Dash Covers and Sunshades: Keep the Sun From Cracking Your Dash

A dash doesn’t crack in a year. It cooks a little every day you park in the sun, and then one summer it splits.

Sun and heat dry out the plastic. It hardens, shrinks and splits, usually along the vents and the edge nearest the windshield. Dark dashes get hotter, so they go first. Protecting a dash is cheap. Fixing a cracked one is not. Use a sunshade every time, put on a matte protectant a few times a year, and add a custom-fit cover if the car lives outside.

What goes wrong in the sun

• Cracks along the vents and the windshield edge. Once they start, they keep spreading.
• Sticky or melting surfaces. Some soft-touch coatings break down in heat.
• Fading and glare. Shiny sprays make the glare worse.
• Damage beyond the dash. The same heat dries out the headliner foam and fades door trim.

What actually helps

1. A windshield sunshade. It’s the cheapest fix and the one that works best. The tradeoff is that you have to remember it, and flimsy ones sag. Pick one that fits your windshield.
2. A matte UV protectant, a few times a year. Skip silicone shine. It looks great for a day, adds glare and doesn’t stop cracking.
3. A custom-fit dash cover. This is for dashes that are already cracking or cars that sit outside all day. It hides damage and blocks the sun. It doesn’t repair anything, and a buyer can lift the edge.

You may not need a cover if the dash is clean, you park in a garage, and you use a sunshade.

Airbags and sensors

Don’t glue anything over the passenger airbag seam. A cover has to be made for your exact model, with cutouts for the sun sensor on top of the dash if you have one. A cover that blocks the airbag door is worse than a cracked dash.

What I’d buy

What to skip

• Shiny silicone dash sprays.
• Universal covers held on with sticky pads. They shift and leave residue.
• Anything that covers the airbag door.

If it’s already cracked, read cracked dashboard: repair it or cover it.