Stonechips

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Steveatki

Active Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2003
Messages
66
Has anyone had any success in claiming for stonechip damage under warranty? I have a W203 in Tansanite appx 15 months old, 22k mls and there is a substantial amount of stonechipping on the bonnet. Perhaps 35% of my motoring is on Motorways.
I have never experienced this on any of the other cars I have owned. Surely this is a defect.
 
My previous car, a Lexus IS200, was far worse than the Mercedes for attracting stone chips. The Owners forums were full of people complaining. I don't think its a Mercedes issue, its the water based paint they have to use now.
 
Damage from stone chips is not regarded as a manufacturing defect. Flying stones seem to be a particular UK problem ( far worse in N. Irelan d than on mainland) With all the advances in paint technology, one would think they could use paint which resisted stone chips better. If not, I would like car manufacturers to use an undercoat the same colour as the finish coat.
 
Hi Guys

You are quite right it is much worse due to the water based paints brought in in response to EU guidlines introduced about 3 years ago.

There are only two solutions to this problem one is a black vinyl cover as was historically used in the US and the other is Paint Protection film. I will post a thread with an FAQ I have posted on some other club boards to help in deciding whether or not this solution is for you.


Happy new year :)



Tom
 
Mercedes Rust

I have an on-line survey set-up to find out how extensive the problem is at www.mendz.info

There is a difference between usual stone chipping and what my own car is suffering, where all the corrossion protection is removed. As the owner & keeper of many new vehicles, I know my car has a serious paintwork defect.

My 2002 C Class (owned from brand new) has scabs of rust forming and bubbling paint.

The Customer Service strategy is to wear you down in the hope that by being evasive and requiring repeated visits and inspections, the car reaches an age and mileage where the problem seems more acceptable or (more likely) is just taken on by a new owner.

I am about to go the dealer for a 7th time and I still have none of the previous inspections in writing from them. I do have a letter signed by the UK CEO stating that "we cannot authorise for a film crew to be present"

Make sure you join in the survey and get any other C Class owners to do the same.


Steveatki said:
Has anyone had any success in claiming for stonechip damage under warranty? I have a W203 in Tansanite appx 15 months old, 22k mls and there is a substantial amount of stonechipping on the bonnet. Perhaps 35% of my motoring is on Motorways.
I have never experienced this on any of the other cars I have owned. Surely this is a defect.
 
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Honda (?) have just launched a new paint finish that self repairs minor chips and scratches. Not sure if its available yet, or how big a repair it can make.

Will try to find a link and post here.

OK, it was Nissan

I suffer badly from stone chips as well - i believe it has got worse since manufacturers had to move towards (softer) water based paints and away from (harder) solvent based due to the lentilists, sorry environmentalists.
 
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Try a warranty claim at least stating that the paitnwork appears to be defective to begin with and try your luck (but stone chips are usually a get out clause by MB for genuine rust/corrsion on valid claims... :crazy: )

If your claim is turned down then try a decent bodyshop & if u know them have a word for them to use some "proper" paint i.e. not waterbased rubbish... ;)
 
I have a friend who had the same problem on his new Lotus Elise - the best he could get was for Lotus to pay half the cost of getting the affected parts resprayed.
 
Just out of interest, but I heard a rumour that Jaguar are producing stone chip resistant paint for their XK's!! Shame they did not do it on my XJS. I bought the facelift car in mint condition and within 1 hour of driving it I had the unfortunate experience of following a grit truck at 45mph down the A34 and managed to get 2 chips on the bonnet and 2 on the windscreen. Not a happy camper.
 
Autoshielduk said:
After reading about so many people complaining about chips and how todays paints are no more water based and accepting stone chips as a way of life. I decided to look into the paiant protection film for my own 6 S-Classes as I use to manage my own chauffeur company, anyway, to cut a long story short, the product and concept had so many advantages, that i sold the chauffeur company and started Autoshield UK LTD.

We only ust the best film on the market (3M) and all cars are catered for. For an info pack please e-mail me at [email protected] with a postal address so i can mail you a pack.

Cheers Guys

Will MBClub members get a special discount at all? :)
 
I think I read that self-repairing paint works by having tiny capsules of pigment trapped in the car's paint so that when broken they leak the paint out and harden in seconds. Even if it doesn't look perfect it would look pretty good unless you're using a magnifying glass, and next time you polish/wax the car it would blend repairs into insignificance.

Where is this paint then eh?! Quit stalling and release the thing!
 
Half the problem with stone chips is the owners don't act to repair them as they appear, I touched my 'a' Class bonnet up when I first bought it? yes it loved it! Back to the paintwork, colour coded touch up paint , very small brush, thinners, and human nail polishing kit, and your away. I do any chips I see straight away, well within a day or two which means that contamination of the highway salts etc have not had time to do any damage, make sure the area is completely dry and if possible carry out the repairs in a dry warm area, even a hair dryer can help with these repairs but take care, even hair dryers get hot. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/albert.rowe/mypage.24.htm
may help.
lofty
 

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