PERFECDARKCL

So I was washing my car because I drove through the country yesterday and my car had become a burial ground for every dead insect on the road. I went to the local Self Car wash place. I was just going to use the High Pressure rinse and get all the bugs off my bumper. I started on the front bumper and I get pretty close and then all of a sudden I see paint from the bumper start peeling off. I was F**** shocked. I'll try to get pics tonight. But my question is if I take it to the dealer is it covered under warranty. I mean come on how can paint just peel off because you washed your car.

Please help any advice is good advice.

All Mine

Man, that sucks. What year car? How many miles? What's the production date? Warranty should cover that. But I could be wrong.

civicking

I'm sorry to say this but its your fault, those pressure washers have a ton of pressure, i can make holes in concrete with them if you hold them close enough, remember that water ton of pressure will take anything off, no paint will hold up, to take bugs off, you pre-soak the car and let them soften up and wash it. i have seen some of those places have 5000psi pressure washers, that's way too much. if the presoaking does not take them off they make special chemicals you can buy to take it off, sorry to say this but it will no be covered under warranty, its like me burning a hole in my seat and trying to have them replace it, its not a manufacturer defect its user error.

PERFECDARKCL

But Come on. I did the same on the rest of the car and nothing happened. just the bumper....and well I know this is not 100% honest but i'm not going to tell the dealer that I used a High pressure washer......They make plenty of money off people like me and other people on this board. So I say it doesn't hurt to try.

PERFECDARKCL

Oh and it's an '03 CLP with only 23K on it. Bought it almost exactly 2 years ago.

civicking

hey you can try what you want, its up to you but this is for you just so you know it chipped off the bumper because its urethane and the urethane flexes a lot easier then the metal, so it flexed when you hit it with the water and the paint chipped.

Shawn S

gto2050

Paint sux on all new cars these days....

TeamMidnightinvasion

Civicking is right and you have to be careful with powerwashers

True, but the paint now days is not as toxic as the old paint.

Acura paint on the CL and TL is pretty shitty though, at least on NHBlack

zoltanh

Those car was places do not have pressure washers that are high powered enough to take off your paint. That would put liability on them for the customer assuming thier machines are safe to use on their vehicles and you would see law suits against the car wash places all the time for people's paint getting screwed up. There isnt a warning at the car washes saying "warning pressure washer will take off your paint". There is nothing wrong with hosing your car down with the pressure washer at the car wash, its the shitty acura paint, take it back and tell them your paint shouldnt come off with normal washing. Using pressure washing, made for vehicles, to get bugs off, seems like a pretty reasonable thing to do and shouldnt harm your paint. Now it might be a diffrent story if you had some kind of uber at home pressure washing system not made for cars that you used to do it, but you did it at a CAR WASH.

civicking

if they are not that powerful how come i can put a dent in a cars quaterpanel with them, and i have taken paint off with them too but i didn't care. i think on the ones in may area says to keep the nozzle at least 1 foot from the side of the car.

peakpowermotoring

I'm pretty sure they have instructions... If they were that stupid to have high pressure washers without instructions then their liability factor would go sky high.

gto2050

Agrred but how do the Germans do it? How do the lowly Americans do it. It seems to juat bw the Japanese that can't produce a high quality (chip-proof) paint?

civicking

you do know that the cl is american right and they were all made in ohio?

PERFECDARKCL

Yes, but it is still Japanese Engineering!!!!

zoltanh

out of japanese parts and with an american paint job, thats why the engine lasts forever and the paint sucks

civicking

the japanese only enginered the engine as you can tell, but not the trans.

gto2050

Yeah but they buy paint and other items from Japanese suppliers.

zoltanh

Im pretty sure acura uses either dupot or 3m paint, those are both american paints and supposedly high quality so it must be the application process that is of sub-par quality.

berny

berny

by the way, my paint is starting to chip away too I use touch up and compound/wax it... mostly on the hood and bumper.

TeamMidnightinvasion

I have a Lexus with Black paint and it is prefectly fine, yet the Acura Black is just scratch prone.
To keep my Acura looking in top shape i almost have to wax and polish every 2-3 weeks just to keep the whirl marks hidden.

gto2050

Yeah probably....the grass is ALWAYS greener and all that stuff. Infiniti paint suxors too.

BadAcCLS

I'm pretty sure the car was repainted due to accident damage at some point, otherwise there is no reason it should do that.

I use the pressure washer on the front bumper all the time, and I've NEVER had paint chip off, nor do I have dull looking paint. Check out the pics of my car after it was detailed in the "wash&wax" section of the forums.

PERFECDARKCL

Sorry but I bought the Car Brand New.......Can't have been in an accident when i bought the car it had 12 miles on it

Shawn S

Well, dealers have been known to fix shipping damage before the customer ever sees the car, but I don’t think that’s what happened here.
I think you just had a few small nicks in the paint and the high pressure water got into the crack and pealed the paint back.
Just be more careful next time.

paulff3

Let the board know what happens at the dealer.

PERFECDARKCL

Definitely..........Thanks for everybody's Comments

RUF87

If you've got any sort of chip it can do that. If there's no chip then it should not do that . . . unless there's a flaw in the paint process.

Ruf

BadAcCLS

Sorry, didn't realize, in that case like most the other members mentioned a defect in the paint process. Good luck at the dealership, let us know what they say/do about the problem.