A-SPEK

I just got back from a touchless carwash, and I found chipped paint spots on my hood. I'm pretty sure when I bought the car last week, it was smooth.

Is it possible that high pressure washer on a touchless carwash cause chipping on your paint? The weird thing is, I only found them on the hood area!??!!

Please help.

vtec260

Maybe the car was in accident previously and new paint didn't adhere to it well enough. My wife's van had a chip on the bumper and pressure washer blasted it into bigger chip on it. Oh well, at least it is plastic and won't rust.

Razzi

it's completely possible and logical. you shoot hot water jet at an area of weak paint and it's bound to flake.

A-SPEK

I dont think so. The records are clean. No accidents.
I'm planning to get it into bodyshop this spring and get it fixed.

Anyone else have experienced the same thing?

jjashaa

iTrader: (23)

probably previous owner got the car repainted since it had chips and might not have been on the record and got a crappy paint job... who knows, i use a pressure washer but i don't full blast it 2 feet away,

fsttyms1

And its also possible that during the week you have owned it it has gotten stone chips from rocks on the road.

And YES its possible for pressure washers to do it. While most at most car washes arent really powerful enough to do it, if you have a chip or flaking paint it will. Also if its really cold out and you hit it with the warm water it could cause it as well

A-SPEK

Why it is so complicated just to keep my car chip and scratch free!?!?

I love my TL and it really upset me to see chips or scratches on my baby. If I want to bring it to Acura bodyshop to get it fix, should I wait until spring? If I wait until spring, will the rust settle in by then? I just dont want to get any rust on it, especially with the chips on the paint.

Simba91102

It's not really complicated, it's just not possible. If you drive the car (especially dark colors; I love silver for more reasons than just the color), you're going to pick up little nicks, chips, and scratches. Clear bra helps tremendously, but it sounds like it's too late for that. Road rash is a fact of life. If you want to get the front painted, I'd wait till spring if you're in an area where you have winter and the roads stay crappy. I agree with other posts that suggest that the front of the car may have already been repainted and the car wash took off some that paint.

co1063

i would like to know too since I have some chips and scratches on my bumper. Are our bumpers/hoods metal and will they rust?

vtec260

Get a carbon fiber hood. Do they crack under our Canadian weather at all?

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

Our bumpers are plastic, the rest of the exterior body is metal and it can rust.

A-SPEK

Do they have to repainted the whole hood if I want to fx the paint chips?

Or, they would just do the touch ups on the chips?

How much is the average cost for a job like this?

Bearcat94

Actually, I'd guess the previous owner/dealership/car lot used some touch up on existing chips and you just "uncovered" them.

You CAN avoid chips, road debris, etc. Park it in the garage and leave it there. Seriously, you CANNOT avoid bits of rock, stone or other road debris from impacting the car from time-to-time. A fairly small rock at 70 mph is practically lethal; we should be happy cars hold up as well as they do.

01tl4tl

Get dealer touchup paint and cover the metal for the winter- you can go back and sand it down and make it nice later
For now- get some wax on her and wash by hand. There can be bad stuff in the car wash brushes

A-SPEK

It is actuallt touchless carwash. I wouldnt go to the ones with brushes. NO NO.

The touch up job, when they done with it, can I see the touch up job?(e.g. discolorations, bump, etc) Or will the finish result after the touch up blended together with the rest of the paint?

I prefer to do get it totally fix and not to have come back later. Is it okay if I do it now instead of waiting untill spring? Like I said, there is no rust or anything like that.

fsttyms1

Its only going to be as good as the amount you pay. There is NO way to stop iot from happening again this side of parking the car in a garage and never driving it. Use COMMON SENSE while driving it. Like dont follow closely to other cars, park away from others in parking lots etc... will help to reduce the likely hood that you will get chips and dings. Bras/clear bras will help reduce the amount of chips and sand blasting to the front of the car.

Get some touch up paint and a tooth pick and apply it to the clean surface that has teh chip untill its covered to protect it. (apply to a warm hood)

EL19

iTrader: (4)

clear bra is probably one of the best inventions for car paint...I alos have a NBP and whoever had it before me had it painted with very cheap paint. My whole bumper is freckled with white spots now. im just going to hold off until the spirng to have the whole car painted, because whoever had it before me also swirled the paint...its going to be a $3000 job but its going to be done correctly and im going to care for it like it should have been...

fsttyms1

There really is no such thing as "cheap" paint. There are cheap paint JOB's.

And most swirl marks can be polished out. Id save my money and have a professional detail the car to see what it really needs.

6MTUA5

iTrader: (2)

A "touchless" car wash still has brushes, just not scrubbing like you're thinking about. How is it going to clean your car without touching it?

fish008

I think he meant literal brushes, as in cloth brushes that collect sand and dirt and then rub/scratch them along your car. The "touchless" car wash doesn't do that. The argument I have heard against those is that they force the dirt into the paint. I only go to the “touchless” ones because the ones with brushes do more damage in my opinion. I know people who have had horrible scratches from those brush washes. But the worst of all are those car washes with brushes that pull you along a track through the wash. I had two of my wheels scratched badly because of that track. The worst part was that the autowash place refused to pay for the damage to my new ( one week old) wheels. Luckily they were just the stock 17s that I use for my winter wheels but still. That pisses me off just thinking about it. Those “touchless” places just have you sit in one spot (no track) and don't damage the car.

Back to the topic of this thread. Is there any way that you just got unlucky and got a stone chip in the first week you had it? Any chance at all. Don't be so quick to blame the car wash. Or maybe a rock hit it and the car wash took off the loose paint. What do you think?

A-SPEK

It probably so. I just took it to the dealer today and the body shop guy told me that it probably rock that cause the chips not the washer pressure. Anyway, he said that it will cost me thousands to get it repainted properly and he said it just not worth it.
Maybe I should wait until i get many of them chips then I get it repainted properly. He offered to help with the touch ups. I was glad to accept it. After I got it touch ups, I will get the clear bras.
Anyway, I did a type 2 maintenance today and plus they replaced 2 break discs. It sets me back 850 bucks for everything. They also replaced the ball joints, but it was free because my car is still under warranty.

A-SPEK

Can the railing on carwash damaged your wheels? I found scratches on one of my wheel. It was one of those car washes where you put it to neutral and the railing move the car forward.

fish008

Yes, that track/rail is what caused the scatches on my wheel. I will post pics soon.

6MTUA5

iTrader: (2)

I worked at one of those car washes and they do tear up some wheels. It's all about how the wheels are aligned when the car is first put on the track.

fsttyms1

A touchless is just that, touchless. There are NO brushes or any thing that touches the car. Around here you cant find a car wash with any thing that touches the car other than water. They clean the car really well.

fish008

What they all looked like before.


After. All the dirt comes from the dirt road I live on.


Cause of the problem


What apparently gets the car wash off


The tires are 235/45 17s. They even have something on the tire that says it protects the wheel.

6MTUA5

iTrader: (2)

Well I guess we have a different definition. I haven't seen a real Touchless around here (like you're describing). Maybe they are soft touch, not touchless.

fsttyms1

The ones around here have Nothing that touches the car but water.
Ive never had any wheel damage from the rails either.

fish008

The damage that occured on my wheel was in a touch/brush car wash. The touchless wash that I go to has no rails, just a couple of sensor tubes to drive over. So there is no chance of wheel damage there. That is why I go there.

A-SPEK

The touchless that I go has rails, and there I damaged my wheel

burnerjunky

it could be delamination, sometimes the paint will just pop off the metal on a car and bubble up and then just chip off. Its happened to two cars in my family so far, both 99's

kushsmoker

that happened to a friend of mine he took his car to a car wash and when they were pulling it they happened to hit the outer Y shaped rail that guides the tire in and it left a 6 inch scrape on his lip :x

A-SPEK

That sucks!!!

S PAW 1

I had similar wheel damage done by the Shell station on the west side of Columbus, Ohio last year. The rails scratched the shit out of my factory stock wheels, using stock sized tires. I took pics, and they (Shell Corporate) forwarded them to some bitch working for Travelers Insurance.
They still wouldn't pay for the damage. They said it couldn't have been caused by their car wash, when if fact, it did.
Best advice I can offer is to stay away from the car washes with rails, which many of the Shells use.

fish008

My problem was at a Shell too! After they refused to pay for the damage caused to my brand new wheels I promised that I would never go back, and I haven't (this happened in november 2006). In fact I refuse to go to any Shell now, they lost a customer for life.

S PAW 1

^
That's pretty much how I responded to them also , after they refused to be accountable. I drive about 40,000 miles a year with my TL-S which uses premium fuel. I gave them the math, to which they didn't respond. It cost them a hell of alot more in lost business than the wheels would have !

A-SPEK

That's unbelieveable! Mine got scratched on Shell as well!

So where do you guys get your premium unleaded then? Everybody keeps saying that V-power is the best one in the market.

BAPE head

Sunoco FTW
94 Octane Gas FTW.....

Plus, Sunoco has touchless car washes, the ones your drive into and park for them to wash. I only use them in the winter and cause i bought a bunch at 50% off in December when they had a special.

MurdaZ

iTrader: (1)

sunoco has ethanol in it, where at the vpower doesnt, and vpower is recommended by honda/toyota and some other imports cause of its "detergents"

fish008

I am a BP/Amoco guy now.