I just need to vent and I figure this is the place to do it. I figure my fellow car lovers will understand my pain. So last Friday on my way to work I notice an annoying noise coming from my driver's speaker, and turns out the speaker is blown. I called the dealership and they tell me that it will be under warranty (good news), but they will need to take a look at it to confirm that the speaker blew and was not a result of physical damage. No biggie, I figure I can stop in after work and have them take a look. I had a half day. Nope, the service tech tells me I have to make an appointment and they are all booked up until next week. I had to check my schedule with work for next week and I had to call back on Tuesday. So I spend the weekend driving around with a busted speaker full of all sorts of unpleasant noises. I call the dealership on Tuesday morning to set up an appointment and the tech tells me that I don't need an appointment for that sort of thing and to just bring the car by. (Point #1 that has me pissed...I could have had the car in last Friday and had the speaker ordered - now we are delayed an extra week). The first chance I had to take the car in was today. I get to the dealership and fill out the paper work. I tell the guy, no car wash please. ( I have owned my 2009 TSX for almost 8 months and it has never ever been through a car wash. I live in Chicago and have even washed it by hand when it was 12 degrees out. The things we do for our cars!!) He says no problem and I watch him write in big letters on a giant piece of paper "NO CAR WASH." He then says I will be right back, and I watched him tape this onto the rear view mirror. You couldn't miss it. So I go have a seat. 20 minutes later he comes back and tells me that I am good to go and they will have to order the speaker. It should be about a week. I sign the paper work and head out to my car, only to see drops of water dripping off my freshly cleaned car! I was like you fricken have to be kidding me. So I begin to inspect the paint and sure enough there are light scratches from the brushes of the car wash all over my car!!!! Now I am pissed! So I settle myself down and head back into the building and I calmly say to the tech, you weren't suppose to wash it. That didn't wash it and I put a note telling them not too. I said yes they did. So he follows me out to the car and when he gets right up on the he tells me I'm sorry, I put a note. I then said yeah, but look at all of these scratches. This is going to take hours to come out. He just said he was sorry again and that was it. I drove off pissed. There was no offer to fix the scratches nothing. I called on my way home to speak with the service manager, but of course he had already left for the day. I left a voice mail we will see what tomorrow brings. What really pisses me off is that I just gave the car a 10 hour exterior detail a month ago, taking out all the light scratches that the Chicago winter did to my car. Now I am going to have to start all over again!!!!!!!!!! A 30 second wash undid what took 2 days of detailing work. Any product recommendations to undue the light scratches and spider web effects?? I just orderd Zaino Fusion at the advice of my buddy, but I am open to other recommendations/techniques. To think I froze my butt off in the winter washing my car by hand because my goal for this car was to never take it through a car wash and that was undone by someone who failed to read a note right in front of their face!!!

 

Sorry to hear that AcuraFan82!

I think your stealership needs to pay to have your car detailed. Period. I myself would not have left the dealership before I got their commitment to remedy the situation to your satisfaction... there had to be a manager of some sort still there...

I hope they make things right for you! Good Luck!

 

Sorry about your problems, that would have me really bummed me out as well back in the day, since I have kids now, the days of waxing my car with Zaino are long gone (no time). My TSX had them when I picked it up from the dealer. I just take it to the automated wash, I hardly see the fine swirl marks on the Grigio paint. If I look real hard I can see them, I just try not to look real hard. Plus I lease now, so no worries as I will not have the car a long time and Acura/Honda does not care about fine swirl marks on a lease return.
I would demand a free detailing if I spent that much time on it as you did.

Anyway, try moving the balance to the rear on your stereo until your speaker comes in, that should eliminate the distortion

 

Dude that blows. Since I'm young, the guys at the local Acura dealership here don't like me, so they usually don't go out of their way for me haha.

 

that sucks.

What did you do the car at the previous detail to remove the flaws? Do you have a machine (Porter Cable/Flex/Rotary)?

The clear is realtavily soft, so if the flaws aren't that bad, I'd reccomend: Menzerna Final Finish (106ff/fa) or Meguires 205, or 3m Ultrafina. All are great products for removing very light defects. You'll obviously have to follow up with a sealant/wax.

If you're only working by hand, well, that's tough, i'd reccomend a glaze to fill the defects at that time.

My final thought would be to take the car to a professional detailer and then send the bill to the Acura dealer...

HTH.

 

About a month ago, I did my spring detail. I started with a wash, then I hand applied Maguires Scratch X to a few minor problem areas. It seemed to do the trick. I then took out my porter cable dual action orbital buffer to apply all of my Zaino and Maguires wax products. I started with a coat of Zaino AIO. Then I applied a coat of Zaino Z5. A quick wash. Then a coat of Maguires NXT. Then the following day I applied another coat of NXT and topped it off with Zaino Clear Seal. The whole process took about 10 hours of actual work time. My car looked just like it did when it left the dealers lot the day I bought it. I was really impressed on how much better the car looked after the detail. My car was not garage kept and was outside the entire Chicago winter.

I still cannot believe that the car went through a car wash with this huge piece of paper hanging from the rearview mirror with the words "DO NOT WASH" on it.

 

Being from chicago myself, im wondering which dealer this was.

 

Continental Acura in Naperville. I have heard good reviews of this dealership and that is part of the reason I am really shocked that this happened. Still haven't heard back from the service manager.

 

Jeff, that sucks man. Muller hand washes... not that that's any better (I watched) but it beats the automated one.

 

Well, depending on how your service rep treats/treated you, you could really whack him/her on the survey you'll get from Acura after they do the warranty work on your speaker.

Just be advised a negative survey can cost them their job if they fall below a certain CSI point value assigned by using an average of yours and others. So, if you do want to escalate this, you might try calling Acura client services with respect to the detail group and not the service advisor themselves. I'm just saying that because you stated the advisor went to great lengths to avoid this happening. It still sucks, hopefully they'll rectify it.

Some detail groups are in-house employees, others are outside contractors.

My beef with the car wash pricks is blaring my GD stereo when I go there to have blown speakers replaced in the first place!

 

I guess I should be glad my dealership doesn't automatically wash cars anymore (now you have to pay for it). When I was buying the car they were instructed to only wash the car, no extra detailing (no interior work besides vacuuming, no crap on the tires, stuff like that). Luckily they paid attention to the note my salesman put in the car!

 

Jeff, let me know if you need some help buffing out their f ups.

 

So... well.. yea...

I'm thinking they really didn't do much to your car, sorry to say.

While all the products you used are great products, none of them are true polishes. They're all glazes which hide and fill scratches.

ZAIO is a very gentile polish, but mostly just removes oxidiation. and dirt...

Zaino Z-5 is a non-abrasive scratch filler and paint protector.

Megs NXT is a synthetic wax.

So with all your steps, you basically filled all of the marring on your paint. Any heavy duty wash could have removed your glazes and left your car looking like it did before you did the work.

My reccomendation is to actually polish the car to remove the defects. Then follow up with your wax products. Additionally glazes and fillers do wear away with any wash so after several of your gentile washes you would have ended up at the same spot. Saddly the dealer just got you there quicker.

With the PC you have the tool to make your paint perfect. Get good pads and some good polishes, you can make your paint aweseome even before putting sealants and waxes on it!

 

Why did you wash between Z5 and Megs? No Z6?

 

Ah don't worry. If it makes you feel better, thats the typical treatment I get from the dealers around me. There's only two, and I won't even go to one anymore. I've had almost every speaker replaced...one left. They are going out one by one, and the annoying part is just like you said...I have to go there, have someone verify it before they'll order the part, then go there again to do the work. This last time I asked if they could just replace the remaining speaker to save me a trip when it goes bad...NOPE. Can't warranty a good speaker. I've also have my moonroof panel replaced (defective seal). That was a back and forth annoyance as well. I have all kinds of beef with the workmanship they do too. Parts aren't put back on properly, scratches and scuffs on the interior parts, dirty interior after they work on it (I keep it spotless) replacing damaged parts (and making additional trips to do it)...etc. Soooo annoying.

Funny..I have a Nissan Altima as well. Just had tires replaced at the dealer for a vibration problem (I ended up paying for new tires because I wanted better ones)...they scratched my wheels in the process. Keep in mind these are two year old wheels, but have no exterior damage except for the lug holes from the socket they use. I complained that each time they take them off to troubleshoot, they become more damaged....so THEY offered to warranty all 4 wheels. They also put maybe a 1 inch scratch on the driver door trim once before when they fixed the driver seat. As soon as I pointed it out, the response was "lemme get the parts guy to order you a new one. I'm really sorry it got scratched." My experience with Acura has been sooo lacking. I get MUCH better service at Nissan. Oh well.

I've also called Acura client services about every issue. So far nothing has ever come about with it. This is my first Honda/Acura product. It'll probably be my last. Decent car even though its had more defects than my Altima...but unresponsive service.