Yes and yes....

Tks for the great pics and effort to share!!!

Yeah the reupholstering is a good idea too. But, like you are mentioning, I would probably want to get the drivers side instrument cover covered to match.

What would be the shit, so to speak, would be to cover both in a black suede with white stitching around the edges... It would be similar to an Austin Martin DB9 dash:ylsuper:

Just put mine in today, easiest 1/2 hour ever spent on the car and 10 minutes of that was when I was done and wondering what I had missed. :)
I may take my old one and get it covered as a backup, but I had already bought one...so........

Couple quick notes though.


1.) I had another airbag cable strap that I had to pop out with needle nose as it held everything in place unless you popped it out. The location is circled in green in this picture, but you don't appear to have it. It fits into the metal piece you can see running over the cable before the "Y".



2.) Doesn't really matter but when you transfer the airbag over to the new dash panel, there are leather flaps on the underside of the airbag assembly that are sort of loose and hanging, just be sure they are neatly tucked one over the other when you mount the airbag assembly into the new dash.

I was reading about this, My 2006 RX8 has this problem, and I'd like to avoid paying dealer markup fees. I've had no luck on ebay. Is there a go-to place for parts around here? Thanks in advance for the help.

I sent a message to this seller http://www.ebay.com/itm/250861485178?item=250861485178&viewitem=&vxp=mtr#ht_539wt_922
I asked if he would be willing to seperate the items and sell the airbag for $150.

I'll let you know when he replies. You should try and make offers because thats how I got mine for so cheap.

Thank you Rocketman, I appreciate it.

this thread is great - especially after reading so many others with people showing issues with their airbag covers.

Now I know what to do if mine goes bad.

I also liked the idea of having the old one upholstered in case a new/used one cannot be sourced.

Thanks guys for the great info!

Probably should be in the marketplace forum, but I recently sold my RX8 right before I had a chance to fix this problem. I paid 200 on ebay to have the airbag unit and passenger dash panel shipped to me. I obviously now have no use for it. PM me and let me know if you're interested.

Pretty dumb to put it here - at least put it in the Parts section too....

Thanks for the positive reinforcement, Copernicus. Was in a rush. Felt it was relevant here considering my previous posts. Will put it up in the other sections later.

I would have done the same thing...obvious that It is helpful, not only to sell the part, but to all of us interested in the thread. I understand about the parts section, but this info would get faster if you are subscribed to this thread.

Don't understand why the negative remark/attitude.

Tks.:Peace:

Tks for the info!!!

What sort of upholstery shop did you take it to? I did a quick google maps search and all the shops popping up are antique furniture shops.

You should be able to search for an auto and marine upholstery shop in your area. If you cant find anything then try calling some of the local dealerships and they could probably recommend someone nearby.

Good call. I'll probably be getting this done after Christmas. $75 is way more digestible option, especially if it's better quality vinyl than what Mazda used. I'll post my results too.

I'm thinking of doing some console and other interior pieces with some of this. http://www.flxpaint.com/FLX-Paint_Gloss_Colors.htm I think the white pearl would match pretty well with my exterior. What do you guys think about using this on the silver parts of the interior and covering my cracked airbag cover?

It's stupid.
As socrates would tell you:
Glossy interior = reflections. Reflections = no good. Therefore Glossy interior = no good.
If they offer anything that's not glossy go for it though.

I'll agree with the above comment. Glossy multi colored dash panels looks like high school kid inexperienced stuff. Try to keep your 8 classy and clean looking to stick with it's original style. The car will get a lot more heads turned if you do.

Thanks for the DYI soon I will also replace the cover on my 8.

Wow! This is alot easier than the Mazda service department made it out to be!
Can't wait to get in my car and not look at those three horrendous cracks.. :eyetwitch

Sorry to bump old thread (came up in google search of topic)..

My 04 just started a small rip horizontally at the top.
Would removing it and gluing some thin material to it at the back of the tear to keep it from getting worse be a serious safety issue?
Something like.. idk.. craft paper.
or even thick trash bag material.

Thread bump any body used 3m 3d cf vinyl wrap? Post pics :)

wow I wish I saw this years ago lol. Been meaning to take care of this issue for a while. Awesome thread!

Some advice for those who are doing a 'home repair' job, are you certain that your passenger air bag will deploy OK?, I would hate to think that a home 'vinyl wrap' may restrict or prevent deployment of Air Bag in any collision, and the consequences.