After over a year of ownership, the clearcoat has decided to start peeling in two spots on either side of one headlight. One spot is relatively small, but the other is the size of a half-dollar. Both spots started in the past week. Car is meticulously maintained with numerous coats of polish - so the paint has been protected. Has anyone else encountered this?

 

Obviously, this shouldn't be happening within a year. Take it in to the dealer. Chances are the dealer will just shrug if off but then you'll be able to get the BMW zone guy involved and work your way up through BMW's wonderful "customer service" heirarchy. If you pass their battery of persistence tests they might actually take care of it for you.

Good luck.

 

YLWJKT - I had the paint start to peel off the drivers side, rearview mirror, stalk (It may have been the clear coat but it was reversed, the peeled area was shinny).

I called my local MINI dealer and explained the problem.
They gave me a date when the "zone" guy would be there.
I showed up, he took a look, and the part was ordered that day.
NO Hazzles (except taking off work to have someone agree with me).

 

What's the zone guy?

 

I haven't heard of too many OEM paint jobs peeling. Chances are your hood was resprayed at some point, possibly due to transport damage. Peeling is usually a sign of poor paint prep.

Do you have any rock chips in your hood? Normally with non OEM paint, the paint will tend to fracture a bit more around the point of impact. Chips on factory paint will tend to stay smaller.

 

A zone is just another word for sales region. The zone guy is a BMW employee who can authorize a special circumstance warranty repair which a BMW/Mini dealer (who is an independent entity) is not authorized to make. Typically, a zone guy makes the rounds to all the dealers in his region about once a month.

The official title is probably a little more important sounding than "zone guy"...

 

Some dealers call him the Regional Manager.

 

I have the usual rock chips - which are just "pinpoint" paint chips. No fractures around these in the paint. That is what is so odd about the places where the clearcoat is peeling - there are no chips or damage. Hopefully that will be a plus on my side when I show it to the dealer - and they can't say it was due to rock chips and not a defect.

 

The same exact thing happened to ur '02 Cooper CVT.... Driver's side mirror stalk peeling. The Service Manager from Lauderdale MINI looked it over and gave approval for replacement under warranty on the spot. Received a brand new mirror assembly and no more peeling.

There was no need to involve the "Zone" rep.

 

Is your car frequently exposed to a harsh environment?

 

Is this only on certain colors? Reds and blues are tough in my experience, but clearcoat is clearcoat!

regards,
Red

 

Nope. Sleeps in the carpeted garage. Has been in the snow a few times, and the rain when the weatherman is wrong. I do live in Kansas, which does not have an environment pleasant to anyone except a tortoise in the summer or an Arctic fox in the winter. But shouldn't bother the paint. The Mercedes stays outside now and has suffered no ill effect. (Other than the usual Mercedes crap )