jclayto

I am ashamed to admit that I allowed the dealer to convince me to purchase the paint protector package on our 2010 Rx350. Two days after we bought the car I noticed paint beginning to peel on the front bumper. Lexus quickly fixed this for us at no cost.

2 years later it is starting to peel again, only on the front bumper. I am not talking about typical scratches found on a used car, these are patches of paint peeling off. I am starting to think that either the car had previously repaired front end damage that was not disclosed at purchase or on the car fax or that the protector product itself is peeling off and taking the paint with it.

Have there been other reported issues with protector causing peeling? I have not bene back to the dealer yet, but I don't expect them to be helpful.

BertL

Issue IMHO is the dealer used a "cheap" spray & patch over the location which can be accomplished in a short number of hours even with mobile services, and did not take the whole bumper off, sand, paint, bake and replace it as a full-fledged body shop could do.

I say this based on experience with my former 335i where the dealer put holes in the bumper for a front license plate against my request, they repaired it by the next day ... And all looked fine until I had a clear protector placed on the front end a couple months later that had to be removed a couple weeks after that, and it all came off fine except for the clearly sprayed-on area covering the front bumper areas where the holes had been patched. I took it to a proper body shop that did the complete job, and the body shop told me that flaking, etc are much more common with the "cheap" approaches like I encountered.

My suggestion, is you take it back to the dealer, have it repaired again, and tell them you need a proper job done this time as you don't want it coming off again once your protection service expires due to their taking "the cheap" approach to the repair. It's clearly a dealer and/or issue you have to take up with whoever said name is on that service agreement you signed -- unfortunately likely not Lexus itself. Good luck.

jclayto

Thanks Bert, I should have been a little more clear. I don't think it is the exact same spots that were previously repaired but they are in the same area.

I feel like either the protector film was poorly applied and it is starting to peel off taking the paint with it. No matter what, it's making an other wise nice car look horrible. I plan to take it by the dealer this weekend.

BertL

Ahhhh... The last several times a Finance Mgr tried to sell me some sort of paint protectant (at Lexus, MBZ, and BMW), it has always been a coating, polish or wax system -- something frankly I consider my own detailing regime to exceed. ...but I now get that the version you have is more of a "clear bra" physical material application. While you need to work through your dealer and/or whoever's name is on that agreement you have, in my own "clear bra" research a few years back, the better materials came with 5-7+ year warranties on the material itself -- so if yours is already peeling and taking the paint with it, well, I agree it had a bad application by whoever the dealer used to do the work on your RX, or the material itself is failing -- hopefully you don't have a "quickie" repainted bumper as I described above that is compounding the problem. Once again, good luck with your resolution.

BTW, since it's clear this issue isn't specific to the RX, I'm moving your thread over to our Automotive Care & Detailing Forum. You'll find discussion on paint protectant, coatings and applications there, so the gurus there can chime in.

jclayto

To be honest I am not sure what this product is (other than a waste of money). It was sold as super protectant that NASA uses on the space shuttle blah blah etc. Supposedly with this super protectant the car would never even need to be waxed. Anyhow, I knew it was a rip but wife seemed sold on it. After 5 hours at the dealership i was just ready to go home.

I was guessing that it was a clear film based on other post, but had up until that point assumed it to be a wax type product.

Thanks for the input!