Let me start off by saying I am that person who when they get a new car I park AWAY from all other cars in the parking lot.

I went to a self service car wash today to give my new 2015 Alabaster Silver EX CVT Fit a good wash!

As I was using the pressurized hose on the back bumper (as I am not a big fan of going through the car wash in a new car) some of the paint peeled off as I was hosing the car down. I just about had a heart attack in the wash bay!!!!!!

I will be going to the dealer body shop tomorrow. I do not believe that the paint on a 3 week old car should have been peeling this easily. If the dealer gives me a fight about honoring the damage under warranty I am going to get it fixed regardless. Since the rear bumper appears to be its own piece it looks like the bumper can be primed and repainted w/o a major paint job. No where else on the car did I have a problem.

If I can figure out how to post a picture of the peeling paint on this thread I will. The peeling happened on the part of the bumper that contours (below the hatch door and above the black vent).

Be careful if you use a pressurized hose when washing your new Fit! I have seen on prior threads that there were issues with the paint on the new Fit. Let's just say once I get my bumper fixed I will be a regular hose and bucket kind of washer!!

Overall I still love my new Fit!!!

P.S. If someone can post on this thread how to attach pictures I will post a picture.

 

Have seen paint issues on a variety of new Hondas in the past month or 2. I have a Odyssey, a Civic Si and a CRV all set to go to the bodyshop for bumpers with peeling paint issues. See your dealer and expain what happened they should take care of it unless you have impact damage that may have caused the problem.

 

Just remember to keep your cool at the dealer, I know I would be insanely angry. Whenever stuff like this happens I try to remember it's not the service person's fault and the nicer I am to them the more willing they will be to take care of me.

 

I never use those high pressure washers on any car, not just our new Fit. I had a Ford F-150 years ago (1986), that I purchased new, and remember watching the pressure washer peel paint off the side. I was thinking I even saw in the Fit owners manual a note about being careful using those pressure washers. If I am not doing myself, I use the "touch less" systems, but even then I worry about the chemicals they use. Sorry that happened to you, it would (and has), really upset me as well..

 

@ 15BlkPrl - Definitely no impact damage. Out of curiosity what are the years of your Hondas that are going back to the dealer with bumper issues?

@hellgiver - I totally agree with you. I am going to the dealer tomorrow as cool as a cucumber! I work in the service industry so I know how it is to get reamed out over something by a customer when the issue that they are upset about was not your fault. I always say that you get more with sugar than you do with S@%&!

@Vanguard - I hope you are wrong about the warning in the Fit manual or I won't have a leg to stand on at the dealer. Its funny you mentioned the touchless car wash because that is where I was initially headed however I had alot of bugs on my bumper so I figured the pressurized hose would do a better job of cleaning the front bumper off. The funny thing is its not the front bumper where the paint peeled off. The paint peeled off right on the top contour of the back bumper.


I am going to the dealer tomorrow. I will post how I made out. Here is another question. I purchased my Fit from a Honda dealer that is further away from where I live than a Honda dealer who I have had previous experience with doing body work on a '06 Civic that I own. Should I take my Fit back to the Honda dealer where I purchased it from or should I take it to the Honda dealer who I had the previous body work experience with? If the bumper is honored under warranty it shouldn't matter which Honda dealer I take it back to. Right?

 

They are all 14-15 MY cars.
Warranty is warranty no matter the dealer

 

I live in a painted brick home. Whenever I decide to repaint I use a power washer to take off the old paint. Maybe if I wanted to paint my Fit I would do the same.

 

Why don't you hand wash the car? Anything else is just going to introduce swirls.

 

@15BlkPrl - Thanks for the response.

@Rosienme - LOL! Yes! I am sure you would have NO problems getting that paint off with that pressure hose if you decided to repaint that Fit! For heaven sake I wanted to wash the car not take it down to the primer. LOL! Thank God the bumper was the only area where the paint peeled off. When I purchased my '06 Civic 8 years ago I used pressure hoses to wash it and had no problem!!

 

@mike410b - I learned the hard way today but I will be hand washing from now on. Trust me! I didn't even think about the swirling issue. I owned several Hondas and never had this much of an issue with washing the car. I live in Upstate NY so I can't imagine what the snow bush will do to the paint job on my Fit when I have to clear the snow off of it!

 

It would be a good idea to keep the car waxed, at least a fresh wax job every 6 months . This should help your paint longevity.

 

i read somewhere new car paint isn't "completely" cured yet.

 

Modern "eco-friendly" paints don't have as good of adhesion as older paints. I wouldn't spray modern paint with a high pressure hose.

That said, I'm surprised that a Honda would shed paint like this unless the nozzle was put right up to the paint.

 

@BillBogey - I will definitely get the car waxed once I get my bumper fixed. No more pressure hoses for me.

 

@xxryu139x - I wish I had heard that BEFORE I attempted to blast - I mean wash my car! SMH!!! Ruined my whole day!!!

 

@GeorgeL - I would imagine if my bumper peeled due to the pressure of the hose I would have more peeling than on the contour of the rear bumper. The distance I held the hose from the car was consistent throughout the time I was washing the car.

 

like how many inches away did u hold the end of the nozzle to the bumper???

 

@xxryu139x - I was standing atleast a foot away from the end of the nozzle to the bumper. What's crazy is that there were some bugs on my front bumper so I had sprayed in closer with the nozzle on the front bumper to get the bugs off and there are no issues with the front bumper.

 

<1 foot is high pressure.

 

Wow, FitasaFiddle, so sorry to hear that. That should not be happening. I have gone to self-service car washes all the time and used high-pressure hoses on the Hondas I have owned ('03 CR-V, '06 CR-V, and now '12 CR-V) and have never had the paint removed from the bumper by a high-pressure hose! Seems pretty outrageous to me.

I hope Honda gets wind of it and does something about it, whether it's using extra coats of paint at the factory or some other procedure that can ensure a stronger bond of the paint with the metal (I know nothing about how vehicles are painted).

And I hope you get some financial satisfaction from your dealer.