Nismo Z factory paint defect
 

Hi all,

I have a 2009 Red Nismo Z. On the passenger side where the rear bumper meets the rear fender, paint chips came off right on the panel line. I took it back to the dealer, and they touched it up for me. I checked out another 2009 Red Nismo at the dealer, same problem. I think the bumpers were put on too tight for the Nismo. During shipment, the bumper and the fender rubs on each other, and the paint chips off. Has anyone else seen this problem? I checked other non-nismo Zs at the dealership, and didn't see this problem.

Also, the stupid F'ing dealership screwed up my paint. They detailed it when I first bought it. They'd used the rotary buffer, and polished it. Now I have swirl marks all over the car. Since the car is Red, the swirls are very noticable under the sun. It pss me off. They said to bring it back and they'll fix it. All they will do is add more swirls to it and wear down the top coat evern more. What should I do? I trie the Mcquiar's Swirl X, but it only removed the light swirls. Sage auto group has the worst Infiniti/Nissan dealerships! I had other service problems with their Infiniti dealership.

This is not a localized problem to Nismos. A lot of Zs have this issue, especially in the front near the headlights. It's probably due to lack of car when assembling the car along with bad paint. I have an actual chip on my passenger side but I did notice one on the driver's side when I removed the bumper. Can't see it when it's on.

Glad the dealership touched it up for you though.

Might I suggest not going back to the dealership, and find a professional detailer and have them do what they refer to as "paint correction" your Z. You can look here for a detailer: Detailing Bliss

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I was so closed on buying a red Nismo, glad I didn't. But this has been recorded here by many red Z owners like stated above.

Swirls
 

Yeah, but the whole point is that I shouldn't have to spend a couple hundred bucks to get my brand new car detailed. Stupid Nissan Dealers. I think its outrageous that a dealership damages brand new cars paint job. Its kinda like going to the dentist for a cavity fill, and the dentist telling you he doesn't know how.

Take them to court.

so, when it's time to service the car, you are not going take your car back there, would you? :)

Agreed, but a proper detailer can measure the thickness of your clearcoat and paint and tell you what life can be expected for future details. In addition, they can also assess the extent of damage done by the dealer. They can also prep your Z for a clear bra if you are going that route. Most likely if you were to go back to the dealer the same fools who did the damage in the first place will be the ones trying to correct your damage: lose/lose. Maybe ask your dealer for prospective compensation in another form (e.g. discounted accessories, parts, etc.)? Not all dealers are bad, but matters as these do not help the dealer cause.

Amount too small to warrant the cost and time.

Crack rear bumper
 

My nismo has a crack paint and crack rear bumper under the wheels, ten hrs after receiving the car I reported the defect to the dealer. This is a very ovious factory problem and Nissan it's not taking care of the problem. Months have passed and now they are saying that I cracked the paint and plastic.
I am thinking about getting a lawyer and will help if someone else has the same problem.
I am very dissapointed with Nissan.
I don't feel safe on this car now, I also hear crackling noyse when I am driving it.

wat

it's also possible that the last person who test drove the car before it was sold did it.

take your car to richard to get it detailed.

www.showcardetailing.com

he's in your area and he is the inventor of blackwow.

2009 GTRs had it too right in front of the passenger side headlight.. the paint bubbles and peals off

Damn. You guys are making me nervous. Hopefully, I won't have any paint problems.

Can you give us more details as to where the cracks are? May be a couple of pictures so we can check our cars for the same problem.

You should worry. Nissan has the worst paint. My G35 coupe had major chips in the front bumper after 2 years. None of my other cars have that with twice as many miles on the car. That's why I already had the clear bra installed on my Nismo. Clear Bra is on front bumper, mirrors, and rear side panel infront of the rear wheels.

I was looking at the rear bumper on my 09 Nismo and saw a couple of minor cracks. At least they look like cracks but may just by paint defects like mentioned above. If lying under the rear bumper, you look up at it near the corners it looks like someone used a freaking saw zawl ( I know I spelled this crap wrong) to trim the bumper.

And the left tail light right at the corner, there is a spot where the paint is raised up slightly but conforms to the tail light.

I agree with a dude earlier. I expect to have better quality paint from the factory.

And looking up at the bumper, I noticed two black metal braces just hanging down from the frame that look like they were supposed to attach to the rear bumper but don't. There is only one pop rivet holding the center of the rear bumper, right behind the center of the muffler.

Can someone else chime in about the two black, metal braces and if theirs are attached and not just hanging like mine?

Wow CRAZY! sorry to hear that

Is there anything similar on your rear bumper? As far as the metal brackets I mean?

I may have exaggerated a bit about how bad it looks but to me, it looks bad. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my car and every scratch irritates me. I need to learn to deal with it. To think that scratches and dings won't happen simply isn't realistic.

Nissan's paint isn't that great and is easily chipped. If they isntalled the swirls by polishing it with a buffer then the detailer didn't know $H!* on how to do his job, it was problably the hack wash jobs they all do. I had to have several peices repaitned from bad paint and even thinning in the cleaer coat on my hatch. Yeah I was pissed, only benefit is I had a better paint now then I did from the factory and have DuPonts service plan and life time warranty. I am sorry to hear about your issues and hope you get them resolved, I had to go to a few dealers to get one that carred and used a privately owned shop that wasn't dealer owned.

And as for the swirls, go get a real detailer to do it or try to get the dealership to pay, but a full on paint correction for that vehicle should be at most 300ish, but I think a one step would do it and they run about half that price. If you want to learn try it yourself, polishing isn't hard, just takes time and patients. Try Meguire's M-105/205 its their proffesional line not the crappy swirl X. Get their polisher or Porter Cable, only thing is detailign is addictive but well worth the time IMO.
Good luck

i too have a 09 solid red nismo, and i have the EXACT same issue with the paint on the rear bumper where it meets the quarter panels..... lets get some pics going and show nissan ur not the only one.

09 Red Nismo here, no paint problems yet...other than a few tiny chips on the bumper.

2010 red also (not nismo) but i got the same problems with the paint. Dealer prepped up the car for pick up only to make it worse with their detailers.

talk to richard, he's in your area (if you're in glendale, california). there are several Z owners that have had their car detailed at richard's shop with excellent results. he is also the creator or BlackWow.

Detailing Innovations, Inc.
ShowCarDetailing.com
5530 E. La Palma Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92807

866 707 9292

All you have to do is tell the service advisor to write on the order: DO NOT WASH CAR

Then tape a couple of signs inside on the steering wheel and dash that say
"DO NOT WASH/NO LAVE" to cover both English and Spanish employees.

As far as Nissan paint goes...in general, Nissan paint is pretty soft and thus swirls pretty easily even just from wiping it down with poor quality or just contaminated towels.

Richard

my car has clear coat cracks on the trunk and hood already. I naively :eekdance:purchased the Simoniz clear coat too. Now-I am hoping because I have a warranty on the clear coat-that it will get fixed. Tomorrow i am sending a copy of my warranty and a written statement to SImoniz. Maybe by purchasing the extra clear coat i have indeed saved myself...since otherwise i would have to deal with nissan and their warrany on their clear coat / paint...does not sound by this forum that i would get very far...

Have you try emailing Nissan North America Customer Service?

LMK, I have the contacts emails addresses.

just spoke with nissan service for the bigillionth time and they keep steering me toward talking to consumer affairs about it. They say that if enough people simply call them up and whine about the same problem a certain number of times that a "bulletin" is placed out to all dealerships to immediately and w/o question fix the problem on the spot under warranty after research is done to HOW to fix it. Seems to me that all people really need to do is get off rear end, stop talking to the dealership which will just give you the same answer every time, and start crying to these consumer affairs guys to fix our ****. if enough people do it, it will fix all our problems not just one persons. number is 18006477261 and they dont have an email address so i guess they haven't been introduced to the 21st century yet. worst thing that can happen is nothing, best thing is that we could all have our cars permanently and properly repaired at the dealerships expense so i would say its worth a half our of your time to make the effort. :tup:

Better check your Z for paint bubbles as well. My red '09 has them and I as well as others have posted at length on this under "Purplish Paint Bubbles". Mine are most noticeable in the heat of the summer in direct sunlight. Interesting that the original post mentions swirls as a result of an orbital buffer. The dealership applied a product to my Z called "First Place Finish" prior to my purchasing it. Wonder if they were too aggressive with the buffer and pricked tiny holes in the car? Thanks to the poster with the Nissan Customer Affairs #; I will give them a call.

wat he said...

Paint defect ....
 

Less than 3 weeks old and 800 miles.

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/..._3636Large.jpg

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/..._3635Large.jpg

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/..._3634Large.jpg

If you check the driver side , the gap is a bout 0.5mm bigger in the same areas. The passanger side is on tighter.