Another post bites the dust, and another one down. . . . 
Someone is flag happyā¦
I agree with Volvo, my 1st thought was I would be going down to the car wash and asking for the manager to see what they will do about itā¦
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I thought about this the very moment i saw the cluster lens becoming damaged but because of past experience with car wash stations when I had the Camry, when their robot machine damaged the bumper, and they denied lability, I thought Iād not bother waste my time getting them accepting responsibility.
For the sake of this post though, I went straight to the car wash just a few minutes ago and showed them the damaged. As expected, they denied liability and confidently expressed confidence in their interior products, said their interior cleaner cannot and will not destroy a car interior materials.
Before leaving the wash, they offered me a free wash.
When you are deaf and physically disabled, itās tough challenging these things.
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I watched a YouTube video last night of a guy changing the lens of his Lexus IS. I couldnāt believe how simple something like this is, and it took him about 15 minutes to get the job done.
So I called local shops today for quotes. No one wants to work on the car for 15 mins. They all said itās a 2hr work, and their labor is very close to what you mentioned.
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Since you say the job can be done in 15 minutes, but you canāt do it yourself b/c you have some physical handicaps, one idea, you supply the replacement lens & offer to pay one of your diyāer friends to replace the lens for you. Tell them youāll pay the same hourly rate as the shops are quoting , up to 15 minutes. $250/4 === $62.50. And I presume it would be another $62.50 to put the replacement lens back.
You might not have to buy a replacement lens either, once you get the current one out and have a chance to experiment on cleaning/polishing it.
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I wish I knew how to post YouTube videohere. Iād show you guys the easy work.
When you are watching the vdo the url of the vdo appears in the box at the top of the screen. Just copy & paste that to your post.
Thanks George. Very helpful on this board.
Here is the video.
That video was edited for viewing. 45 minutes to replace the cluster lens is more realistic. If the technician takes too long, you can āeditā the event down to 15 minutes and tell the tech thatās all he is worth.
If you rush the process, you can expect dust inside the cluster and scratches in the new lens.
BTW, the lens can be polished without removing the cluster, I have seen dozens of clusters with these marks.
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True enough, I donāt see that being a 15 minute job. The other day I needed to remove some limbs from a small tree. It took me 15 minutes just to gather the tools I needed to sharpen the chain saw before I even approached the actual tree.
To do anything but try polish is an amazing waste of effort.
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Toyota wants $340+tax for the job with me supplying the parts myself.
My brother in law is pretty handy person and said he would watch the video to see if the job is simple enough.
I think, based on what I saw from the video, I could do this myself in about 15 minutes if I werenāt crippled by health issues. My fingers would dislocate trying to pull apart the parts.
When reading this, I paid close attention 
He said the polish would get rid of most of the stuff but probably not all of it.
So he wasnāt confident the polish would correct the problem 100%. He then showed where I could get a replacement, which would guarantee 100% correction.
And I fancied the 100% solution 
Iād never ignore anyone on here, unless they were being provocative. 
Optical quality diamond slurry isnāt overly expensive in small quantities. Beta Diamond Products is one vendor.
My sister has a Camry like the one I had ( 2012) with 200k miles on it. The headlamp changed from crystal clear to yellow and she was having issues seeing at nights going home from work. Her coworkers recommended many solutions and she tried them all. She consulted my advice on what to do ( the wrong guy to ever ask about car stuff ) and I told her I had no idea and maybe she could just buy a pair of new headlamps. She wasnāt fond of that and decided to take her car to a professional.
Interestingly, the professional told her nothing would work for long, unless she got new headlamps.
Clueless me felt proud that day 
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Saw this on Reddit.
The OP for the picture here writes : ā Anyone got any tips how to clean the smudges on this gauge cover? I was cleaning my interior with 303 interior cleaner and sprayed it onto my gauge cover, next day the cleaner ate into the plastic. Ive tried using meguiars plastx but nothing. ā
So plastix polish never worked for him.
Iāll try the vinegar and soap suggestion, as well as diamond slurry.
Will let you all know how it turns out.
Thank you.
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That is a disaster, I never had one that bad. I use buffing compound for automotive finishes, I never purchased a special product to restore a damaged cluster.
I love these kind of challenges! OK, so letās spray the same liquids you used on another lens in the car. If it suffers the same damage, you agree to fix both of them. Letās see how confident they are thenā¦
Completely understand the challenges presented by your situation. Too bad you canāt get someone to advocate on your behalf with them. Probably not worth the effort but it galls me to hear this is how they addressed it.
It appears smooth because it is. The etching is not very deep, just enough to roughen the surface and spoil the clarity of the lens.
If this was mine, I would at least try plastic polish to see if it resolves the issue. No need to remove anything to try that. Replacement is the last resort.
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