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paint rust issue and dealer visit

12K views 54 replies 31 participants last post by  DirtDiver 
#1 ·
so i've found rust spots in my paint everywhere on the vehicle except the roof basically (only because i haven't looked there very well)


went to the dealer, the service manager circled the X once, didn't get any closer then 3 feet from it, looked at the two larger spots on the hood, said it was from rock chips and they won't cover it....

so i pointed out some spots on the doors that were pin hole sized rust spots and he claimed it was stuff in the paint and would come out with a wax.... despite my emphasis on the clay baring and waxing i did this past thursday.

so i said i would be back another day and went straight to my body shop (churchville auto body for those of you in my area...great guys, i know the owner and his family personally)....he took one look at the car and said there were rust specks all over it!!!! especially in on the rear hatch!.....def. something that should be covered under a warrenty

well, after a long conversation with him he agreed the dealer should do something...but....also said since there is 32000 miles on the car it will be very hard to almost imposssible to get them to repair it (especially since it's paint and the dealership will make not money on it)


so i have an uncooperative dealership and an extremely knowledgeable body and paint man......well, it's back to the dealership in a few days....this time i'm bringing my father with me since he'll be in town (the loudest 50 year old man i know, if something isn't right he'll raise hell till it gets fixed or he's thrown out, lol....plus he's good friends with the body shop manager)

updates to come......
 
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#2 ·
Just don't drive over 4000 miles before you get back to the dealer unless you extended the warranty. My old GF had an issue with her VW and it was close to the end of the standard warranty and they said no go. By the time she got back to them it was past the mileage and the dealer cried warranty expired.

At the time we had no money to fight them and just had our local repair shop do the work. Never went back to the dealer and when I saw the sales guy come into the Bike shop I worked at he paid full price for the bike he purchased along with the extras.

There are only a few Real Dealers out there that care about their customers.

What ever happened to Customer Service?
 
#3 ·
XterraVT said:
What ever happened to Customer Service?
Amen to that.

I hope things work out for you willgr1. That really sucks for that to be happening and then have them ignore the issue. The truth is though, I am not sure what realistic answer there is.
I mean what would be an ideal solution?
 
#4 ·
i would agree with the customer service statement


as far as a solution, i want the parts that can be touched up touched up...only problem is those spots are rusted on the sheet metal, so more prep work required then just painting over, and i want the areas that are specked (the hatch.....imagine a car looks like it has fleck in the paint, but a rust colored on a white car....yeah, it's that bad) stripped and repainted


the owner of the body shop offered to mix up some touch up paint for me real quick, so i can touch up some of the spots, but i'm waiting till after the dealer issue is sorted out....


also, i was at pep-boys the other day and saw some gel like stuff that supposively dissolves rust.....anyone have experience with anything like that???....might at well start planning to fix this one myself....
 
#6 ·
some of the spots have pushed through the paint and clear coat and you can feel them...i assume these to be rock chips and are not what i approached the dealer with


the majority is under the clear coat, you cannot feel them, but you can def. see them, clay barred the entire vehicle last week, none came off
 
#7 ·
thats really strange. That is definitely a problem with the primer/basecoat. Anything that you can feel is probably a rock chip or the like, but if you claybarred the whole thing and nothing came off that is messed up. You should be able to fight that as it is UNDER the clear coat, obviously not caused by rock chips or anything..
 
#8 ·
yeah, thank's for the replys, i'm going back to the dealer on thursday and i'm bringing my father since apparently he's not only friend with the body shop manager, but he also know the owner of the dealership, lol......and if all else fails nissan gets a phone call.......


oh, this vacation can't some soon enough........
 
#9 ·
i have the same problem. i have 4 small rust spots on the rear hatch just above the rear window. i brought my X in today to the dealership and they told me they needed to contact Nissan to see if this is a problem going around with all the X's or if it's just a select few. anyway, i'll keep u guys posted on my progress.
 
#10 ·
I had a paint issue with a Sentra that I owned in the early '90s. The local dealer wouldn't touch it, and I called Nissan directly and told them the story, and that the car was less that 2 yrs old. Lo and behold the Service Manager called me the next day and (begrudgingly) offered to re-paint it for no charge. You might try that angle if you don't have any luck.
 
#12 ·
just got back from the dealer...


they're keeping the X for a few hours and giving it a "good, thorough" buffing....because they swear it will come out with that


and also the service manager and director both say it's filings from transport in the rail road cars, but i don't see how it could get on the sides of the car in that case and have none on the hood that i could see......just a thought of mine


well, i'll get the X back later tonight, hopefully it will be light enough to get a good look at it and see if the spots are still there

anyone know if buffing and using the compound and all will mask the marks? i'm worried they will just be covered up, not removed and show back up in a few weeks or months
 
#17 ·
willgr1 said:
the service manager and director both say it's filings from transport in the rail road cars, but i don't see how it could get on the sides of the car in that case and have none on the hood that i could see
New cars usually have a "Paint Guard Film" (PGF) on horizontal areas such as the hood and roof, to help protect the paint during transport, so in some cases it makes sense why you might see issues with the paint on the sides, but not the hood.
 
#18 ·
willgr1 said:
the spots are under the clear coat, you can't dap paint into them.....plus there's way too many to do this to all of them
Buffing will not help in any way if the rust is under the CC...lack of prep work at the Factory normally causes this and yours should not be the only one with this issue....
 
#19 ·
Xterraclamper said:
Buffing will not help in any way if the rust is under the CC...lack of prep work at the Factory normally causes this and yours should not be the only one with this issue....


i doubt it is...



so, just got the X back from the dealer.....buffing helped......but didn't totally solve the issue, yet, the service director still insisted it was not rust and it will not come out or get worse...yeah......dude as a total a$$, his exact words were "i will not do another free things for this car"....like he has a choice, it's still under warrenty.....and the service manager sat there and argue that "yeah, if i took a magnifying glass to it i could see something too...."...moron, i saw them with the naked eye

customer service really sucks these days, i'm 23, but i still expect to be treated like i have a clue as to what is going on, i mean, when i worked retail in a local pet store, i knew exactly what i was talking about, and i NEVER b.s.ed someone, i told them straight up, even if something was my fault i would own up to it and correct the problem.......ok rant over

back to the issue at hand, since some of the spots were removed i left it as is for now since i'm going out of town tonight....but i'll be watching the paint very very carefully and the second i see the spots return (and i and my father are both convinced it will) i'll be right back at that dealership and nissan will be hearing about it.....actually, they might get a call anyways because of the fact that there are still many spots on car and the behavior of the service director was very unprofessional....
 
#23 ·
My X has already had several repainted panels. Hood, fender, rear quarter of course I bought the thing at night and my wife doesn't know the difference---it's shinny to her, but when I see all of the sand scrathes under the paint, fish eyes and final detail on the inside of the fender I am not a happy camper.

I figured that over the life of the vehicle it will receive dings and rock chips and there isn't much I can do but watch the money go out the window.
 
#24 ·
I need to check my 06 X for rust spots now darn it. The thing I hate is the orange peel finish on the paint. My brother has an 06 Altima and the paint is smooth as glass.

Is the orange peel thing common on the X?
 
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