The clear coat on my Acura TL is coming off. It looks like the car has psoriasis! What can be done? Is Acura standing behind their paint as so many other owners are having the same problem?

 

Welcome to the forums.

This thread has been moved from the Fourth Generation TL (2009-2014) > 4G TL Problems & Fixes Forum to the car specific forum applicable to your vehicle.

 

Others having the same problem? I don't recall that being a common complaint on here.

Your only hope here on an almost 15 year old car is if you have a great relationship/history with your dealer.

 

maintenance is up to the owner.
the car most likely sat outside in the sun. the damaging UV rays ate through the clear.
one can upkeep the paint by always protecting it from the sun either by; using a product, like a sealant or keeping the car garaged.

my car is 11 years old but you wouldn't know that by looking at it.

 

Acura doesn't stand there and make sure people wax and protect their car from the elements... That's solely the responsibility of the owner.


This is like getting mad at your doctor that you got diabetes

 

first welcome to the site, Acura does stand behind their paint through the 4 years/50k miles and 5 years / unlimited mile (rust-through) warranty. I also want to let you know the dealer won't give you any good will or deal if you didn't has a business relationship with. I service all 3 of my Acuras at a local dealer where they comfort let me bring my own parts and they charge for labor only in one occasion where the part didn't worked (I brought the part to them) and the dealer didn't not charge me for labor cost, they also address a few minor things for free.

As far as the paint goes, all the Acuras I own does not have any type of fading, cloudy or hazy. 2 of 3 cars was park out side under Texas sun and yet none of them have paint issue, most people fail to realize even a simple car wash (hand wash) can go a long way to protect your paint, sealant help to prolong the paint protection.

Here are pics of my TL (park under the sun all the time) also note the car was dirty as hell vs garaged TL and you can see the paint condition.

 

Are you the original owner? Could a PO repainted it and its failing due to poor prep?

Honda had some TSBs for some of their lines (Civic, Odyssey etc) and for specific colors and panels to be repainted for free I am unsure if that campaign is still going on and quite sure it didnt bleed over to any Acura product.

 

I dont think so sparky. My wifes car was washed weekly, plus after every rain. It hjas never been through a automatic car washer. It has never had apressure washer on it. It never had a bristle brush on it. Nothing but Meguair's soap, and Microfiber cloths. Car was nano-sealed twice.I have a new GMC Sierra, in which we perform the same cleaning habiutsw, and it looks like you would eat off of it. not one grain of sand, no paint defects. I understand your point that Acura makes great cars, and have for a long time, I cannot argue with that, buit Im here to tell you, they screwed the pooch with this series, and it is in that White color.

 

Pics? You failed to mention whether or not it's been waxed, the amount of time it sits in the sun, etc.

If they truly "screwed the pooch" wouldn't there be much more complaints than OP and then you with the zombie thread bump 2 years later?

 

There have for sure been a few complaints on here over the years of TLs with peeling clear coat....but....it is not the norm at all. Nothing like the 90s GM and Fords that shed their clear coat and sometimes paint in 5-6 years. I wash mine about once a month...or two. Wax it maybe once a year?? Maybe? It got washed and waxed a lot more often when it was newer, but these days it is the beater daily driver for my wife. I have no clear coat peel, just front bumper paint peel from what I assume the original owner had re-sprayed at some point.

 

There is a bunch more complaints, the internet is riddled with them. I reckon a lot just say oh well and walk away, don't fight it, or sell the car to someone else. My wife's car, my uncle's MDX, and the car down the street at a used car shop all have the same issue, in the same area. This isn't an isolated situation,Acura is just pushing it to the side, and most people don't take the time to post about it. This is saddening, because Acura has always been a staple with my family, and we love them, but we certainly don't love the customer support on this issue. It's like Acura is such a big company now, they forgot how they got there. One person, or a small group, can't fight a huge corporation. It is up to them to do what's right, and they simply would rather lose some customers than repair all the damage. It is a cost/rewards ratio that they have chosen, I reckon. If you Google Acura paint peel you will see tons of posts, there is even Facebook groups called Acura Paint Peel, which has numerous members all with the same complaint.

 

Nano sealed every 6 months, and waxed every 2-3. First year or two so, it was waxed every 4-6 weeks. I'm scared to touch it now, as I might buff off more paint. My wife's 2015 Acura has touch up paint pen marks all over it, to keep it from rusting. You have to remember that this has been an issue since 2017, so within the first 2 years of the cars life. It is happening to all the white MDX, and only white, so it is certainly a systematic, production type problem. I work for the govt, and have some of the best painter in the world, paint for military applications, and they all say that it is a primer issue, that they are trying to use a sandless primer, to save on having to sand after applying primer, which is causing the paint peel. It is naturally going to start at the roof because it gets the most sunlight. My wife had 2096 MDX prior, in white, and it looked new when we traded it in in 2015. Something changed since then, it's plainly evident.

 

Should have purchased a 3G TL.

 

Are you even talking about 3G TLs here? The paint process for a MDX may not be the same as that for a TL. The paint process for a 4G TL may be completely different than that of a 3G TL. You are talking about paint peel while this thread is about clear coat peel. So it is very possible that Acura has paint peel issues in certain models and years, but in the 3G TL, there "generally" is not an issue with paint or clearcoat peel.

 

I think so. I personally don't know difference between a 3G and 4G TL. Also, I am talking about MDX. I'm new here sorry for the confusion.

 

Sir, I would not trust you as my physician or as my bodywork technician.

As a person who has had plenty of experience in bodywork, when paint flakes off from the underlying primer layer, it is because the primer was not prepped correctly from the factory before applying the two-stage basecoat / clearcoat. You can wax is all you want, but applying more wax is not going to do a stinking thing from keeping the paint from flaking off from the primer layer. Work a few months in a body shop then come back and then respond to this thread.....Acura screwed the pooch with this one. Piss poor prep results in piss poor paint and that is a factory problem unless the car has been repainted. For a great example, look at the GM trucks from the mid 1980's - early 1990's when they first started experimenting with water based automotive paints. Poor prep results in poor paint. It's not rocket science.

 

2096?