JW Booth

'09 TL - 4 year warranty up beginning of July this year.

I live in NV, where it can be over 100 degrees for long periods during the summer.

I have tiny pitmarks on the roof and trunk lid. Likely on the hood also.

Had bodywork done (on the side of the car) recently, and the bodyshop guy told me that the paint is "checking" - that the lacquer is cracking from the bottom layer of paint.

The Acura dealer told me that it is not checking, but that I must have had spray or droplets of some sort of substance which caused it.

He told me to bring it in and for no charge will have a detail guy they have visit sometimes use the finest grade sandpaper and then I think buff it/polish it and he thought that would cure it.

My question is what do I do if he doesn't cure it and we end up disagreeing on the problem?

Another question - Has anyone here run into paint issues and/or warranty disagreements?

Footnote - It appears there is no overall Acura subforum here for all years and all models?
That's where I would have posted this question, as its related to Warranty issues which affect all models and years.

potmilkz

ive had the same problem, it was called crows feet from what i remember.. go to google and look up "crows feet paint"

i was under warranty so acura repainted all the panels that were metal on my car... which were all the affected areas.

its cracking of the clearcoat which cannot be repaired. the clearcoat is cracking from underneath rather than on top so there is no cure for it.

take a picture and show us.

JW Booth

The paint "checking" he was referring to was on the horizontal surfaces (which would get maximum sun), not on the entire car's paint job (although I haven't inspected the other vertical areas carefully - will take a look).

PS - Thanks for the quick response.

potmilkz

these problems just dont happen because of the sun.. its factory paint defect from what i was told.. my car sat in shade most of its life.. not under anything but just in a shady area and i still had it.

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

Is your car CBP? If so, see this thread. It may or may not be related. My understanding is this issue is limited to 2010 CBP's.

Good luck!

Danyoung

I also have this issue with the hood, roof, and trunk of my car. Who do I approach at the dealer with this? I tried to called the Use Car Manager because I bought it CPO (62,000 miles bumper to bumper and 100,000 miles extended warranty) at Acura 101 West. Is there someone else at the dealer (department wise) I should speak to?

He states "We have to check the VIN to see if the work was done else where." However carfax was clean with no accidents, but it appears the front and rear bumpers were repaired along with passenger side rear door and skirts were touched up along with hood/roof/trunk. It seems like everyone is story is easier said than done. My dealer does not seem to want to deal with anything. At the end of the day bumper to bumper means what it means right?

potmilkz

danyoung, you bought it cpo.. its kind of hard to deal with.. if you bought it new, then its a different story.. what you can do is approach several dealers.. how long have you had the car?

3rdGenHybrid

It's known as crows feet. It's NOT the clear coat, it's actually the base paint shrinking. Which is why you can't just wet sand the clear coat and buff. It needs to be stripped down to bare metal and repainted. It's from the paint but the uv from the sun speeds up the process. Since the bonnet is aluminum, it doesn't really affect it. I had my whole car repainted under warranty. The 8th gen civics are
Also doing the same thing.(black paint only) must be the mixture

potmilkz

^^ yea what he said.. wasnt sure if it was clear coat or base coat that i was told.

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

I bought mine CPO and had no issues getting it re-painted under warranty. A car with a paint defect should never pass a CPO inspection, and the fact that it did means someone dropped the ball.

Good luck OP!

Danyoung

3 months, I will go ahead and contact a few dealers today.

I completely agree, everything you just said spells logic and reasonability. If the dealer did drop the ball on CPO inspection who else can I go to?

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

Only thing I can recommend is another dealer, or contact the Acura Corporate office. This is a known issue so there should be no hassle in getting it taken care of free of charge.

Danyoung

This sounds great...is there a specific number or department I should contact?

JW Booth

What is "CBP"?

Tried googling it, saw U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

I purchased mine new.

JW Booth

ucf_bronco - As far as it being a known issue - do you have any links or further reference for that - it would help my case if the dealership wants to insist it is not paint checking.

JW Booth

"The 8th gen civics are
Also doing the same thing.(black paint only) must be the mixture"

My car is black.

Do you have any links or further reference as far as the 8th gen civics also doing the same thing?

Once in the past I tried mentioning something I'd read online to the Service Manager at the dealership, and before I finished my sentence he started with "Oh, the internet. Don't believe anything you read on the internet".

Alexander.

iTrader: (1)

CBP = Crystal Black Pearl

ucf_bronco

iTrader: (1)

Acura Client Relations
(800) 382-2238
1919 Torrance Blvd.
M/S 500-2N7E
Torrance, CA 90501-2746

Unfortunately I don't, but you can look through the thread I linked above and see others in there. I believe there are at least 4-5 of us on this site that experienced the same issue, though I'm sure there are many more out there. Most (if not all) of us have had the car re-painted under warranty...well the metal parts at least. There are no issues with plastics (i.e. bumpers).

Danyoung

I will contact my dealer today. If they beat around the bush I'll go ahead and call the ACR. Thanks again, there is still hope for my car.

ftri1961

have my repaint on my car on 6/23. acura is paying for the whole thing. bought it certified 2010. still under warranty. force the dealer to call acura. good luck

kadrella

I joined this site because of this thread. I have the same problem with my 2010 TL CBP paint. I called the dealership, who said I have to bring it in to be evaluated. I also called the Acura corporate office who said that the paint warranty is only until 4 years/50,000 miles. My car is at 49,990 right now and the dealership is 11.4 miles away. Has anyone gotten Acura to cover it after 50,000 miles? Should 1.4 miles make a difference? The girl from the corporate office seemed to be pretty serious about the 50,000 miles.

kadrella

In reference to my most recent post, I was told by Acura that because I extended my bumper to bumper to 100k miles, my paint is covered.

I started the process through my local dealership in Pittsburgh, PA, but I have to wait a month for the Acura rep to come in and inspect my car. I filed a formal complaint against the dealership that I bought the car from in Ohio because they completely screwed up the certification checklist and the paint issue just put me over the edge. So far, Acura seems to be pretty concerned about my experience at the Ohio dealership. I'm hoping they cover a repaint. My crowsfeet are on the horizontal surfaces and the vertical ones. Any tips regarding what to tell the Acura rep?

2FastCars

I'm having the same issue on my 2010 TL. Does anyone have a case number they can share, so I can show Acura they covered these types of issues before with other customers? I'm meeting with the factory Rep this week sometime and I want to have proof that this is an issue with other cars....any help you guys can provide is greatly appreciated.

I called Acura Customer Relations and they are claiming I had the car repainted and not covering it under warranty. The servce manager measured the paint and said that it was uneven on the hood and fenders. I bought the car brand new from the dealership (no accidents, and I never had the car to any body shops) and now 3 years later I'm having this issue with the paint on the hood. If it was painted, it was done before it was sold to me...so I don't get how they are calling my a lier and saying its my fault. Does anyone have any advise, I'm sort of at my wits end with this. I love my Acura, but this is putting a huge damper on my Acura experience and I'm highly considering never buying an Acura again.

potmilkz

well the fact that it took you 3 years to find the issue.. makes you not even qualified for them to have it repainted.

have you past your warranty yet? but seriously tho.. put your shoes in their place.. a customer that bought a car didnt have any issues for total 3 years.. then all the sudden come back after so long and is telling you that they have paint problems.. to their eyes.. it seems kind of sketchy.. they will think you did something to the paint..

just my honest opinion.... but if i was a dealer.. i wouldnt offer to repaint your car.. i would throw all the bs excuse i have to you just not to paint your car..

2FastCars

It didn't take me 3 years to find the issue, since it just started to happen this year. I brought it to the dealer as soon as I noticed the issue happening. I only have 33,000 miles on the car and its stored in my garage next to my 2 race cars. I'm well within my warranty period and I have the extended warranty.

So when issues come up, the dealer and Acura have a way out of warranty work.....that doesn't make any sense....that's the reason for purchasing a warranty....when things come up, they are covered. If I had the car painted, why would I be going through all these hassles with Acura, when I would go to the place I had it painted....it makes no sense.

potmilkz

hey im just going by what your posting.. you said "now 3 years later I'm having this issue with the paint on the hood" on your post

do you know that over a course of 3 years and 33k that rock chips can develop... and usually owners repaint them.. this is exactly what acura is thinking.. they think over 3 years you repainted the hood and now you want a freebee from them because your hood turned out bad.. again.. not saying you did repaint.. but they will use that damn excuse against you.

i say just pay for the repaint and move on.. acura relations are hard to deal with.. i had my whole car repainted by them so i know..and i had it all over the car.. every panel.

2FastCars

I understand that rock chips happen and owners repaint them, however, I had the 3M paint protection on the hood since I bought the car....so there are no chips in the hood or the fenders. My car is in MINT shape...except for the hood. If did have the hood repainted and I wanted a freebee paint job, I would go after the place that painted it....and not deal with all of the hassles that Acura is giving me (I've been in the auto industry a while and I know exactly how these stealerships work). It's the fact of the matter that I bought a brand new $40K car and now the hood has these issues....and I did nothing wrong, and Acura will not stand behind the product they sold me. Anyone who knows me, knows how anal I am about all of my cars and motorcycles.

The only thing I can think of is that the hood was repainted before I took delivery of the car....which if that was the case, they should still cover it under warranty.

potmilkz

if you got no proof.. then im sorry... your just shit out of luck..

the dealer will see it the way they want to see it.. and they way they see it is that its been 3 years.. any paint issues such as bubbles under clear coat should have been found after the first year of ownership.. or even the first couple of months.. and to be honest.. it probably has been there this whole time.. you just didnt notice.. these issues especially with paint do not happen over a course of 3 years.. it developes after the first few months of being freshly painted.

2FastCars

I actually do have proof... Also, that makes no sense...why have a warranty then....the warranty is 4 years 50,000 so even after 3 years the paint starts to rust or do whatever, it should be covered. Its the same thing as your transmission going bad after 3 years under normal wear and tear conditions........you're trying to tell me its not covered? I have numerous friends that work at dealerships and things like that are always covered.....sometimes they even do it out of the warranty period.

ArucaBAR

Just brought my 2010 crystal black TL in with same issue that UCF Bronco had (pictures would be identical). Live in same area as UCF, but went to a dealer in north Orlando as opposed to the one he went to (saw his post after I brought the car). Service advisor said factory rep looked at it and ordered a re-paint. In warranty is in warranty. This dealer is looking at off-site body shop. Hopefully UCF can let me know who actually did his re-paint. Sounds like Acura in the Orlando area is owning this problem.

potmilkz

paint, brakes, fluids are all under the catagory of wear and tear.. and you know those things do not get covered..

im not saying they will not do it.. just saying that your chances of them taking this under warranty are small.

think of it this way.. the rest of your car is fine.. your hood is not.. PTG seems to say it had high and low spots on the hood so it seems to them that it has been repainted.

what kind of proof do you have that shows the hood was like that when you first bought it? how come you didnt bring it sooner? these are the questions they will ask... as they will suspect that something is fishy.

trying to be realistic here.. just be prepared to deal with them as they are not the easiest dealers to work with.

anyways good luck with your venture with the dealer.. i had my fair share.. it was a long process.

kadrella

Does anyone have any thoughts on a dealership certifying a car with this condition? I bought my 2010 CPB TL CPO. I purchased the extended warranty, so my car is still under warranty. The crows feet are all over the car (even on the vertical surfaces). I'm still waiting to meet with the Acura rep.

NwTSXmt

Acura will repaint but the paint WILL never again be factory paint on fresh metal..Acura screwed all owners of 2010 CBP TL...period...So they farm the repsray out to their lowest bidder and you get a hack respray...boy panels misaligned, overspray., swirl laiden POS back..etc...Acura after the sale service BITES...

Toda Taxi

iTrader: (1)

My 07 civic si has the paint "checking" and Honda actually has a service bulletin for it. It affects black and blue paint, and they gave me no problems when taking it to the service center. Is there any way you can post pics of the problem? I wonder if it is the same.

JW Booth

Follow up -

My car is an '09 TL, and my paint is Coral Black Pearl.

My 4 year warranty was coming to an end, and the Service Manager - Joe - at a local Acura dealer where I get my work done was first telling me that it's not checking but something had gotten on the paint causing that.

His solution was to have his detailing guy work on it to try to get it better.
The detailer told me he wouldn't be able to help that.

Joe then changed his mind, and told me to bring in the car and he'd have the roof painted.

When I brought it in, I happened to see him. He told me that I wouldn't get the car back for about 3-4 weeks.
This took me by surprise, and when I asked why, he said they were having the car totally repainted.
This didn't really make sense to me - why they were going to do the whole car rather than repaint just the roof.

However, I'm planning on keeping the car, so an effect on resale doesn't bother me.
And the car had some light scratches in a few places which he'd originally said he'd have his detail guy work on them, but this sounded like a good deal to me - having the car repainted after 4 years, so why not.
He said they're going to take off the doors, go down to the bare metal, etc.

I saw the car for the 1st time last Wednesday, and it needed a cleaning - it had been outside for about a week after being painted.
But I could see that it had as many swirls on the trunk lid as it did when I brought it in after owning it for 4 years.
I even wondered if it had actually been painted - as mentioned, it needed a cleaning from dust and water spots especially from recent rain, so I couldn't see the shiny new car paint job look at that point.

He looked at it and said "I'm not happy right now", and there was also an issue with a fender having a slightly larger gap than it should where it meets the side body, so he sent it back to the body shop.

Meanwhile, I researched swirls, and most of the top entries on Google brought me to Meguiar's forum.
I called Joe 2 days later - last Friday (2 days ago). He told me that it's back from the body shop that did the paint job and ready to pick up.


I told him what I'd read - that a fresh paint job should have no swirls.
I also told him that based on what I'd read, I was afraid that the body shop may have just put glaze on the car to fill in the swirls.

He told me that anyone can say anything on the internet, it means nothing. (He's said the same thing in the past if I bring up something I've read on the net).
He said he doesn't know what glaze is, that new cars on his lot have swirls, all cars have swirls.

He said the bodyshop buffed it and the swirls are less, and they polished it.
QUESTION - (Can a paint job 1 week old be buffed?).

He mentioned a lot of irrelevant items - How long he's been doing this, that it's a professional bodyshop that did the job, how much Acura spent on the paint job (before it went in he said Acura was going to pay 6k, and he now says with some additional body work they had to do when they got to the metal, and new emblems and other parts they replaced, that they spent 8k - all covered by warranty and no charge ot me), that he would get angry if he keeps discussing this.
He said "It is what it is".

I know from a number of swirl articles I read on Meguiar's and elsewhere, that the point of view there is that a fresh paint job has no swirls.
That swirls are scratches in the clear coat, and they are usually caused by rubbing the car with a cleaning cloth which is dirty or the car has some dirt.

He finally said, "Come in and see the car and we'll talk after you see it".

So what would you guys advise?

I've had a good relationship with Joe the service manager and the service department (did not purchase car here). Over the last 4 years I've been very pleased with the customer service and would've rated them "Excellent" up till now.
I know they are very concerned with getting a "10" approval rating on work they do - Joe sends out an email after getting the car serviced there, stating that if there is any reason that the customer would not give a "10" if they are called for a survey by Acura, to call him personally and he will do whatever he can. And he's mentioned that once or twice to me also.

He finally said, "Come in and see the car and we'll talk after you see it".

My conclusion based on my reading at Meguiar's and elsewhere is that the best solution would be to have his detail guy spend as much time as it will take (a lot) going over the car with clay to work out the swirls.
I asked him if the body shop worked on the car with clay when he brought it back to them - he said "You can't use clay on a fresh paint job" but then as mentioned he told me they buffed the fresh paint job.

How would you guys approach it?

Thanks for any advice you can give - the sooner the better, as I'm planning to go there tomorrow (Monday).

NwTSXmt

Its going to need a pro paint correction..after Acura hacks get done with it...jmho clay will not remove swirls...Yep glaze is how they got me...Good luck