Paint bubbling/corrosion on edge of roof

got my car back today from Audi west london (on the A4) excellant job paint match is spot on !
 
Hey Bob (call me Andy by the way:)),

Glad you got your car back ok. I was working on mine on Monday and found a patch of missing paint on the rear spoiler by the rear quarter panel which I hadn't noticed before. I also noticed that the off-side parcel shelf string wasn't hooked up when it was before the car went it so went to re-attach it and found that the peg it clips into is missing!

I'm gonna struggle to prove that either bit of damage was caused by them after so much time has passed so looks like I may have to repair the paint chip and look into purchasing a replacement clip for the parcel shelf. What's the bet they don't sell them on their own!

The car's getting detailed next weekend, but I think Alex is going away for a while after that. I'd suggest dropping him an email (alex dot lis at btinternet dot com) and seeing what he says. He mentioned that he can recommend someone else to do the job but I'm not sure how much they'll charge.

Andy
 
Hi Andy,

Gutted you found more wrong with yours but as it has not even been 2 weeks i'm sure you can still contact them about it especially the paint issue as thats the reason they had it. As for the other bits if they are parts they would if had to touch to do the job then i would think the would have to sort them too.

As for my car i will defo give it a really good look tomorrow and see if its all good when its cleaned up a bit.

As for the detailing i would like to see your results first (photos please) that way i can actually see if its worth me getting it done as i am a tad low on cash for luxuries at the mo.
 
I lost a parcel shelf peg on my A3, went to the dealer and they said it was a common problem. Don't know how much they cost as a technician had one lying in his toolbox with the clip and just gave it to me. A bit of a pain to fit as the trim is clipped on well and you need to be careful not to break it when removing it otherwise its easy to do.
 
j4jon said:
I lost a parcel shelf peg on my A3, went to the dealer and they said it was a common problem. Don't know how much they cost as a technician had one lying in his toolbox with the clip and just gave it to me. A bit of a pain to fit as the trim is clipped on well and you need to be careful not to break it when removing it otherwise its easy to do.
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Excellent thanks matey. I'll have a word with my local dealer tomorrow as I've got the day off work :thumbsup:
 
It's getting there fella :) Just niggly bits and pieces that need sorting really, the main one being the slightly lumpy idle. I'm starting to think it's a split hose somewhere. Next week she's getting detailed and at the same time I'll be taking the front bumper off to spray the insides of the headlights black and swap out the headlamps and indicators with Osram jobbys.

I'm driving down to Devon in her this weekend with the missus so will see what she's like on a long run. Looking forward to it :)

Did you get the damage sorted on yours in the end?
 
Hey andy mate sorry to hear about your troubles with your car, my roof has got a bubble or 2 on the roof and i was thinking about taking it into to be looked at but after the problems people have been having im having 2nd thoughts lol! Someone scuffed my rear bumper the other day in the street so im gonna have to get that done as well as my clutch is on the way out i think. :sob:

We still have to meet up by the way as there are a few S3 owners round this area, and i wanna see your car after it has been detailed as i want mine done.


Nick
 
Hi there Nick, long time no speak! If I were you I'd certainly get the bodywork sorted sooner rather than later. There's not much point getting your car detailed until things are 100% either. Can't believe someone scraped your bumper :sadlike: I take it they drove off without leaving their details?

If you're around next Saturday then Alex will be detailing my car outside the house so you're more than welcome to drop by and say Hi. Would be good to finally meet up :thumbsup:
 
Forgot to mention, I phoned the stealers earlier and the parcelshelf pegs are a grand total of 30p each..bargain!
 
Well after a quick wash yesterday my car does not look too bad. Can't see any missed spots and all the trim etc is back as before. one of the quarter panels does have what looks like a little overspray on it but hardly noticable and its better than rust.

All it needs now is to get rid of a few light scratches here n there and it would be looking lovely so remember Andy some nice before n after photos from the detailing once it has been done.

30p eh guess you won't be bothering to go back to them about that then.
 
Just got my car back from Listers in Coventry.

It looks amazing! I had corrosion in the gutters and slight bubbling at the bottom of the doors (didn't actually take trim off but could see something just above it). They checked paint thickness and booked it in.

They have resprayed both doors and rear quarters as well as the entire roof! The finish is perfect and all imperfections from the last 10 years (scratches under door handle, edge of door when open, and the usual ones) have gone. They have replaced the trims on both sides (i'd damaged the drivers one and use aerosol spray over it a while back) and given the car a mini valet too (inside and out)

The cost for all this work - £21 to my insurance company to use a Yaris for 6 days.

Thanks for this thread guys - i'd def recommend this garage. Getting wheels refurbed on Tuesday and i'm ready for the summer!
 
Just had a quick read through this thread and its good to see some many claims being successful! However ive not been so lucky, my friends TT has bubbling on the drivers side roof rail, about 3cm long, took it to my local (Teesside Audi) and they said they reduced the warranty to 3 years as Audi are having so many problems with this issue (absolutely shocking I thought-the car was sold with 12 years warranty) and I tried the dealer at Sunderland and they told me as it was a trim part it wasnt covered under the 12 year warranty!

Has anyone else been successful in having their roof rail resprayed under warranty?

Cheers!
 
Mines just been approved for roof rails and rust on the bottom of the door.

Waiting on a call from the bodyshop to arrange it going in.
 
I just took my s3 into my local dealer (newton Abbot) they have taken pictures of corrosion on the roof, it still has to be approved but the lady in the dealership seemed fairly confident that it would be. I was just wondering whether anybody local to me has had any joy with the audi garages near me with a similar fault.it will be going to exeter (marsh barton) if it is approved.
 
just got confirmation that Harwoods in Totton, (southampton audis spray place) are gonig to do my bubbling on the 16th of june they will need the car all week, does this sound like enough time? They also informed me i'd get a new a3 tdi courtesy car, which is quite nice, but not at £1.30 per litre :(
Did the people on here who had problems with their warranty work done by them get it sorted, my uncle has a vw transporter bought from the VW van dealer in totton, harwoods have done some warranty paint on it and its ****! i am a wee bit nervous to be honest. can anyone confirm they have had good work done there?
 
I'm now happy with the outcome of my work, but no thanks to Harwoods. The condition they returned the car to me in was well below standard. The actual paint job was pretty good but there was white marks all over the interior of the car, adhesive from their masking tape on the roof, they broke one of my rear parcel shelf pegs, and it looked like they had polished the rear quarter panel with a brillo pad as it was covered in scratches!

To top the whole situation off they asked me to get the car in at 8am on the Tuesday so they "could get the work started nice and early", but what they forgot to mention was that they were moving premises that week! They didn't start the car until a week later and I didn't get the car back for a total of 10 working days. I wasn't lucky enough to get a nice courtesy car either..it was a 57 plate Chrysler Matiz :(

I replaced the parcel shelf peg myself (30p from Audi) and had the car detailed a couple of weeks later so that sorted out the problems with the finish. After my experience with Harwoods I would say if you can get it done elsewhere (Salisbury Audi?) then go for it, otherwise you are taking bit of a gamble! To balance my report out, vrbob also had his car done at Harwoods and I believe was happy with the outcome.
 
cheers,, themanthatcan, i have tried audi in salisbury before and the guy told me that they have nver had a warranty approved and basically dont botehr bringing it to us! so i never did because of his attitude. But i may consider giving them a bell now.
 
My S3 is going in to Cougar Accident & Repair Centre In Luton on Tuesday June 3rd. I am getting my roof rails done and also hoping to get my bumpers sorted out at the same time. Can anyone tell me if they had corrosion on both sides of their roof or one? Mine only has bubbling on one side and was wondering if they do the whole roof or just the bubbling side. Will post when it is all sorted to let people know the results. I will be looking for a detailer in Herts after if anyone knows of one to recommend.
 
Which bits they spray seems to depends on where you get the work done. I've heard of people getting the whole roof done, and was told by the warranty guy at Southampton Audi that's what they'd do to mine, but the bodyshop only did the affected areas and blended it all in. I only had corrosion on the passenger side on mine.
 
barters3 said:
I just took my s3 into my local dealer (newton Abbot) they have taken pictures of corrosion on the roof, it still has to be approved but the lady in the dealership seemed fairly confident that it would be. I was just wondering whether anybody local to me has had any joy with the audi garages near me with a similar fault.it will be going to exeter (marsh barton) if it is approved.
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I had mine approved at Exeter Audi with no problems. Someone else here had theirs approved in Newton Abbot so would hope you'll be ok
 
Yeah mine is ok now too.

Looked a bit dodgy when i first got it back from harwoods as they didn't really polish it very well.

I gave it a quick wash n polish and it seems pretty good they did take 2 weeks doing the job though so i wouldn't expect it i a week. Also i was told i would get an A3 but i ended up with a seat diesel (better than a matix though!!)
 
mines going in on the monday the 23rd,the corrosion is miniscule but my mate works for the dealers bodyshop and got it sorted
get to drive a vw fox for a week....wooohooo
 
Had my s3 approved by Audi Newton Abbot for corrosion on the roof. Dropped it in to the bodyshop today. Happy so far apart from the fact that they are out of courtesy cars!! Hopefuly they will do a good job.
 
barters3 said:
Had my s3 approved by Audi Newton Abbot for corrosion on the roof. Dropped it in to the bodyshop today. Happy so far apart from the fact that they are out of courtesy cars!! Hopefuly they will do a good job.
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did it goto the body shop in barton? hope they do a better job than they did of mine. they put the roof rails in wrong way first time. muppets.
 
it has gone to marsh Barton (exeter). Il have to wait and see if they do a good job
 
yeah thats were mine went. it was a young thin guy with short hair who delt with it at the paint shop. wasnt all that impressed tbh. u can see the line were they masked it off all along the top of the rear windows an along the front two doors.
 
DBXdarkangel said:
yeah thats were mine went. it was a young thin guy with short hair who delt with it at the paint shop. wasnt all that impressed tbh. u can see the line were they masked it off all along the top of the rear windows an along the front two doors.
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take it back as Audi are paying for it,if mine isn't done right then who betide em
 
Just picked it up from the bodyshop (marsh barton) ive looked it over and it looks like a good job so im pretty happy, i had an arch which had a minor scratch on it done at the same time and both are good.
 
themanthatcan said:
Hi guys,

I had Alex from South Coast Detailing come over to do a pre-detail inspection on my car this afternoon. While we were going over it I noticed that I have some paint bubbles on the passenger side up along the roof gulleys..there's 3 patches spreading over a 30cm length!

I understand this is quite a common problem on the A3/S3? Has anyone here made a successful claim with Audi on their anti-corrosion warranty and got this damage fixed? I certainly wouldn't expect this sort of corrosion on an Audi and I'm not a happy bunny at the moment! :keule:
Click to expand...
Just had repairs to my corroding roof rails on my 1999 A3T approved by Wolverhampton Audi. No questions asked, they just checked the paint with a guage to make sure the paintwork is original and they called a few days later to say bring it in for repairs under the 12 year corrosion warranty.
 
Guys, just got mine back from harwoods in totton. V pleased they did a very neat job big thumbs up!!!
 
Nice to know.

I've booked the S into Lincoln Audi, expecting a phone call from the garage soon to arrange a date.

How long did it take?
 
it was meant to be five days - drop off monday morning pick up friay night but took nearlly 2 weeks, but had a little diesel seat altea the whole time so wasnt too bothered. Just very releived it came back looking good... after all people on this forum havent had good experiences with harwoods..

jimmeh - good luck with yours. fingers crossed. get them to check the lower part of the doors too whilst it's in. mine were ok, but they said they would have done them if they werent. :kissmyrings:
 
Got mine going in to Wrexham VW for the roof rails and lower doors on Monday, going to ask them to do the back bumper at the same time as its in need of a lick of paint :yes:
 
Hi, I usually post around on Audifans, but was directed to this thread as thinking of buying an A3 to add to the Audi collection. I have to say I am really concerned about this thread. I've never owned a non-Audi car, and the one area which I considered bullet proof was the bodywork.

Can you expect this to happen on literally every A3, if it's a defective seal design, or is it only a few unlucky people affected?

Please could someone post a pic, or describe in detail what/where to look for when looking over a second-hand A3, so that I can spot the problem if it's there and either get the owner to do the warranty claim/repair before I buy it, or walk away?

Cheers :thumbsup:
 
Certainly wouldn't call it bulletproof - it chips and scratches really easily. That said I don't expect the bodywork to rust or corrode...

I noticed a small amount of bubbling on mine a few days ago when washing the car and found this thread shortly after!
 
Faaaaaast.......it seem's inevitable that if your going to buy an A3, at some point in it's life this is going to need sorting.....i don't believe it's a certain batch or a certain year, it seem's to affect a lot of people.
I had my A3 on a 98' done in the past, and i'm now patiently waiting for the day my S3 need's doing.......:crying:
 
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