[gtohurstjudge]

I bought a 2001 WS6 Trans Am to collect brand new back in spring 2001. It is driven almost never and sits under two car covers in a climate controlled garage. Current mileage is 1800. I opened the dirver's door over the
weekend and discovered that the door panel cracked while sitting in the garage! The crack is about one inch long and is right at the top of the panel where it meets the glass about four inches from the rear of the door. There is
a depression in the top of the panel right where the crack is, like something is pulling down hard on the plastic right in that spot where it cracked. The other door also has this depression but has not cracked yet. The dealer wants
500 dollars for a new plastic piece of **** door panel! Does this happen to everybody's firebird or am I just the luckiest guy in town? The dealer claims
they have never seen the problem and of course they won't do anything about it because it is more than three years old.This is the kind of crap that makes me want to go out and buy a new mustang. Has anybody seen this
problem before and if so....what is pulling down on the door panel so hard as to make a depression in the plastic, and what modification can be made to
the new panel so it doesn't do the same thing in 1800 more miles?

[jfmjr1]

Can't help you on what caused it, but I owned a 2001 Camaro SS and had the same exact issue. I alsmost had it fixed under warranty at the time, but was afraid the paint would not match and look worse. It was a Black Car.

I sold the car and went back to the Old Muscle Cars, with real metal!!

John

[Ducks Goat]

I own a 99 WS6 Formula and both of my door panels are split in the same area as well.I bought the car new and just like yours the cracks seem to have appeared overnight. I've made it a point to look at the panels of other F-bodies when at shows or whatever and almost half have had the same condition. I've seen low mile cars cracked and high mile cars that weren't. I know this doesn't answer the question of why it's happening, but at least you know that your're not alone.

[gtohurstjudge]

Can you tell me how long the cracks eventually get? Do they spread and become
4 or 5 inches long or do they just stay a half inch long?

[Ducks Goat]

They have seemed to stop at about 1 inch. This is a well pampered car,so there was nothing done by myself to cause this. I just bought a 93 Formula to use as a driver with 144000 miles on it,it has no cracks at all.

[gtohurstjudge]

A friend of mine started a blog on the LS2 website and found out that apparently
every one of the door panels on 99-02 firebirds is cracking in the same place as mine or is getting ready to. I am gathering their posts in an effort to get Pontiac to redesign
the door panel to solve the problem. If they won't acknowledge this and fix it there is going to be a class action law suit....I am not going to rest until this is taken care of!

[BLKBRD]

gtohurstjudge,

I've got a '99 Firehawk with the same issue. The car now has roughly 73k miles and had door panel cracks when I bought it almost two years ago with 45k miles on it. I know, I drive it too much. I'm getting ready to sell it for just that reason. The cracks are about 1.25 inches in length and have not grown since I bought the car. It's obvious that they are stress cracks. Anyway, I spoke to several individuals with late model T/A's at a car show recently and they said that Pontiac will replace them free of charge. I'm fairly certain that if I approached them with my '99 car, they'd tell me to take a hike, but you may have better luck with your '01. I had a '95 Comp T/A with pretty much the same panels, and with more than 120k miles in 2003, no cracks. I'll add this as well, the dash on my '99 Firehawk cracked last year. I watched it progress over a three day period. It cracked diagonally from the padded area on the drivers side, about 4" in from the A pillar, and across to the windshield at about a 45 degree angle. This really pissed me off, and I am religous about using the windshield screens when I park the car. This could have been a great car, but GM obviously had their head up their a$$ in a number of areas. I won't even talk about piston slap during cold starts and my car is the quietest that I've heard so far.

[gtohurstjudge]

This thread is getting more depressing by the minute. It is obvious that the
bean counters got involved and changed the plastic materials on the 99 and up
f-bodies to crap that is brittle as a saltine cracker. I wonder how much a dash panel costs, and I wonder what you have to remove to change it. I am extremely depressed
over this cracking plastic **** in a car that cost 30,000 dollars! There is a reason
why GM is unable to sell their cars anymore. I guarantee you that you could park a Toyota in the desert of Death Valley for ten years with the windows rolled all the way up and the door panels would not crack, nor would the dash. It looks like if i want to
keep the car I will have to spend another 30,000 dollars on extra plastic parts.

[RAM AIR 1967]

I have a 1995 Formula Convertible and two 1999 WS6 Convtibles all with white and gray interior and no cracking. Black held up best in the 1970 - 1981 F cars. What color is your cars plastic parts.
Joe

[gtohurstjudge]

Joe, my interior is charcoal gray. The car has never been exposed to
hot or cold weather and only exposed to enough sunlight to accumulate
1800 miles. One guy on the LS-2 website told me his 99 cracked when it was
only one year old and had 7,000 miles on it. I would advise you to buy extra
panels for when yours crack if you plan on keeping the car. I am going to do my darndest to get GM to redesign these sorry plastic parts but I am not
optimistic that anything short of a class action lawsuit will result in any action
being taken.

[BLKBRD]

My interior on my '99 is also charcoal gray, the same as my '95 that didn't crack. It is very possible that there was a mod to the door shell that is causing this on the '99 and later cars.

[GasTiresOil]

wow...this is wierd! I have an '02 WS6 that I bought new in jan of '02, I have put just under 77K miles on it in that time....HARD miles I might add....I've been very happy with the car but this weekend I was detailing it and noticed these same cracks that you are describing! I never heard of it before...and I've been on LS1.com, LS1tech.com and the others since '02! guess I never looked into it because It wasn't an issue for me until now! it sucks, and I don't get it.......anyway you are not alone!

[FLYNLOW]

My 2001 parts car also has the cracks though they are minor. There was a very big post and I believe its even stickied on ls1tech.com. Its a very common problem on the later f-bodies. The LT1 cars don't crack though.

[67TIGER]

I have the same problem on my '01 WS6.
Passenger door panel is fine (for now) but the drivers side panel is cracked almost to the leather insert. New door panels are roughly $500.00 ea.
I hate replacing one only to have the same problem happen again.

[judgeragtop]

No cracks yet on my 2002 WS6 convertible. 21k miles. Thanks a lot GTOHurstJudge...Now everytime I get in I will be looking for the crack...

[gtohurstjudge]

The first thing you will notice is that a low place will appear in the top of the door panel like the plastic is warping....a few months later the crack will appear. I
am so depressed over having to look forward to dealing with this problem indefinitely
that I am probably going to sell the car and get another 60's car.

[FLYNLOW]

I think the problem traces back to how far the window drops when you roll it down. If you adjust the window stop so teh window doenst go down any farther than the weatherstripping it supposedly cures the problem. If not, find a set of earlier door panels...

[gtohurstjudge]

I never roll the window all the way down or all the way up because I know how
fragile the sorry window regulators are on the car

[Mr_GTO]

I never had any problems with the regulators in either of my two cars.

[vertigto]

For once, having an LT1 4th gen ain't such a bad thing...lol.