Hey, longtime lurker, first time poster

The paint on my '09 fit has started to fail. There are bubbles in the clear coat, I think. It appears as splochy areas on the door handles and mirrors and haziness on the hood. The car hasn't gotten to 5 years old yet. Unfortunately I live in an apartment, so I don't have covered parking, and I know it's sun damage. But this seems ridiculously soon for the paint to go to hell.

I took it to the dealer and they said the 5-year paint warranty only covers rust through.

Anybody else with similar problems? Solutions?

 

Pics?
Did you buy it used or brand new?
Possibly painted.

 

Oh, I failed to mention that I am the only owner of this car. Bought it brand new from the same dealer.

Weird thing, though; when I took it in for them to check out the paint problems the service manager accused me of having the roof painted, because it isn't faded at all and he said it was obvious from the way the clear coat looked on the front lip of the roof

I have never had any paint work done on the car and when I asked him how that could have happened, he said "I don't know, it's your car."

It's difficult to get pictures of the problem. It almost looks like a frost on the places where it occurs. I may try to take some pics tomorrow when it's light out.

 

Seems a lot of the 09s have this problem, there's quite a few threads on it. Milano Red isn't Honda's best color IMO, some people don't have any issues with it but a lot of the cars I see in that color are faded/pink/bad clearcoat.

Really unfortunate but there's not much you can do except complain to Honda Corporate and see if they'll help you out at all with a repaint or get it repainted yourself. The dealership won't help you alone, they're generally assholes after you've driven the car off the lot the first time and even sometimes before

 

+1

Try to complain to corporate but it looks like they won't cover anything from how they have treated people with other cars.

Just doing a quick search on google brings up people with the TSX, RSX, Integra, CR-V, and Civic all having issues and none of them got remedied from Honda.

This guy even tried to use a few paint correction methods and it didn't help since it's under the clearcoat:

Milano red type R colour issues HELP ME PLS!! - Detailing World

 

I have a similar paint fade issue with my Milano '09 as well. I've long ago given up hope for Honda to help, so sometime this year my father and I are bringing it back down to primer and will repaint it Rallye red, another Honda red that's a bit more durable. Shame I have to do this to a 5 year old car, but still...

 

This and the fact that I just had to replace the rear main engine seal because of an oil leak (at only 62,000 mi) has got me thinking twice about Honda's quality...

 

Here's a picture of what I mean about the door handles. The mirrors have the same splotchyness

 

That definitely appears to be the clear coat failing. My 09 Taffeta White paint is starting to go as well, on the tops of the front fenders and the hood the paint is dead and no amount of polishing seems to help. The roof is fine because it was repainted due to hail damage back in 09 about 4 months after I got the car.

 

I'm thinking of plasti dipping the handles and mirrors black.

I wonder if my roof had hail damage before I bought it and the dealer never disclosed that (e.g. the roof appears to have been repainted).

 

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Honda (or let them off the hook)... user Nicotine had a pretty bad paint problem and according to him they were helpful in getting it fixed... https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ml#post1202562


It's clear by your service manager's comments he's a moron, just like most of them are. What I'd do in your case, is try a few other Honda dealer services... if no one's willing to help, then take it up to Honda America... I'd even show them how one user got help... and if that don't work escalate it even more.
I used to bring the car for service at the dealer I bought it from, but after some issues after the LMS recall, I searched around and found a better Honda service dealership.. it's a bit further, but worth it for me for some services.


The paint on these cars shouldn't wear down so quick... Supposedly they're skimping on paint/clearcoat thicknesses, and for whatever reason (environmental or cost) the customer shouldn't have to deal with this so soon.... maybe if all the owners get together for a lawsuit or something...

 

Called Honda Customer Services and they told me the finish on the car is only warranted to 3 years/30,000 miles and that there's nothing Honda can do. I was frustrated and told the representative I'll just drive it around like it is so people can see what crappy paint jobs Honda puts on their cars.

 

I've heard quite a bit about GE paintjobs going bad. Sucks to see Honda skimping on something like paint.

GDs seem to be unaffected by cheap paintjobs.

 

You might want to read and review my thread.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...nt-issues.html

Also, find another dealer...a Honda dealer will have the most pull with Honda corp. In my case, my local in-town dealership was ashamed of the Honda paint job and called Honda for me..they worked out a deal and got my vehicle repainted and looking like new.

 

If I were you I would just repaint the parts that you find the most annoying and think about getting a vinyl wrap on your roof.

Otherwise you could look into getting the entire car wrapped in vinyl which will be cheaper than getting the car repainted.

 

Keep in mind... Milano Red, San Marino Red, and Teffeta White do NOT have a base/clear. Did you not ever see old Milano Red Integras before? Most IF never waxed WILL turn "pinkish". I'd clay bar it, use rubbing compound, and a good wax. Hopefully it will renew the paint. BTW, I'm new new here. Wascc last here in 08 as a member when i was going to buy but got an 08 Accord EX-L Navi. Waves Hi.

 

If Honda doesn't clearcoat red then what's that stuff on his door handles? I wonder if the dealer applied some sort of "paint protectant" that's failing.

 

Yeah, that's what I was wondering too...

 

I was under the impression some of the colors just have the clear mixed in, but it's not a seperate coat. IDK if there's any truth to that but i'd like to know the deal if that's not true.

 

Ask a good paint body shop...I think almost everything gets clearcoated.