Corrosion on roof, bonnet, tailgate and tops of door panels

[xmumfren]

Hey All,

Just posting to see if I can get any feedback on what might be of some interest to some forum members.
I've worked for my cities main renault dealer for over 6 years, starting as a service adviser and finishing service manager during this time I bought myself a "nice" mk2 172 3 months old and couple hundred miles on the clock. I left my job end of last year as there's more to life than apologising for renault. Before leaving I had started to notice lots of tiny rust spots starting to come up through the paint. Due to my position I had access to renaults technical/bodywork database where they store all suggested repair procedures for faults they are aware of. Now to my suprise I find a tech note highlighting "blistering condition in the paintwork - march 2001" on specifically "Clio RS 172 - all colours". " DESCRIPTION OF THE CONDITION: Micro blistering due to pollution of the cataphoresis protection". Example pictures are shown to help confirm diagnosis.
The suggested repair involves new door, bonnet, tailgate panels "irrespective of condition" and the rest of the bodyshell to be stripped back and cleaned with oxalic acid before respray. The cost to renault would be approx £2900.00 and thats cost price for parts and at their agreed warranty labour rate. Thing is I was informed yesterday that they are not gonna pay as my paint warranty has expired and customer services as expected are not interested. I'm gonna obviously pursue it legally but unfortunately cant go after Renault uk directly the way I understand the law as I didn't buy it directly from them, but the finance company on the other hand is gonna hear about it!!!
Love to show pictures of what i'm talking about but I guess i cant post attachments yets?

 

[Final Maxim]

sounds like a shitter :S

upload your pictures to photobucket or something and add them that way

 

[Anonymous]

Dont they have a 12year anti corrosion warranty from the stealer? If so it is Renault's problem no matter where you purchased the car

 

[Anonymous]

Just looked in my warranty manual and it is 12 years on 'All' Renault passenger vehicles including Kangoo delivered from 17th Oct 2000

 

[Bluebeard]

I claimed a new tailgate and bonnet under warranty not long ago on my 2001 clio 172 ( x reg)

 

[Meek_racing]

I have a corrosive paint defect on my roof (small round patch)... 182 54 plate... could this be a similar issue?? Only noticed it a few weeks after buying from the stealer... Wasn't from new, one previous owner. Will post a pic as soon as my car comes back from the garage...

Is any paint corrosion held under warranty? Its the roof so not exacly a simple task to do, pretty sure Renault will argue about it.

 

[Anonymous]

It does not matter where on the car it is, they will honour the agreement.

 

[Meek_racing]

Thanks I will book my car the Renault and argue against it if they fob me off. Will I have to plonk my original Airbox back in as it has a BMC in atm... Not sure on what warranty issues there are with slight modding... Oh, and I have a trumpet in my lower grille.

 

[xmumfren]

Unfortunately Renault see it as a paint defect and not a corrosion defect anyway you look at it, the evidence points towards the defect occurring during manufacture. If thats the case i was sold goods of unsatifactury condition which makes the argument over is it a paint or corrosion warranty issue irrelevent. To be honest after 6 years of working for renault this isn't unexpected, the reality is they are an unreliable company who cant stand by their product. If they did take financial responsibilty for "all" the genuine warranty claims made they'd be out of business. I represented renault for 6 years and they obviously see no advantage in keeping me a happy customer. That said from my experience the RS Clio is ironically probably one of their most reliable models, they seem to put em together better at the factory.

re superfastdan, was the claim for the same problem I described and if so I assume you didn't have the rest of the bodyshell treated?

 

[Anonymous]

Try to get an independant report from a cpl of bodyshops in your area and see if they point out corrosion or manufacturing default.

This is what the Sales of Goods Act 1979 states (I have highlighted the important/relevant parts in bold):


• Wherever goods are bought they must "conform to contract". This means they must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality (i.e. not inherently faulty at the time of sale).

What is an inherent fault?
A fault present at the time of purchase. Examples are:
• an error in design so that a product is manufactured incorrectly
• an error in manufacturing where a faulty component was inserted.
The "fault" may not become apparent immediately but it was there at the time of sale and so the product was not of satisfactory standard.
It also goes onto say:
• Goods are of satisfactory quality if they reach the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking into account the price and any description

Hope this helps

 

[xmumfren]

Unlikely the known defect I'm talking about will affect any cars produced after 2002, although the tech note does not specify. As uploading a picture may prove tricky for me I'll decribe it as best I can. Basically the entire roof, bonnet, tailgate and tops of doors are covered with millions of tiny rust and black spots, literally everything is covered. Renault do not make it easy for the dealer to keep customers happy when it comes to paint/corrosion warranty issues and you may experience that reluctance if you have a problem especially outside of the 1st 3 years. From my experience it wasn't unusual to carry out an obvious warranty repair, for renault to then reject it for some lame reason and then not pay the dealer. I was constantly having to fight with customer services to pay for items which should have been covered under the warranty.

 

[Anonymous]

email me the pic mate and I will upload it for you smokey172 @ ntlworld . com

Do you think Clar bar and a good polish could fix it?

 

[xmumfren]

sent 4 pics, hope ya get em

 

[Anonymous]

It looks like industrial fall out to me

Do you live or park near a railway line/airport/industrial estate often?

 

[Anonymous]

Depending on how bad it is and without actually seeing it in the metal.

If it is as I suspect, I would say a really coarse clay bar will help

 

[xmumfren]

Funny, when i first showed it to the blokes in the bodyshop, they were convinced someone had been grinding near it but I know the history of the car and its had a very easy life. With the use of company cars I've barely clocked up 20k on it. It was the pics on the tech note which look exactly the same that convinced me.

 

[len_beach]

How would you go about claiming?

I have small bulbes of rust on the under side of my bonnet and the stupid number plate carrier on the rear has caused small bubbles to appear on the tailgate.

 

[Anonymous]

where are you located xmumfren?

 

[Anonymous]

How would you go about claiming?

I have small bulbes of rust on the under side of my bonnet and the stupid number plate carrier on the rear has caused small bubbles to appear on the tailgate.

Call your local Renault mate

 

[xmumfren]

sunny plymouth

 

[Andyman]

I have corrosion on the roof of my ph1 172 too !! Not actually rusted through as yet but my roof is littered with surface bubbles!

As there's a 12 years anti corrosion warranty iv never bothered and was only gonna do so when it got too bad.

Last month when my car was in for work at a Renault dealer i mentioned it to the service manager who said he didnt know what to do with claims and told me to go to Renault UK

A week after i took it to a Renault approved garage while i was getting my alloy bonnet sprayed and he'd never seen anything like it !

Claimed it was a big big job to put right but would back me up all the way if i tried to put a claim in.

 

[len_beach]

Do you get replacement parts or do they just repair and respray?

 

[xmumfren]

If a repair is carried out ref tech notes method you should get new panels.
it reads -
For the doors, the bonnet and the tailgate :
Irrespective of condition, change the panel (door, bonnet, tailgate) and use the standard method to paint it.
For the rest of the of the body shell :
-First operation : strip the area involved until the cataphoresis protection is exposed.
-Second operation : key the surface of the cataphoresis protection using a metallic brush and clean the surface with oxalic acid.
- Third operation : re-spray the area(s) using the Renault approved methods
Time allowed : Maximum 20 hours
Title : Correcting micro blistering

 

[Anonymous]

If a repair is carried out ref tech notes method you should get new panels.
it reads -
For the doors, the bonnet and the tailgate :
Irrespective of condition, change the panel (door, bonnet, tailgate) and use the standard method to paint it.
For the rest of the of the body shell :
-First operation : strip the area involved until the cataphoresis protection is exposed.
-Second operation : key the surface of the cataphoresis protection using a metallic brush and clean the surface with oxalic acid.
- Third operation : re-spray the area(s) using the Renault approved methods
Time allowed : Maximum 20 hours
Title : Correcting micro blistering

That is not micro blistering thou, this is micro blistering

If you lived a bit closer I was going to suggest you pop it round and i'd give it a go but your miles away

 

[edde]

Do you get replacement parts or do they just repair and respray?

Reapir and respray.

Thats does look like the environment to me though seriously.

 

[davebem]

Ive never seen anything like that before, however my 172mk1 has a small rust bubble on the roof.

 

[Final Maxim]

to me it doesnt look like panel rust or spot rust, does look like industrial fillings or something that have embedded themselves in the laquer and appear to make the car look rusty.

what do they feel like?

can you pick any of them out? are they sharp? really hard to tell from pictures

 

[Anonymous]

to me it doesnt look like panel rust or spot rust, does look like industrial fillings or something that have embedded themselves in the laquer and appear to make the car look rusty.

what do they feel like?

can you pick any of them out? are they sharp? really hard to tell from pictures

I had to do a XK8 about 3 weeks ago that was parked at Cambridge station daily and looked very similar. Shame I didnt take my camera

 

[Final Maxim]

did it polish up alright?

my moms rover 200 has the same thing on the wings, it looks like loads and loads of spots of rust, but with a damng good mop with g3 ill get them out

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah it came up a treat, took a while but was a huge improvement

 

[Final Maxim]

cool man

 

[Andyman]

Epic thread bump and probably no interest to anyone now but:


Finally got round to getting this fixed on mine. Once sanded back it turned out it was rusting all over under the primer. Whole roof had to be taken back to bare metal, filled any pitted areas and smoothed down.

Amazing how 5 or 6 little pin head sized ginger spots in the lacquer when bought new turned into a whole rusty roof some 13 years later.

No way was this a Renault paint defect.