S3 - stone damage

[richardn]

Well i just got back from a drive and was walking past the front bumper when i noticed LOADS, seriousl LOADS, of little stone chips that have gone right through the paint and because my car is black they are hard to miss...

Anyone else have a problem like this? Is audi's paint really this bad...

I guess i'm going to have to get a respray and then put some 3M protection on....

 

[katsumoto]

tough luck broe, I know you just got your s3, feeling for ya. Just wondering, did you drive on a gravel road or just a normal highway?

 

[phantom]

Well i just got back from a drive and was walking past the front bumper when i noticed LOADS, seriousl LOADS, of little stone chips that have gone right through the paint and because my car is black they are hard to miss...

Anyone else have a problem like this? Is audi's paint really this bad...

I guess i'm going to have to get a respray and then put some 3M protection on....

Yeah i'm the same mate ( Phantom black= crap paint IMHO ) , i got qoted £ 550 for bonnet and bumper repray from a Audi bodyshop!

Or you can go down the wet sanding route for around £250-300 , and the rest of the car gets a full detail as well?

p

 

[newbiecrg]

happens with any car if you drive fast... Black cars are a bit more noticiable... mine is still OK (i don't know why, just luck)

But stone chips on front bumper and bonet are part of life... not much we can do... only if you don't drive the car...

Paint being crap... don't agree it is paint like had in other cars I think is the fact of being black...

A respray is the way to do it properly. You can protect your car using a clear film from 3M... but is it worth it? In the end it is a car and we have to accept some wear and tear...

Pedro

 

[Cootie]

Sorry to hear that

My S3 is a company car, and silver so I'm not unduly concerned about chips on the paintwork. Think if it was my own car though I would be looking at 3M or similar.

The one area I have noticed chips on mine is on the lacquer on the alloys after a particularly spirited drive

 

[Dandle]

I don't think its anything to do with Audis paint. I had some serious stone chips on my lava grey A3 but my silver BMW also has some big old chips. I think it has more to do with environmentally friendly water based paints being alot softer than the older oil based pants than anything else.

 

[L60N]

I have the same with my white car, its only 3weeks old!

Two stone chips, one is tiny (but i know its there grrr) and the other one is a shitter!

I thought 2 things that turned out to be false.

1 - Black paint is softer so I wont suffer many stone chips with white. False!

2 - My old black car showed white undercoat which made them appear worse, so I thought a white car would have white undercoat too; False, its black!!!

Bummer.

I suppose its inevitable at some stage or another, just feels more painful with a new car

Im going to invest in some touch up/laquer and take my time to get it spot on, why dont you do the same? :thumbsup:

 

[phantom]

2 - My old black car showed white undercoat which made them appear worse, so I thought a white car would have white undercoat too; False, its black!!!

Bummer.

Hehehe i'm not laughing at you mate , just the crazyness of having BLACK under coat!

Were you on the Sanke pass yesterday?

p

 

[prt57]

I think the paint on my red S3 chips more easily tham the paint on my red Golf GTI 1.8T.
On the way back from a service 2 weeks ago a car overtoook me and a bit of grit flicked up against the side of my car. The noise was not loud but the chip was mega.
I have spent nearly 2 weeks adding more paint to the hole building it up. One more coat and the laquer on top should do it to the best of my ability.
I looked at the damage with a watchmakers eye glass and you could see how the red paint had just flaked off the grey coloured undercoat. With my Golf you just get a chip that matches what ever hit it.
Is this due to water based paints being used now??

prt57

 

[JimmyJames]

Its exactly why i moved from black to grey. Last three Audis i had black paint an absolute ****** with chips and skiffs. all looking white when done. Crap

As Dandle says Audi do use a water based environmentally paint these days so not as good as the previous stuff. ALSO you guys with black cars really need to pay attention to bird ****. I sussessfully claimed a warranty issue on my Sportback and its the same black paint on your car. If it bites it bites and you'll be left with a nasty mark.

 

[Beddie]

The front bumper on my Misano Red one looks like it's been shotblasted..

2 trips to the 'Ring and the associated Autobahn action have taken there toll, got 2 more planned this year including a 2K tour of germany so will leave it as is and get it blown over at the end of the year :icon_thumright:

Imo it's one of those unavoidable things that come with using a car as it's intended, i don't get too hung up on it and treat a quick bumper blow over as a maintenance item..

 

[brucer]

Morning Gents,

Sorry to hear about all the stone chips but just before i recieved my S3 in October i went ahead & got the clear film protectiion applied to my car. At first everyone thought i was stupid paying all that money for a bit of "clingfilm" as they called it but now they see why it was such a good buy. I got the wing mirrors, lights, bonnet & whole front bumper protected by this company called Defendall. They also did my tints for me but i got a wee bit of money knocked off since they have done my tints on my last 3 cars. I would strongly recommend people to get this protection as i've had the car for over 6 months now & no stone chips at all, touch wood.

Cheers

 

[richardn]

Well i think it was from driving around on the main roads around town. There is a lot of building and road works being done so the roads are full of building sand and that sort of stuff. Here's a pic of the damage

 

[L60N]

Jeeeez, thats bad

One thing i found useful to hide these stone chips (albeit not as many as that) was to use colour magic polish, its a bit of a cheap option, but the coloured olish settles into the stonechips making them appear less obvious.

THe proper way to sort that is a respray, but im guessing you already knew that.

It might be worth a trip to the dealership to see if there is/was a paint issue with your car though, it looks REALLY pitted. Were you following a car at speed for a long distance??

regards

 

[richardn]

I think it may have happened when i was passing a new bmw 335i at speed and he decided to put foot just to show me he was faster because the damage is just on my left side. I had the music loud so i didn't hear anything...

BTW that 335i is FAST!!!

 

[PNH80]

2 - My old black car showed white undercoat which made them appear worse, so I thought a white car would have white undercoat too; False, its black!!!

Hmm...Am i right in saying they give white cars black undercoat in order to make imperfections/thin paint and damage more visible? Can't think of anything else!

I think it may have happened when i was passing a new bmw 335i at speed and he decided to put foot just to show me he was faster because the damage is just on my left side. I had the music loud so i didn't hear anything...

BTW that 335i is FAST!!!

Performance wise... Pretty much identical to the old M3 i believe, but a classier motor...And i want one! (coupe that is)

 

[marriedblonde]

Jesus Richard that stone chip damage is bad! My 2 year old A3 with 40k on the clock hadn't suffered anything like that kind of damage! It did have some chips obviously but no where near that extent.

J.

I don't think its anything to do with Audis paint. I had some serious stone chips on my lava grey A3 but my silver BMW also has some big old chips. I think it has more to do with environmentally friendly water based paints being alot softer than the older oil based pants than anything else.

And conversely my black BM after 12 months and 30 odd thousand miles is still looking fresh with little or no damage at the front!

 

[richjohnhughes]

fill it in yourself , wetsand and polish.

my black s line with 20,000 on the clock is showing some nasty marks around the front. i hit a bird the over day which took a massive chuck out.......grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[L60N]

I think it may have happened when i was passing a new bmw 335i at speed and he decided to put foot just to show me he was faster because the damage is just on my left side. I had the music loud so i didn't hear anything...

BTW that 335i is FAST!!!

3 litre straight six.. oh and twin turbochargers

Yeah its fast, but shouldnt be much between you and that.

I wouldnt like to follow one in a race though, id sooner be infront if you know what i mean.

The main problem with tailing a car at speed is now obvious.

 

[bacardi]

ALSO you guys with black cars really need to pay attention to bird ****. I sussessfully claimed a warranty issue on my Sportback and its the same black paint on your car. If it bites it bites and you'll be left with a nasty mark.

Tell me about it, mine has 6 or 7 bird sh7t marks that won't budge, one of them was on there for less than 5 minutes but its marked beyond belief

I've had no luck with audi fixing them though, they say that so long as you clear them up quickly they will not mark - so clearly leaving your car in an outdoor carpark is a no no

 

[Kontraband]

damn it mate, your not having a whole load a luck!

Those stone chips look bad though.... like when I got my RS Orion (aka 1.6L Orion with a stupid body kit on it HAHHA) painted to match the rest of the car with that two PAC paint... I drove it and it flaked off at the slightest bit of road grit then practically totally fell of as I drove pass a gritter on the highway. Take it back and see what they say on the off chance?

 

[marriedblonde]

I've had no luck with audi fixing them though, they say that so long as you clear them up quickly they will not mark - so clearly leaving your car in an outdoor carpark is a no no

I left min parked for a couploe of hours in a multi story car park on friday night, undercover, when I cam back Ithere where some water marks on it that just looked like dirty water. Obvioulsy something in the concrete it left horrible burn marks in the paint.

I removed them with some Poorboys SRR1 swirl remover. I've also suffered from bird poo marking the paint and the poor boys removes most of that as well. Might be worth a try.

J.

 

[warren_S5]

Although paints may be softer I also think its a case of more cars and lorries on the roads, and the roads are in such bad states of repair.

My windscreen cracked last week and the car is showing signs of a good few stone chips. Since the S3 has been in th dealers I've been walking about locally more and there is so much loose gravel and **** on the roads which is endlessly being flicked up at us. Urban roads are being battered by high traffic volumes and enormous intercontinental lorries which are just ripping up the road surface.

I wish I'd got armourfend or some similar type of product, but its a bit late now. If I end up getting the front end touched up I'll get some.

I heard somewhere recently the average British road surface is expected to last 76 years with current Govt investment in roads - not motorways obviously. That aside I still couldn't do a car bra.

 

[bacardi]

I left min parked for a couploe of hours in a multi story car park on friday night, undercover, when I cam back Ithere where some water marks on it that just looked like dirty water. Obvioulsy something in the concrete it left horrible burn marks in the paint.

I removed them with some Poorboys SRR1 swirl remover. I've also suffered from bird poo marking the paint and the poor boys removes most of that as well. Might be worth a try.

J.

Cheers MB - I've (well a friend whose a sprayer!) tried some trade cleaning materials but he thought it had gone too far into the paint to get back - I'll give this a go though as I wasn't sure myself

 

[richardn]

well i took it through to a panel beater i really trust. They do a lot of exotic cars and claim 100% colour matching.

They quoted me R4104 (250 pounds) to respray the front bumper as well as the bonnet because it had a chip or two and i thought while i'm at it i may as well fix it all. I don't think is to bad so i'm thinking about doing it and then driving straight from there to the 3M paint protection place to get that sorted.

 

[newbiecrg]

your stone chips look bad mate... I actually have more problems with bugs than stone chips.... But we have nice roads in Portugal...

Pedro

 

[phantom]

well i took it through to a panel beater i really trust. They do a lot of exotic cars and claim 100% colour matching.

They quoted me R4104 (250 pounds) to respray the front bumper as well as the bonnet because it had a chip or two and i thought while i'm at it i may as well fix it all. I don't think is to bad so i'm thinking about doing it and then driving straight from there to the 3M paint protection place to get that sorted.

If you get a respray , you will void your Audi paint and rust warrenty if it's not sprayed at a Audi bodyshop!

p

 

[newbiecrg]

If you get a respray , you will void your Audi paint and rust warrenty if it's not sprayed at a Audi bodyshop!

p

Rust warranty has nothing to do with the paint but the treatment they gave to body parts... full galvanized!

Pedro

 

[phantom]

Rust warranty has nothing to do with the paint but the treatment they gave to body parts... full galvanized!

Pedro

Ive heard they test the thickness of the paint and if it's been blown over not from a Audi bodyshop ( Audi will have a record of it ) they CAN refuse warrenty work on paint and rust!

p

 

[richardn]

The body shop I uses offers a lifetime warrenty on there paint work. I've had my previous cars worked on by them and would trust them with my unborn children

 

[newbiecrg]

Ive heard they test the thickness of the paint and if it's been blown over not from a Audi bodyshop ( Audi will have a record of it ) they CAN refuse warrenty work on paint and rust!

p

That sounds extreme... but the warranty is against panel perfuration caused by rust from the inside!! So even if you develop rust on a stonechip for instance (from exposed metal) the warranty would not cover it... Maybe a dealer goodwill will do it for you but if they go by the book...

It is small print but it is there...

Pedro

 

[I'mRonBurgundy?]

Richardn - After seeing your post I was slightly concerned as I've recently done two "brisk" trips down Wales and back and have the same colour as you. Not a single chip on my motor - have you been back to the dealer to see what the say? I would be very unhappy with that much damaged on such a new car.

 

[The911SC]

May be a bit late here but I used a product called 'super collinite double coat wax' recommended of the detailing world website. It has been excellent at keeping the smaller chips at bay (I have 1 nasty one on the bonnet) but no pepper.
I used clay bar, then Zymol HD cleanse, then a couple of coats of the collinite and it seems to do the job.
I drive up and down the motorway 3 days a week (150 mile round trip) so I think it seems to be up to it..

 

[richardn]

I'mRonBurgundy - (love the nick) i popped into audi this morning and they just said that i must have been driving at speed behind another car which was flicking up stones and that i must speek to my insurance... Didn't expect much but i'm not going to go through insurance. Will end up costing me more.

The911SC - I will definately put some kind of protection on her after the respray but i think i'm just going to go all out with the 3M stuff and know that i can do whatever i want and the paint will be fine.

 

[The911SC]

You can see the 3M film, its ok for bumpers but very prominent on certain colours...

What you need is one of those VW Bra things you see on Karmanns etc!)..

 

[The911SC]

or this..

or LOLOL this...

 

[richardn]

I could never put a car bra on my car. I would rather take it in every week for a respray.

A friend of mine had the 3M stuff put on his black alfa GT and I didn't notice for a month till he told me and i still couldn't see it. He had to point it out to me.

 

[marriedblonde]

Ive heard they test the thickness of the paint and if it's been blown over not from a Audi bodyshop ( Audi will have a record of it ) they CAN refuse warrenty work on paint and rust!

p

My local VW body shop uses a local guy to repair a lot of their cars so I hope thats not the case!

J.

 

[The911SC]

think how much fun it is taking the bra off...!

Errrm... I'll get my coat!..

 

[phantom]

My local VW body shop uses a local guy to repair a lot of their cars so I hope thats not the case!

J.

Same here , they have APROVED bodyshops that they send the cars to! the trick is to find out the aproved shops and go in yourself instead of through Audi/VW and save a packet.

p