car doesn't look "tired" anymore. It's a very noticable improvement.

Here are before and after pictures. I'm working on a PowerPoint slide show on a DIY button removal and replacement for others that want to have their buttons refurbished. I'll post it up under a new thread when I complete it.

 

[Vincenzo]

Andrew - the buttons look great. Good to hear that StickyNoMore is a first class operation. Sounds like they went above & beyond given the situation.

 

[BeeYouZeeZee]

Andrew... Your MSP button changed to ASR???? I'm confused

 

[Andrew224]

Dang BUZZ, nothing gets by you... Those five were the ones that were not refinishable and a donor car had to be tracked down for parts. Apparently the donor car had ASR on it's button and not MSP.

I can't even find the difference between ASR and MSP. Are there vehicles that have just ASR instead of everything MSP encompasses? Those buttons weren't refinished, they were in excellent condition so they were left alone. Robbie offered to redo them with his system free of charge if I wanted (or I can have him do it later).

I'm fine with it. It looks so much better than it did with the old wore out buttons. I doubt anyone I take for a ride would ever notice the difference (99.9% of women wouldn't know the difference even after I explained it to them). But what they did notice is gooey buttons!

 

[BeeYouZeeZee]

Dang BUZZ, nothing gets by you... Those five were the ones that were not refinishable and a donor car had to be tracked down for parts. Apparently the donor car had ASR on it's button and not MSP.

I can't even find the difference between ASR and MSP. Are there vehicles that have just ASR instead of everything MSP encompasses? Those buttons weren't refinished, they were in excellent condition so they were left alone. Robbie offered to redo them with his system free of charge if I wanted (or I can have him do it later).

I'm fine with it. It looks so much better than it did with the old wore out buttons. I doubt anyone I take for a ride would ever notice the difference (99.9% of women wouldn't know the difference even after I explained it to them). But what they did notice is gooey buttons!

If you dated Mt. Prospect girls they'd notice. A better class then those Homer Glen girls you've been dating

 

[Andrew224]

BUZZ, I couldn't agree more.