pnerger@yahoo.com

On my 2005, the dealer said that it was not a warranty item -- although they did fix some other small things as part of the warranty. I used a black rubberized paint on it. Not perfect but it is better than the pealing. Too bad their is not a better solution than simply replacing the entire control unit. Paul

Well, my solution worked for awhile but the elastic was just too stretched to work for any length of time. So I went back to my original idea which seems to be working also. I put the top halfway up (or down depending upon your level of optimism :lol: ) I removed the two velcro straps on each side which hold the headliner to the frame. This provides more room for access. I removed the screw and washer (part 1 and 2) using a stub-nose driver with the right star bit and a stub nose screwdriver. I pulled out the tab with the old, stretched out elastic. On the top-half (the side that was not stretched out), I counted down and there were 4 slots in the elastic and it was about 2 inches to where the original screw was holding the elastic to the frame. On the lower side, there were 5 slots in the elastic. I cut 5 inches of 3/4 inch, braided, industrial elastic (cost $0.84 for 1meter at Joanne's frabric). I cut off the old elastic from the canvas tab (I did not both to remove the old stitching but cut it clean on the edge of the trapazoid). Using a canvas needle and heavy duty polyester thread, I sewed the new elastic onto the remnants of the old elastic. I then used a small knife to run a small slit along the new elastic that was 2 inches from the non-canvas end. I replaced the screw to anchor the elastic. Operated the top. And it works fine once again. When I opened up and looked at the old elastic, it was in pretty bad shape. Literally no spring left in the lower half. The upper half was still 3/4 inch wide, but the lower half had been stretched so much that it was half the width. I'm told that the spring strength of elastic is determined by its width and certainly the 3/4 inch elastic has so much more spring in it than the old stretched out elastic. Hopefully this fix will last a year or two. >>>>>>>>> Just an update after a couple of months of the fix. Working perfectly!

I also live in So Cal and have the same problem. The elastic is overstretched and has no spring left it in at all (either side). What I'm planning to do, is to remove the screw holding the free end of the elastic (Screw 1 in the diagram) take a piece of 3/4 width industrial elastic which I will stretch out to full length and then cut. Next, I will hand stitch (using two needles and one piece of industrial, polyester thread) one end of the elastic to the trapezoidal material. Finally, I will reattach the screw. It seems like a straight forward procedure and it certainly can't be any worse than what is currently there. Has anyone else tried a similar procedure? If not, I'll come back and post the results. Thanks, Paul Now for the update. I planned on replacing the elastic but I did NOT have to. Instead, it is possible to make a quick adjustment and no need to tie things. Below are the steps that I followed: I put the top halfway up (or down depending upon your level of optimism :lol: ) I removed the two velcro straps on each side which hold the headliner to the frame. This provides more room for access. I removed the screw and washer (part 1 and 2) using a stub-nose driver with the right star bit. I pulled out the elastic to replace it, but I noticed that it has slots for tightening the elastic and still had some spring left in it. And I decided to see if it would be enough to make it work. [*] I replaced the screw and washer to hold the elastic but I inserted the screw into the elastic two notches up from the original position making it tighter. [*] I replaced the velcro. [*] Viola. It works perfectly. After all was said and done, the procedure took less than 30 minutes. Paul