I've had my car for a little over a year now, I purchased it CPO. I think the warranty is still valid on it (bought the extended) I'll need to call to verify.

I'm almost positive that the Clear is failing.

I'll get pictures to update the thread with as I was going over the car today after washing and noticed that it had a lot of weird spots on it that were never there before, I'm wondering if anyone has noticed the clear failing on their car at all? Looking at it, if this is really clear failure would it even be covered under my warranty?

I keep the car very very clean and sealed with good wax/sealants. Front bumper has a ton of rock chips which I know is not a sign of clear failure, but the trunk deck(lid) has a lot of small marks, the roof is getting them as well as a few places on the pillars and a big patch on the side of the car on the passenger rear door. These are places that if I rub with my fingernail you cannot feel a difference, there is no sink or drag. Which leads me to believe that it is the start of clear coat failure

If this is covered under warranty (Not sure that it even is?) would they repaint the car? Or just the parts with problems?

 

Never to date have I seen an 04-08 TL with a fading or failing clear coat. Even ones that appear to be in poor and neglected condition don't have clear coat issues. I'm thinking something else is going on here. Just my thoughts, but without seeing it obviously have no clue.

 

Me either, I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow and post them up. I don't know what else it could be?

I know the difference between a RDS, Swirl, and a Rock Chip.. You can usually catch your nail on a scratch or rock chip. These are almost perfect. Most of them all look the same.

The car was dirty and needed cleaned for summer so I polished it out. Looking at the trunk there are a ton of what appears to be water spots on it. I've tried to get them to show up on my camera/phone, but I can't. However there are a few spots that are white, some look like small spider webbing and it's all under the paint.

If the car had water marks they would easily have been removed by my Portercable and yellow pad with Menzerna SIP.. I also tried some Chemical guys V34 and V36 on it with a yellow and orange pad. Again, no luck.

I'm not sure what they are. I'll do my best to get pictures tomorrow and attach them in here.

If it's not clear failure I have no idea what it is. But if it is, I would hope that it's covered?

 

I'm sure you'd know if this was the case, but has there been any acidic material around your car that might have splashed on it? Make sure to check with the dealer, as you CPO warranty might actually cover it. Also, most manufacturers warranty paint for like 5-6 years, so if your car is an '07, it may be still under that warranty if it was bought in the latter half of '07.

 

Whoops, my bad. This is directly from Acura.ca's site:

SURFACE CORROSION WARRANTY.
Four years or 80 ,000 Km, whichever comes first.
Surface corrosion is defined as corrosion affecting the readily visible surface area of any components of the vehicle’s body. It does not include the vehicle underbody, external damage to paint or plated surfaces or corrosion caused by stone chips or other impacts.

This warranty guarantees that the surface of new Acura’s body will be free from any readily visible corrosion for a period of four years/80,000 km from the date of first registration. Additionally, this warranty guarantees that a new Acura will be free from any paint related defects for four years/80,000 Km.

Please note, to retain full warranty coverage, body panels replaced due to accident or damage, must be genuine Acura parts or Acura-approved parts. Also, paint damage caused by road debris, acid rain, tree sap, bird droppings and industrial fallout are not covered by this warranty.


Perhaps the CPO warranty resets that time frame? We can hope!

 

Clear coat failure can happen on any vehicle. My 2006 Acura TL has spent a good amount of time sitting in the hot FL sun during the day (garage kept at night) and my car fell victim to oxidation starting in 2011. Luckily, it was only noticeable on the hood (and I've since had it repainted) but I can see spots starting to form elsewhere on the car. Hopefully, the car will be sold before the problem worsens, but I don't expect that to draw any issues for a few more years. Our car has been waxed once per month for the entire span of our ownership, but that didn't seem to solve the oxidation problem.

Here are some pictures... btw, I don't remember seeing anyone else on the forums have oxidation like I did, but you may have a similar issue.






After repaint:

 

Question to the OP that I forgot to ask. Is the paint factory original or has your car been resprayed at some point in its life?

 

Came in to ask this.

 

my tls decklid spoiler had clear coat failure. 100% stock factory paint. I've seen it happen to a couple other TL spoilers in my area too, so maybe its the socal heat killing clear coat on plastic. Keep in mind its a 2007 car and the paint on the trunk is just fine, clear coat failure was only on the plastic decklid. I had my decklid repainted for $40 and called it a day.

 

I would guess that that was not original paint. If it was someone along the way didnt take care of it!

 

it's definitely acidic material, such as bird poop. best way to prevent this is to clean the dirt and bird poop as soon as you see it. otherwise it would eat up the paints and ruin the clear coat that leave u a spider-web mark. but normally factory paints hold up much better than after market paints

 

it wasnt taken care of.



you would be hard pressed to get anything from acura....since its a used car.
other than a repaint, you cant do much.

 

Need pics OP to help determine the issue. Might just need a good paint correction which entitles a good clay, correcting polish, finishing polish & a long lasting sythetic wax. If you have spider webbing under the clear coat then you would for sure need new paint. There's no way of fixing that.

Also with black or dark colored paint you shouldn't wash or detail your car in direct sunlight or on extremely hott days. That helps with prevention of those water spots. If you have those water spots and throw a coat of wax over it they will just sit underneath the wax. Black cars are a bitch to keep swirl/water spot free, let alone clean.

 

I agree with the other comments, it wasn't taken care of before you got it and most likely there was something on it that sped up the process of breaking down the clear coat.

 

do you know if that car was ever waxed before you got it. That looks like fade caused by lack of proper care of the paint

 

^Those pics weren't the OP's car, but another member posting pics of his own clear coat failure with waxing it every month.

 

Lots of good info and replies, thanks to everyone answering and replying!


Here are some Cell pictures of two spots:







Here are pictures I grabbed with my camera just now.

This is the spot on the trunk, if you look close at the space between my thumb and left hand you can see a weird spot that almost looks like a water spot, but it won't polish out. And almost in the center of this is a small little rock chip and your nail will catch on it, but nothing else.




And with this one if you look close up near the top of the picture you can see these small water mark looking spots a little better.. these are all over the trunk.



In this one, you can see the cracks/spider webbing looking stuff I was talking about, there are a few of these in random places on the car.




Here is a picture of the roof, scratches just showed up this week but the real thing I want to point out is that this looks exactly like the trunk and the scratches I'm pretty sure will polish out nicely once I get around to it.



To the best of my knowledge, no.

I have just noticed multiple little issues with the paint. The trunk has two things going on. The first and largest issue being a big spot of what looks like the paint is simply gone, but you cannot feel or catch your nail on it. It feels smooth.

The second thing is (found this out after I polished the car this summer) The trunk itself has what appears to be water marks all over it. You literally have to be in a good angle or certain light to see them, I cannot get them to show up on camera either. I clayed the car, polished with my Porter Cable and yellow pad with Menzerna and couldn't bring it out. I didn't feel like going any heavier on them. I couldn't even lighten them or lessen them with this.

Yeah, I know how that goes. I've had 3 black cars. See the above comment, I tried to polish the car out and remove most of the spots on the trunk that looked like water spots.

I tried, PC and Yellow LC pad, Menzerna SIP. I tried Orange pad and V34 and also tried V34 on a yellow pad. Finally I just said screw it and used V36 all the way out on an orange pad, then finished with v38.

I've always kept the car sealed up, never left it un-protected. I don't know how well it was taken care of prior obviously

 

That is some sort of contamination that ruined the clear. I'm not a pro, but it looks like something did that to the clear, not just the clear deciding it was time to fail.

 

Gotcha, and that's fine by me. I just can't for the life of me figure out how that could have happened on the trunk and roof when I keep it sealed so well.

Maybe this was something that had happened prior?

I really went to town polishing it up at the first part of summer, and it looks really good when clean. But these spots are really starting to bother me considering they were not there previously.

I can only assume it will get worse?

 

Did you call to find out if the warranty is still valid? You won't lose anything by calling the dealer and bringing the situation to their attention. On the off chance that they'll try to help you out, it's definitely worth it.

 

hey OP,

That is called "crow's feet". See link below.

http://www.detailingspot.com/?page_id=224

 

In the article posted above, the clear coat failure looks a lot worse than what you have. I think those are actually cracks in the paint, under the clear coat. It's a known problem on Honda/Acura paint. The only way to fix this is to have that panel sandded down and repainted.

 

Good article. Explains a lot.

 

Pictures show what looks to be like damage from bird poop or car getting egged.

It's likely that the previous owner(s) probably didn't care enough about the car/paint to clean and protect it.

Clearcoat failure mostly happens on horizontal panels. If you have these spots on vertical panels such as the "big patch on the side of the car on the passenger rear door," then that's more than likely bird poop or car getting egged.

 

I have seen plenty of 3rd gen TL's with obvious failed paint. Acura paint in general is pretty crappy IMO. My old Honda Civic which I had for 16 years had better paint than my current TL. These new soft water based OEM paints are not as durable anymore. I wish Acura would go to a Ceramiclear paint like Audi or Mercedes.

If the OP's car has gone neglected for years prior to purchase then there is not much you can do to prove a warranty claim. I would have a professional detailer work on it as a cost effective solution. A repaint is most likely required.

 

Looks like bird dropping that etched into the paint.
What speed, how much pressure and how many section passes have you done with the PC?

 

No expert here but this doesn't look like clear coat failure.
Looks like a combo of micro marring, scratches and water spots.

 

We bought a red TL new in 1999. The clear coat began separating about 2006 or 2007-probable cause was bird droppings on hood not cleaned off quickly enough. The car has since developed peeling patches or eroding of the clear coat over the entire top surfaces of the car, including the spoiler.
This could not all be caused by bird droppings, since more attention has been paid since the first 2 caused damage. Have to admit that not much waxing has been done during this time. The car does spend a lot of time in sun. We also have a 1996 Dodge Caravan which has seen about the same care and conditions. It is just in the past year showing some paint deterioration on the roof only, but it is 18 years old.
Our car guy son tells us that Honda paint is notoriously "soft" and we believe him.
Considering repainting the Acura because of low mileage and otherwise great car, but it may not be worth it.