Can a 99 TA be driven without a dashboard?
Can a 99 TA be driven without a dashboard? I have to have the AC evap replaced, and thought I could save most of the labor if I remove the dash myself, since parts of the dash need to be replaced anyway.
Since the car is my DD, I need to know if the car can be legally driven without a dash. It is only 10-15 miles a day.
Since the car is my DD, I need to know if the car can be legally driven without a dash. It is only 10-15 miles a day.
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 324
Likes: 25
From: Waterford, MI
You might want to make sure the shop will do the work first. Some shops won't touch a car if someone has done part of the work and the customer wants to do the other part. It can leave them sitting with liability. Check with the shop first. As far as driving the car, how will you keep your cluster in place?
If you are going to drive it to the shop, then you can be careful. If you are going to drive that like a DD, then the worry should be crash protection and the dash keeping us from cutting up our body parts and puncturing the air bag. We never know when that big one is going to come and the odds are much better than winning the lottery.
To answer your question directly, there are federal DOT and there would be local State regulations for motor vehicle equipment, so you would need to check those. (I am not aware of how dash boards are addressed specifically.)
To answer your question directly, there are federal DOT and there would be local State regulations for motor vehicle equipment, so you would need to check those. (I am not aware of how dash boards are addressed specifically.)
If you are going to drive it to the shop, then you can be careful. If you are going to drive that like a DD, then the worry should be crash protection and the dash keeping us from cutting up our body parts and puncturing the air bag. We never know when that big one is going to come and the odds are much better than winning the lottery.
To answer your question directly, there are federal DOT and there would be local State regulations for motor vehicle equipment, so you would need to check those. (I am not aware of how dash boards are addressed specifically.)
To answer your question directly, there are federal DOT and there would be local State regulations for motor vehicle equipment, so you would need to check those. (I am not aware of how dash boards are addressed specifically.)
You might want to make sure the shop will do the work first. Some shops won't touch a car if someone has done part of the work and the customer wants to do the other part. It can leave them sitting with liability. Check with the shop first. As far as driving the car, how will you keep your cluster in place?
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 324
Likes: 25
From: Waterford, MI
It's not so much a legal thing more than a liability thing. You rip the dash out, they fix the AC, you put it back together and then the AC doesn't work. You think it's something they did. They don't want that coming up, because so many shops have been burned on stuff like that before. A lot of shops won't even let you bring in your own parts, because if you buy some no name brand whatever part, they put it on and it breaks, they tend to get blamed for installing the part wrong. It's just an easy way for them to avoid a headache.
Take to shop, have them evac the A/C system, r&r dash and evap on your own, take back to shop and have them suck down and recharge the system. No need to make it any more complicated and drive around with no dash carrier in the car.
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It's more that behind the dash is jagged metal and hard parts, which the plastic dash protects us from. In a crash, the back of the air bag and our body parts not touching the air bag fly up into the dash. The design of the dash keeps all of those soft things (including our bodies) from getting cut up.
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Verdad Gallardo I am having them do the evap cause they are givine me a lifetime warranty. They already did the AC comp with a lifetime warranty.