Hey fellas/ladies, I washed my car on Sunday and noticed a spot on the rear bumper where the paint appears to be bubbling up and separating from the plastic. I think I cracked the bubble when I dried the car off. I purchased the car a year ago with 19K miles. I take pretty good care of it and I haven't had any accidents. I guess it's possible the dealer sprayed the back bumper before they sold it to me, but I still don't think this is right for a certified Acura with 37,000 miles on it. Headed to the stealership in the morning to get the power steering hose replaced. I'll see what they say but wanted to ask you all. Any ideas?

The bubble is about six inches long and right above the exhaust tip. A little hard to see but you can see the cracked part in the pics below:








Sorry if this has been covered, searched and didn't see an exact topic.

 

there's a possibility that the car was involved in a small accident that required a quick paint job to be done. my old 2G TL had the same thing.

 

That's indeed a possibility. Hell, I had the rear bumper and fender flares sprayed on my QX4 just before I sold it. Just irks me that this is happening to a certified car with such low mileage. I've been in touch with Acura Client Care. Doubtful they will fix it, but I'm going to try.

Anyone else experienced this?

 

Just fix it!..Acura is not

 

Thanks man! I never thought of that...

 

He is right. You can try but might be just wasting our time, however doesn't hurt to ask.

 

Well, the dealership glanced at it for about 15 seconds and basically said "that sucks, it's been sprayed, that's not factory paint." Didn't expect much different, especially from McDaniels Acura but since I was going in for the power steering hose recall, figured I'd ask. Very likely the dealer in Florida sprayed/touched up the bumpers before they sold it to me. Just sucks it's bubbling up now. Oh well. I'll have my paint guy fix it right.

I got a 2013 ILX loaner to drive today. Nice car, but my god it's slow. I'll be happy to get my Type-S back.

 

bummer, too bad it's right above the seam, otherwise i'd say slap the aspec rear on there and call it a day.

hope the loaner ILX has the door recall fixed first. haha

 

hope your paint guy does a better job than the previous person who worked on it!

 

I thought of the aspec too, but that'll have to wait now so I can get this sh!t fixed first.

 

That sucks man. Sorry to see that.

 

Update: I contacted Acura Client Care via Twitter to let them know how dissatisfied I was with the bubbling and cracking paint on a certified used Acura. They reached out to me immediately, investigated the problem and got back to me today with a solution. Although it's not factory paint and they could have blown me off, they contacted my local Acura dealer (not the one I purchased it from) and set it up so that I can take my car there anytime and leave it with their body shop to be fixed free of charge. They estimated it would take two days to remove the bumper and fix it correctly. How is that for taking care of a client? If only more companies treated their customers like this. Goes to show you, it never hurts to ask...

 

^what did we learn today, fellas!?


its useless to use regular means of hierarchy.
Just go through twitter.

 

It definitely took some patience and persistence on my part and I truly believe that if Acura "certifies" a car with such low mileage, the paint should not bubble up like mine is doing. That being said, I am very pleased with the outcome and amazed at the power of social media today.

 

One more update to this saga: took my TL-S to the dealer to get the rear bumper painted today. Got a phone call from the dealer around noon...turns out the paint was peeling off because the back bumper was damaged at some point and instead of replacing it, the prior owner, or selling dealer, decided to fix it with Bondo. See the below photos.

Before the paint started peeling:


Closer look revealed this lovely mess:






Acura Client Care has REALLY stepped up to the plate here and agreed to replace the rear bumper and paint it free of charge, but lesson learned: Even if the car is a low mileage, CPO...inspect the hell out of it. They all have a story to tell. Luckily, Acura Client Care has exceeded every expectation I've had.

 

wow! you have such good luck with them!

 

Wow that's amazing that somebody tried to bondo the bumber. It may have worked better had they of actually sanded the bumper with a rougher grit.

 

Most shops have a hard time understanding that plastic and metal can't be painted in the same manner unfortunately.

 

Body shops repair bumpers with filler glaze all day long. They make specific filler glaze that adheres to raw plastic, and cures but remains more flexible than standard filler glaze. Most often the right thing to do is replace the bumper, but a good amount of people/resellers want to spend the absolute least amount possible.

Considering other problems Acura dismisses, its very surprising they stepped up and made it right. It makes you wonder if they themselves (dealer) made the call to do a spot repair on the bumper in the first place, before they listed it for sale. That's one of the more common instances. Dealer acquires a mint used car except for a noticeable blemish, then its off to get a 'quickie repaired' just to turn around and sell it.

Score one for Acura!

 

Score one for Acura indeed. I'd also like to compliment the service manager, Jody Brown, at McDaniels Acura here in Charleston, SC too. He was also very helpful during all of this. I picked up the car this afternoon and it looks great.

 

Looks good.

 

Yes they do have special fillers for bumpers but looking at the size of the repair that was done it appears that a new bumper should have been installed. If I repair bumpers with any type of filler I only use it in gouges or nicks in then plastic. Repair looks great.

 

Client care always follows up with me after my service visits, good to know that they are there to really help.