This past summer, about five or six months after purchasing my X, I noticed that the armrest on the passenger side had some of the paint rubbed off of it (I guess it is paint). The "paint" is dark gray and the surface under it is lighter gray. It doesn't look too bad, and actually it adds character.

How'd it happen? Well, I don't know for sure, but I am pretty sure that my 13-year-old son rested his leg against it, and he probably had insect repellent (OFF) on at the time.

Yesterday, I took my X to the dealer to have a few nits corrected before the warranty for those things expire. I brought up the armrest, and I told them the same thing I told you, that I suspect that my son's leg, with insect repellent, was in contact with the armrest. So the service rep jumped on that. "We can't cover that, your fault, etc." She wrote on the ticket "Son sprayed chemical on armrest."

I told her that is not what I said or what happened. Anyway, it didn't bother me that they're not covering it, because like I said, it's part of the character of my truck and it probably was our fault.

Now, after the service people finished doing the other stuff and I was signing the papers, the rep then said that she ordered the armrest part and that they were going to go ahead and replace it. Cool. We'll see if that happens. If they do replace it, I'll post in the Dealership forum.

Backtrack... actually, I don't really think it is all our fault. I think Nissan is somewhat at fault to make a surface in the passenger area of the vehicle that will discolor or rub off when in contact with a common substance used by people, especially outdoor people.

LESSON FOR XTERRA OWNERS OUT THERE -When out in your vehicle (which is designed to support outdoor lifestyles) following your outdoor lifestyle, and you happen to be using insect repellent while following your outdoor lifestyle, be careful. You might melt the paint inside your outdoorsy vehicle.

Keep in mind that most interior pieces are painted..Paint can be discolored or removed easy with a little application and time with the right chemicals...

Michael

You brought up something almost every fly fisherman becomes aware of after ruining a $50 flyline. DEET (common in insect repellants) eats away at many plastics, especially fly lines and auto trim. Be careful about over-spray outside of the vehicle as well.

Find a new dealer. If they're jackasses about something minor like that, they obviously don't have much of a "customer service ethic."

If they end up not coming through with a new armrest under warranty, simply go to another dealer and say "Hey, I just noticed this discoloration on my armrest. You guys can fix that under warranty, right?" Let them take it from there...

Actually, mine did this same thing, as did MMUTK. Make sure its not just dirt. I though my armrest was worn, but a towel, some water, and some elbow grease had it looking new again.
John

Off will also do a nice job of stripping the finish on some rifle stocks...

OFF will also do a good job of melting nylon in tents. I found this out the hard way after a bottle leaked and melted a hole in the tent bottom.

That happened to me this summer with my fathers new Frontier. We were at the drive-in, sprayed generously with OFF, and all sweat a good deal on the armrest. A white, chalky haze did appear but disapeared before I got too upset.

Wow, just think, you're breathing and adsorbing it into your skin... I know, I know

OFF can be bad news around optics, as well.

I think you might be able to replace the arm rest "finisher" pad rather inexpensively if the dealer wont cover it. The part costs about 4 dollars.
Check out:
http://www.xterraparts.com/Merchant2/mer...&Category_Code=

You might have to search or contact Xterraparts.com to find out if the correct color is available.

Thanks, ChrisNYC! I didn't know it was so inexpensive, and I never would have guessed it. I thought all parts were expensive.

That may be why the Nissan dealer decided to come back and say they would cover it anyway. We'll see if they go through with it.

Thanks again.

If you think OFF is bad on interiors and camping/hunting gear try Muskol. It eats up everything. Made me really wonder what it does to skin and what's underneath. The alternative looks better. Just get real smoky from a smudge.

I used to work for Toyota as an engineer, I tested many of the paints that are used on interior plastic trim. There are some substances and chemicals that destroy the paint that we had no answer for. Some of them were beef tallow (crisco), suntan lotion and as mentioned OFF. It makes it worse if you apply heat. If you get any of these products on paint, get if off as quick as you can.

Kevin

I play paintball and lost the face of my Timex to OFF. It was fine in the morning and was gone in the afternoon. The plastic was clouded and the paint peeled off.

We have stuff like OFF at work. It is supposed to be applied to our clothes the day before we work in them.