Paint Defect (Bubbling/Corrosion/Etc) Resource Thread

[Krug]

As some of you may be unfortunately and acutely aware, the paint quality on our cars can be rather crap.

Two of the most common manifestations of poor paint quality on the FiST that I have witnessed within the community are:

• Bubbling on the inside edges of closures (doors, hatch, hood) and around the roof antenna, caused by poor adhesion and/or corrosion underneath the paint with no apparent external damage
• Poor adhesion on plastic panels and trim such as the fascias and door handles

I myself am affected by the first issue. My vehicle was produced on April 16, 2018 and currently has a mere 9,600 miles on it. It has always been kept very clean, especially during winter, and yet each of my closures has varying degrees of bubbling around the edges that has begun to rapidly deteriorate since about two or three weeks ago. The point of bringing this up is to illustrate that even a relatively new and well-maintained FiST can be affected by this and it is almost certainly NO fault of your own.

Thankfully, you are not without hope!

Be sure to read through this relevant General Service Bulletin direct from Ford to determine what is a warrantable paint defect:

>>>GSB 19-7033 - Paint and Bumper Concern Analysis<<

And also be aware of the warranties that come with your car (the bumper-to-bumper and corrosion perforation should be the most relevant):

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If you are affected by a warrantable paint defect and are under warranty, press your dealership to fix it! Depending on the dealer and the decision-makers at Ford, they may try to deny you with a weak excuse. Use this information to make them honor their responsibility!

Last, but not least, read up on and know your local lemon laws!

I am currently waiting for my dealership to receive a response from Ford to determine if they will cover and correct the defects, and will update this thread as things progress.

Examples of my defective paint:
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Please feel free to add your own examples and experiences in this thread!​

 

[jtuffy96]

I have been in to have this issue about 5 times on all my body panel seams. I even got the hood replaced under warranty due to how bad it was. Currently pursuing a lemon law claim against Ford. Just waiting to hear back from lawyer. It’s been getting a lot worse since I started the claim.


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[jtuffy96]

I have so many more but those are some from various seams on all my doors, hatch, and hood.


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[jtuffy96]

My seat rails have also started rusting. I pretty much notice something new everyday and to answer your previous question I am in Michigan.


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[Petroman]

The inside edge of my door is bubbling. My hatch was fixed six months into ownership. My car is a 2015 with 15k miles, I’m the original owner. I’ll be contacting the dealership soon to get their thoughts. It’s an Original Southern California car and has been in Texas for the the last few years. Garage kept 90% of the time, never seen snow or near the coast.


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[jtuffy96]

Nope no deterioration on the hood yet.


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[jtuffy96]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing and a simple re spray doesn’t fix the problem either as it’s coming from in the seam. The last time I got the panels re painted I check it out and everything looked great. I came back after a few days to check it and it’s back to doing it again. Also one thing to note is my loaner car that they gave me was a 2014 fusion and it had the same issue only way worse.


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[Erick_V]

I just found some corrosion on my 2016. There’s a spec of rust on my trunk, not sure if anything can be done about it considering I’m at 34k. Most of my corrosion is on the hood, hatch and passenger door. There’s a minimal amount on some of the other doors. These were the most noticeable spots:

 

[jtuffy96]

Yeah it pretty much is a bandaid. Not to mention they don’t do a good job applying as there are always tape lines and they don’t even bother blending it together. Also there is always overspray all over and this last time my door has paint running down the edge where they re sprayed... it’s horrible to look at. People tell me I care to much about it and usually those people are the ones with rusted out chevy’s that don’t care about their vehicles. They just don’t get it lol so I gave up explaining it.


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[jtuffy96]

Yeah I get what you mean. You can try to explain it until you are blue in the face but it don’t matter lol. I will have to do more research next time. Once this lawsuit gets all settled I’m thinking about getting the new Civic Si but I need to research more.


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[jtuffy96]

Yes that would be awesome to have a type r coupe lol But thank you! I definitely will keep the thread updated when stuff starts happening. Should be hearing from the lawyer any day now on what Ford is going to do.


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[jtuffy96]

Yeah you would think Ford would want to do something more then just to keep shelling out money for something that clearly isn’t working.


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[jtuffy96]

Yeah that’s not good at all. Maybe that had something to do with why they discontinued some of the cars. Not sure. This is completely unrelated to paint but I just got a check engine light today so that’s fun...


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[koozy]

I honestly think trying to repair it is futile when it appears to be rotting from the inside out. It's a total loss IMO. In order to fix it properly it needs to be stripped down to bare metal. Patching up areas is a band aid, until another area makes an appearance of rot. I think Ford realizes this. It will be interesting how they will address this case.

 

[TDavis]

Did you have to keep your car at the bodyshop until you got the call back from Ford or did they allow you to have it back once they got pictures and such?

I have the same door issues and small bubbles on the inside of the hatch. Hoping my wait isn't as much of a hassle.

 

[jtuffy96]

Did you have to keep your car at the bodyshop until you got the call back from Ford or did they allow you to have it back once they got pictures and such?

I have the same door issues and small bubbles on the inside of the hatch. Hoping my wait isn't as much of a hassle.

I was able to take mine home until I got a call from dealer.


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[jtuffy96]

Anyone hear anything yet? I emailed my lawyer 2 days ago as he said he got an email from Ford. Said he was gonna give me a call and give me an update the next day but never heard from him. Hopefully tomorrow I will hear from him. Also was looking over the car yesterday and I now have paint bubbling around the antenna. That’s a new one for me. Seems like everyday I check the car out it’s something new and its probably getting to me more then it should lol.


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[Plainrt]

Also have bunch of bubbles starting on my 17. Had few on my 15 but no where as bad as my current one

 

[Plainrt]

@Plainrt sorry to hear that. Will you be going to your dealer? Care to post photos?

I’ll get some one day. I’m still in process of a fight with dealer I purchased car from to fix a big chip in 1/4 panel that was in it when delivered. It was in my sales contract to fix it but year later still not taken care of. I contacted bbb and ford now on them so will see.

 

[jtuffy96]

Got a call from the lawyer yesterday and Ford has agreed to buyback the ST. Was kind of surprised but that was the outcome I was hoping for so it all works out.


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