I have a 2005 Crossfire convertible, the car has 37K on it and it has lived in my garage for 95% of its life since 2005 and been under Chrysler Maxcare always. The interior is gray, and I hardly let it sit in the direct sun light. The convertible top was replaced last year.

For past year, some of the interior rubberized plastic are getting sticky to touch, for example the radio *****(volume & station) have become sticky, the side of the middle console (the Right and Left) are sticky to touch.

I have tried interior cleaners like (Turtle Wax, Meguiars, Mothers and Armor All) and their conditioner / protector and can not get rid of the stickiness, I have looked online and saw some not so similar situations on VW interior's rubberized plastic, and tried warm soapy water mix and finally rubbing alcohol, the alcohol started taking off the gray paint so I stopped, the stickiness is still on that area as well. The parts that are getting sticky are the ones with rubberized texture, but the interior parts with hard texture like the top of the dash are fine.

Does anyone have a similar issue with their crossfire interior out there?
Is there any remedy, short of replacing the parts or taking them off, cleaning and repainting?
Is there some solution that I can apply on it these parts to seal them like clear-coat etc..?

Thank you.

 

That is a typical characteristic of Mercedes interiors and body/hand lotion/hand cream ... certain lotions/creams break down the paint on the plastics. Once this starts to happen there is little you can do...

 

Haven't had the issue with the console etc. but the radio **** has been curable for me. I used a small about of mineral spirits to clean the ****. Worked well. **** looks good. Clean periodically. The console / dash painted materials (unless they are black) suck. I take excellent care of mine and it's still wearing off. Without repainting, not much you can do. I'm going to try shoe polish periodically to dress the wear areas..........

Still love my car though

 

Thank you, I have tried cleaning with warm water and mild dawn soap and the stickiness is still there, I am going to go ahead and replace those 2 sides of the console and the radio volume buttons for some reason the site blocks out the word k-n-o-b-s

If I have to do this myself, does anyone know the right steps to remove the sides of the center console, these are the 2 walls R/L of the center console where the gear shifter is located.

 

I attached a picture of the sticky surface for documentation; also I found a post on this forum on how to remove the console, just in case I have to do a DYI.

Thanks everyone for tips etc…

 

I looks like this is the cause of the issue scientifically.

". . . . . . .
There is therefore a large range of both sequential (or chain) reactions and competing reactions and that the ones which predominate depend on factors such as the composition of the vulcanizate as well as the influences of heat, light and metal catalysis. In heat ageing we are balancing the rate of reaction of oxygen with the elastomer and the rate of diffusion of the oxygen into the bulk material. If the temperature is relatively low, it has been postulated that for an unprotected vulcanizate diffusion predominates and therefore there is slow oxidation throughout the product, but as the temperature rises, the rate of oxidation increases much more than the rate of diffusion so substantial oxidation occurs on the surface and an oxidized (hard) surface skin is formed. As oxidation continues the chain breakdown may become more significant and the hard surface then softens and turns sticky. To complicate matters further, under certain conditions this order can be reversed and an initially sticky degraded surface can harden with further oxidation.
........."

The article says, it is possible to reverse this!!! Now the hunt begins, "How do you Re Oxidize Rubber or Plastic?" in DIY manner. If I figure it out, I will update the post.

Information sourced from this link
Untitled Document

 

Pulling the console is easy once you figure it out. I think four screws is it... almost positive, I've had mine out once to put in the Bin and once to add a switch.

I am still not understanding "sticky" plastic - my car is as old as yours and nothing is sticky.
If you are in Atlanta, GA, then we've got to do a mini-GTG so I can see what's going on. I want to be ready when I deal with it.

HEY - a group of us are meeting at GA400 Exit 14, at the Cracker Barrel at noon on October 3 - we leave for the Dragon at 1pm!

Wanna tag along for a fun four day weekend?

Main Thread:
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...r-4-5-6-a.html

Convoy Thread:
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...y-atlanta.html

 

thx will respond with private messaging.