First, a pic of my lovely car. Its a Citroen C2 GT.
(http://www.fluffyfunk.net/NewCar/NewCar2th.jpg) (http://www.fluffyfunk.net/NewCar/NewCar2.jpg)
Monday night was my last night at work for 6 days so I decided to go to bed as soon as I got home. I couldnt sleep so I got up at 8.15 after deciding I wasnt going to be able to sleep for a long time. I thought I would do something useful that would make me tired... washing and waxing my car followed by cutting the grass.
I get all the car cleaning kit from under the stairs and I wash my car. I then start waxing from the driver side rear quarter. It says apply, allow to dry and then polish off. Easy.
Except for the fact that it seems most of my paint work (but not all) has a fine powder effect on the paint. And the wax is highlighting it when I try to remove it. The lower parts of the bodywork is fine smooth finish that you would expect but there is a fine sort of powder coat on the upper parts and areas of the roof. There is a sort of V from the aerial which is situated about 6 inches from the boot of the car. Imagine one of those window squidges, it looks like one of those has been wiped over part of the roof in the middle driver side. The powder effect is also on the bonnet.
At some points the polishing cloth was not removing the wax sufficuently so I had to resort to using the synthetic chami that I have. When I was doing the passenger side I felt a bit emotional and I didnt know if I should just stop and go inside :)
The powder effect does not only appear on the paintwork, I found the rear passenger window had some on it too and is also across the main windscreen. I had been wondering why the tiny specks of muck would not come off the screen no matter how much screenwash I used...
I didnt know how it could be like this. Something I had done while cleaning it or when it was in the paint shop having bits of the boot re-sprayed about a month ago!
There is a known issue with boots on C2s. The boots are split like on a 4x4 so you have an upper and lower boot, one that opens up and the other opens down to form a shelf. The corners of the upper boot rub against the rubber seals on the lower boot. Mine had worn through to the metal. While it was in for its service my car went to their paint shop to have the worn patches painted and the fix applied (looks like some scotch tape applied over the paint...).
Anyway, the paint work of my car in places feels to me like the model spray paint that I have used when painting minatures over some cardboard. The paint feels course compared to the gloss sections. The gloss sections were easy to polish and the course sections were a real pain. Looking closely at the course areas of paintwork, there does appear to be speckles... When I came back at tea time to clean the inside of the car, looking through the rear drivers side window you could see tiny black speckles on the outside of the glass. It was then I knew it was nothing I had done decided to go to the garage the next morning.
So, Wednesday I get up early and head off to the Citroen dealer where it was serviced to tell them my paintwork had been ruined by the paintshop. the girls reaction surprised me, rather than coming too look at it she got straight on the phone to the paintshop and got the guy there to come down to inspect my car.
When he got there, he went out with her to have a look at it for a while. Then she came and got me to show them where the problem was...
"Oh, here we go!"
I explained to them both where the issues where. Most of the roof, upper half of the side panels, the windscreen and the bonnet had a course texture to it and I believed it was paint from when it was at the paint shop.and he didnt put up any argument. Basically, he said yes, youre right. Well get this sorted for you. He was apologetic towards me. He did say that his first reaction was tree sap, except it did not come off with water plus I said I had been washing it.
Its booked in for the 26th July, they are going to keep it for an extra day to get the paintwork sorted. He said they would use compound to fix it, I asked him is that like T-Cut, he said yes but it doesnt remove paint.
They are also going to cover up the bits where the paint has come away from people bashing things into the rear passenger wheel arch (but wont fix the dents, I tried to get him to :)).
He did say when he gets back to the paint shop someone is going to get it. I dont know if that was just for my benefit. I just wanted it sorting.
When you look at it now after its had dust settle on it overnight, you can clearly see the affected areas. In the very generalised picture below is a representation of this. There are two strange sweep effects as though there was something covering those bits while it was painted. They are also alot bigger than they actually are on the car.
(http://www.fluffyfunk.net/Over1.gif)
I wasnt angry at all, just incredibly gutted. Its true what I say, people just have no respect for the property of others.
I forgot to mention that the paint shop also broke one of the brackets that the parcel shelf attaches to on the boot, thats one of the reasons why its going back in on the 26th. I didnt mention that to the paintshop guy. Maybe I should have done to sway him fixing my dents for me :)
Id be fuming, I hope he was genuinely apologetic. Did he actually tell you what had caused it or just that they would fix it? Id want to know how it happened in the first place so someone could be made accountable.
Youre right, people do have too little respect for others property. :x
I actually ruined a nice 308 recently with a grinder - the sparks hit the windows and tiny shards of metal got embedded in the coating on the glass!
Compound does remove/cut paint, thats how it works.
They probably have some harsher clay that will get it off without touching the paint though.
Quote from: Clockd 0NeId be fuming, I hope he was genuinely apologetic. Did he actually tell you what had caused it or just that they would fix it? Id want to know how it happened in the first place so someone could be made accountable.
Youre right, people do have too little respect for others property. :x
Like I said, he said when he gets back someone is going to get it. Obviously they were a bit general in their application of paint spray. Its covered the entire care :( The only bits not affected are pretty much below the bump strip on the side panels and you can see in the pic they are quite low on my car.
He seemed genuine. I was expecting to have to fight to get it sorted which is why I was surprised when the first words out of his mouth were yes, youre right. I think they called me out to show them hoping I would not be pointing out what I did, like a tiny blemish or something, not the entire car. I would never have noticed or given it a second thought if I hadnt waxed my car. He also said they will be waxing my car for me when its done.
Rusty, good choice of car :)
Ah the parcel shelf clips they are annoyingly fragile. Thing is if you break the clip in the holder you have to replace the whole panel on the inner boot lid - Cit have broken about three seperate ones on my C2.
Jaimz :rock:
Quote from: BXGTi16VI actually ruined a nice 308 recently with a grinder - the sparks hit the windows and tiny shards of metal got embedded in the coating on the glass!
ive done exactly the same thing, cutting steel for a car park fence, i sprayed a vectra with steel bits, cost me Ã,£250 for a new windscreen :?
hope it gets fixed DH
To say that I am *ing livid at the moment would be an understatement. My car has been back at the dealer for 2 days to get 4 problems resolved, including the paintwork. Well out of those 4 they have managed to do 1 successfully. They managed to replace a bit of plastic so my parcel shelf doesnt bang and swing around.
My initial impressions of inspecting the paintwork was that they have done a good job. Then I went inside to get my car keys. While I was waiting they moved my car and hosed it down. A very big mistake on their part since it allowed me to run my hands over the paint work to check for the speckles. They havent touched the main windscreen, the passenger windscreen, around the run strips on the roof, over the driver door, parts of the roof and on inspecting the rear of the car its clear as day that it has not been touched because you can see where the speckles are from their superb painting. They have really impressed me.
I went back inside to tell the woman what a sh*t job they had done on my car. Of course she now doesnt want to deal with me and my problem and gives me the phone number to call the bodyshop directly. I am going to leave it until tomorrow to call him to give myself a chance to calm down.
On leaving the dealership it was quickly apparent they had not fixed the squeeking brakes because the first time I had to slow down "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee". And they apparently have to order a part in to fix the rattling window, but she didnt know for sure because the person who knew was on the phone.
I am not a happy bunny.
trading standards, dont piss around, just go.
On what grounds?
As at the Citroen dealer to speak to the manager; if they choose to outsource jobs to third parties its up to the Citroen dealer to make sure they do an acceptable job. Tell them you didnt expect to be ignored by the lady who you were dealing with, and that her attitude was very poor.
Tell them you want all 4 things sorted out within 8hrs, or youll be speaking to trading standards because what theyve done has seriously dented the resale value of your car, and has caused you to so far miss work/college for 2 days more than should have been necessary.
The speckles should come off really easily, but thats not the point imo.
Quote from: Deaths HeadOn what grounds?
you bought the car as mint yes? you gave them the opportunity to sort it, they failed.
They have supplied sub-standard work. Your contract is with the Dealer, not the bodyshop. The dealer outsourcing the work is nothing to do with you, they chose to take that course of action. out of curiosity, how long have you had the car?
And that my friend is the story of Warranty work.
The garage doesnt make as much money from it as they do from private work, so they try to rush it through and get you out of the door as quickly as possible.
The speckiles sound like overspray; where they have probably thrown your car in the oven, done some rough masking up to stop the paint getting in your car and painted the worn areas. Unfortunatley the paint obviously goes everywhere and covers everything, before being baked on !
I had the same problem with the Cit. dealer down here and my Saxo VTR. It has a faulty cluch but had to go in 3 times (over as many months) before it was sorted.
Get in there, ask to speak to the dealership manager and kick off.
Just got off the phone with trading standards.
They say that under Supply of goods and services act which applies jobs done such as service the trader must use must use reasonable care and skill when doing such jobs. They have a Duty of care to look after car while its with them. My contract of service is with the dealership and not the body shop.
She advised put it in writing and send it recorded delivery. I suggested going in and speaking to the manager, and also put in the result of what was said in the letter and send it recorded delivery.
She said I would not be able to ask for compensation (ie them fix the dents.) unless I could show I had incurred any cost.
Im going to head down there for 10.30
Good Luck m8, let us know what happens.
I went down and asked to speak to the manager. She then called the bodyshop guy and he came round. I expressed my displeasure at the quality of work done. Bits missed. Brake Squeel not fixed. I didnt know what was happening with the window rattle, some part being ordered or something.
The chap from the bodyshop did say that he was assured by the person that it was done. However, he did state that quality checks were not what they should be since he is so busy... The other is my driver side window rattling, they are replacing the regulator to fix this. We shall see. He said he was probably going to have to do it personally. What a shame. I did also point out he said they would look at the paint chips on the dents in the rear quater panel, "I didnt realise that would be interpretted literally and that is all you have done. Looked at them" He got defensive over this, I said I know you cant do the dents but you did say you would look at the paintwork.
I mentioned that I did speak to Trading Standards and advised them what they are expected to do under that. He got a bit uppity when I did that until I pointed out my contract was with the dealer and not with him. I also said that I should not have to contact him directly to resolve, it should be the dealer. He said that was his fault since he had told the service person to give me his number so I could speak to him directly.
Regarding the brakes, I was informed by the manager that modern brakes replaced asbestos with something else and because of this modern brakes tend to squeel. The C2 in particular. Reading up on this issue, it does appear to be common on a C2 but it also can be fixed by replacing the C2 pads with 3rd party pads or at a dealers discretion with C4 pads... The dealer said they will clean them down again but that is as much as theyre willing to do. That is not acceptable to me.
I am going to have to think about this and put it in writing to them.
Why do I want to swear the house down?
Effing useless effing female bits.
Its been in since 8:45 monday morning. It only went to the body shop late yesterday.
How long does it take to do front brakes, window and rear suspension squeaking? 2 days it seems. And 2 days for the bodyshop.
They said 2 days, possibly 3. Not 4!
I am working tomorrow night, I sleep in the afternoon. "Well phone you at 5" Great, when I should be sleeping!
Looks like I could have done 3 days overtime after all!
Ive been waiting on getting a car back from a sprayer for 3 months.
I would wait another year. Hes the best in the country, I KNOW its going to rule.
I doubt this bodyshop would win any prizes other than useless knob jockey 2006 award.
Paint work appears to be mainly resolved. I will only know for sure when I clean and wax my car. Its covered in the crappy white powder stuff that the bodyshop has used to wax it.
Well, initial indications are the brake squeak appears to be fixed. I will need to do some hard braking tonight to confirm this.
Driver window rattle, still there :( sort of like a shu-shu-shu-shu noise as two one thing rubs against another over bumps. I need to open the window an inch to see if it rattles as bad as it did before.
A noise from the nearside rear suspension was fixed by replacing the rear shocker. What did they do to my car to require replacement? :(