ohiosux

I have a 3G 6MT and while I don't recall noticing this previously, the black paint/coating on my passenger side caliper seems to be fading away. Has anyone else encountered this? Does anyone think I will be able to have the dealer address this? I didn't notice it until my last trip in. I feel like they take the good parts off my car to put them on someone else's since I am pretty vocal about every issue I have (punishment). It's weird because it seems like everytime I take it into this dealer, the car comes back with something else wrong. The weirdest of all was when I took it in the time before the last time, my passenger side wiper was suddenly falling apart. Now suddenly after the last time my driver side wiper was falling apart, and under closer inspection it looks like they moved it. I don't understand them. Sigh...

Thanks in adavance!

CAHobbs

ohiosux, can't say that I have heard of this one... are you sure it isin't brake dust or road grime? I would look at other TLs to see if this is related only to your car or to others TLs as well..
Oh, and checkput the RLs as well, since their front brakes use the same paint.

As for the dealer, 1) Ask, what have you got to lose, right? 2) Find another dealer or next time you go in, do like I do, the Service Adviser and I do a complete walk around to address problems, existing and new to cover themselves as well as me.

Good luck!

haroman311

eventhough its a acura, ive been on mitsu evo forums, and i saw some posts and pics about peoples brembos on their evos, the paint peeling off. so it might be happening

PoochaKannInc

I have about 32K miles on mine. I haven't noticed this happening. See what the dealer says.

edit:
First find a new dealer. Then see what they say. It is unacceptable for a dealer to merely switch the wiper blades. If you are sure that this is what happened, I would confront them.

But once that issue was dealt with, I would find a new dealer.

vandido626

Does anyone know if they make the brembo calipers for the AT? I do not like the look of the stock calipers at all.

Kennedy

iTrader: (2)

Perhaps that's part of your problem... There's a code to dealing with the dealer... Raising hell over every imperfection does more damage than good. I prefer to save my dealer Karma up for when something really goes wrong.

Your calipers will fade over time. They're subject to some of the harshest conditions on the car... Good luck getting the dealer to replace them.

Adobeman

First off, about your dealer swapping stuff...it seems pretty extreme that they'd swap calipers.

How old is the car and what climate do you drive in?
Some other questions.
1) How often do you wash the car ?
2) What chemicals do you use ? Particularly on the wheels.
3) How long has the car cooled before you wash the wheels ?
4) Do you use any brushes on the calipers ?

Some good answers would be:
1) every week
2) just car soap and water. NO rim cleaners
3) The calipers and wheels are cold or at least 3-4hrs since driving.
4) No synthetic brushes. Perhaps a lamb's wool wheel cleaner rinsed in clean water between uses.

Brake dust is very aggressive stuff so if you aren't cleaning it off or are using harsh chemicals, or even worse harsh chemicals on warm calipers with something like a nylon brush then that could cause some paint fade. Then again, you might have a bum caliper paint job.

ohiosux

Thank you all for your responses!

I wish it were brake dust or road grime. I have also heard of paint peeling from the calipers, but that's not at all what is happening to mine. It's almost like an airbrush or bad spray paint job. It just seems to be fading and returning to the original "caliper without paint" look. The middle picture seems to be the clearest (ignore the dates on the photos as it's just a camera phone I didn't care to set the date on). The crazy thing is that I don't remember them being like this when I bought the car about 4 months/10,000 miles ago. To my discredit, I haven't been cleaning off the brakedust religiously. I will clean them more often in the future, and using the methods mentioned here. I only hose them off and while they are cold. I intend to buy Zaino, so I hope that will be ok. Regardless of my cleaning or lack thereof, why would this happen to one caliper and not the other? That seems like a cop-out to me. Until I brought my TL in for "SB#04-019: Brembo Brakes Squeal with Light Application", I honestly don't remember them looking like this.

Furthermore, I tend to disagree with Kennedy. I do not think it is acceptable to "pipe down" when you feel that the product you have received is not consistent with what you paid for. By no means do I yell or scream at anyone at the dealer, but I also don't hesitate to call or show my face when I am unhappy with the car. So far I have encountered nearly every TSB for the TL since 3-4 months of owning it.

Adamo0926

Here is my take on something like this. If you have something unusual happening like this that very few people have happening, it's clear to me that you happened to have hit the instance where workmanship is lacking. In other words, I think your caliper paint fading and peeling was the result of bad paint work on that caliper. Maybe one in every 10,000 calipers have this problem, who knows. But I think it's a factory problem since it doesn't happen to other calipers for other people in normal use. I think you should pursue this with the dealer, what do you have to lose ? It's not like it's a great expense, I know a place on Long Island that will paint brake calipers for 55.00/wheel...not that a place on Long Island would help you....lol.

ohiosux

For everyone's comments and feedback...Thank You! I took the car to the dealer, and lo and behold it was another one of their negligent dealios. As you may recall, I spotted this after they aligned it and did the service bulletin for my brembo brakes squealing. Another Acura dealer told me that it was clearly oversprayed wheel paint. I can't find it, but I am sure they scratched the whell and then tried to cover it up. There would be no other reason to paint my wheel. I think that's why they give out loaners...to have sufficient time to make the repairs and then repair what they screwed while repairing. Next time I guess I am gonna have to babysit the technician.

Sigh....

johnny--2k

clean the wheels, then feel them carefully with your hand. I work for a dealership, and while the average customer cant tell if a wheel has been resprayed, you can tell easily be feeling it. Factory, the wheels are clearcoated in the simplest manner of speaking. The painted area will not be clearcoated, and will feel a bit rougher than the rest of the wheel, as well as probably a bit off colorwise.

Check that, then raise hell with the dealership. That is unacceptable for them to do damage, then try to cover it up without telling you.

brianp6621

Check the other wheels too, they may have painted it and then rotated to another wheel position.

johnny--2k

ohh...good point. Never thought of that!