saskabush

I washed my car at a wand wash last week and was horrified when some of the paint flaked right off. This is on the driver's side rocker panel. The car is a 2009 AW 535xi. Doing a google search, it seems that the paint is water based nowadays and isn't as hard as it used to be.

The dealership said that it probably started with a rock chip and once the water gets underneath, the paint just lifts right off. There definitely seems to be alot more rock chips than I recall seeing with any of my previous cars. I have never seen paint lift away like that from a rock chip! Anyone else see this before?

BMW warranty is covering it and it's going in for new paint over the rocker panel this tuesday.

balbs

I think it wasn't properly painted\primed in the first place.

sahiljain22

Wow. I have had my fair share of rock chips driving 15-20k miles each year, but never seen paint flake due to chips.

inktoxicated

ghetto have them repaint or something. that shit shouldnt be happening to a 2009 paint job. obviously te paint is adhearing to the primer

Munich77

Looks like the paint was not properly prepped when it was painted. I bet the rocker panel was repainted before you took possession of the car.

luigi524td

+1 especially not like that! Any other paint issues elsewhere? BMW paints the various parts and assemblies in batches as the car body is being completed. You should have the dealer inspect the bumpers and other areas of the car to be sure there weren't any prep issues that will eventually affect other parts.

saskabush

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/au...aint_woes.html

This is an article I found doing a google search.

Seems to be a recurring issues in various BMW forums.

cleung

this happened to my friends Acura TSX not too long ago, but I've never seen it happen to bmw. I was going to also suggest that maybe that paint isn't OE, but then according to the link posted above you aren't the only one having issues. Well I guess as long as the dealership is taking car of you, you're ok. Has Bema in Saskatoon been pretty good to deal with?

tonyb635

Actually, water base paint is only used on the body. All hang on parts are painted seperately with a solvent based paint. From the picture I would also say it appears that a prepping issue may have occurred. Of course the rock didn't help and perhaps may have never been an issue had something not impacted it. But it makes you wonder why that call it a "rocker" panel though....

tonyb635

Also, BWM doesn't paint this, it's painted by their supplier who injects the part as part of their process. There could be a very small number of hang on parts that are painted at the time the car is. This depends on the model of car. Rockers and bumpers are clearly paintet off the car and outside of the process. So, they are only relevant to themselves. Meaning, they don't paint bumpers and rockers directly together because the fixtures that hold these parts have to be different. Now there is most likely a group of right rockers painted and then following on the conveyor a group of left and so on within a color batch... Prepping is also revelant to the part in this case. It doesn't mean that because of this issue that you will have it on another part. I would say you would be more likey to have it more on the same part...