Japanese cars and clear coat failure

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Why is it that I see so many Japanese cars (mainly Toyota and Honda, Nissan too) where the clear coat seems to be consistently failing. My moms 2007 corolla that was bought new began to have clearcoat failure roughly 5 years into ownership, granted it has been outside all of its life. But I see tons and tons of corollas, accords, Camry, tacomas, etc with bad clear coal out here in California and most of the cars are less than 10 years old.

This issue doesn't seem to plague American manufacturers as much.

What gives? Can this be prevented by consistent waxing?
 
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Up here, we don't see that as often. I've actually been more impressed with the finishes I've seen from that era than previous to that. But, we get nowhere near the sun or heat of California. Sure, we see a few disasters, but not like it used to be, with various trucks losing paint down to the primer, not to mention the horrible rust.
 
I've owned vehicles from Mitsubishi and Toyota. Never had any issues. There were rumors back in the 90's that Mitsubishi used thin paint coats. I still hear those rumors today on most Japanese brands. Besides a couple of rock chips, the exterior of my vehicles looked excellent.

I like to keep my cars clean and protected. There are so many good paint sealants and waxes out there along with coatings now that have UVA and UVB protection. I would always use a good coat of whatever you prefer. Check the labels for the uv protection.
 
Maybe the kid at the dealership applying the "$700.00 poly-wonder sealant" with a buffer and removing most of the clear coat at the same time.

YMMV

Smoky
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Single stage paint + apathetic owners + outside parking 24/7.


+1

Love my Forester but the paint is thin and will feather scratch and swirl mark much too easily. Doesn't help that's a dark color.
 
The 05 Matrix has spent half of it's life outdoors. The color is silver but looks great. Prob since the finish is waxed regularly. Located in the rust belt as well but no visible rust. Darker colors seem to be a different story.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Single stage paint + apathetic owners + outside parking 24/7.


Exactly!

Here in South Florida, it's clear that just about brand suffers over time if parked outside during the day.

I work in the aviation world, we have some of the best paints available. None make it more than 6 years outside. Cars are no different. The degradation starts immediately. The bright sun is very powerful this far South.

In fact, my brand new Charcoal VW Jetta was in the shop for 5 or 6 weeks, awaiting parts. The clear coat had lost it's showroom new watery gloss over that time. Even the shop manager noticed it and offered to buff the car out. Which helped a good bit.

The addition of UV blockers and other additives helps immensely. But UV, heat and time take their toll.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Single stage paint + apathetic owners + outside parking 24/7.


Dunno what single stage paint means (and am too apathetic to try and find out) but my cars paint scheme definitely included primer because I can see there is still quite a lot of it left.

If there was any clear coat it was before my time.
 
My 07 has no issues so id assume its the sun. I am seeing a bit of bubbling paint on the lower rocker panels though. Thing is, around here not many cars on the road from before 07, so hard to say if domestics fare better. They might be rust free sitting in the scrap yard for other reasons..
 
Around here the bigger problem is rust, but we do see clear coat issues as well.

There are 3 Hondas in my family.

2011 Honda Fit - 70k
2003 Acura 3.2TL - 125k
2005 Honda Civic - 230k

All of them have some rust developing, the Civic almost has a hole in the rear fender. All cars are washed and waxed fairly regularly, and more in the winter. The Fit is garaged, the Acura came from Florida two years ago, and both have some small rust bubbles. I've talked to a few different paint shops and one said Japanese cars have weaker paint than German and American cars. He said there were different paint corrections he could only do on German/American vehicles. Not sure how true that is, since I'm not a paint guru.

I do find it interesting, because while the paint might be showing signs of rust on my family's Hondas, the undercarriage and everything else is very clean. I did brakes on a friend's mom's 2009 Ford Escape the other day. It has about 90k miles on it, and is hardly ever washed. The red paint is in fantastic shape, but the undercarriage and exhaust is completely crusty with rust.
 
My neighbor (at my camp) has a ten year old Taco with bad paint and a big rust hole in RR fender - its garage kept and he even has a carport at the camp - he's really surprised by it all since it's been a good little truck for 170k - (just some minor work)
I suggested he get it repaired and painted and drive it to 300k ... (wants to replace fender - but they can't spray bad paint) said he'll get an estimate ... (Not their Sunday church vehicle) ...
My son has a Chrysler 300 similar age/miles - even the color (platinum) - it has spent more than half its years in the sun - paint is great.
 
Originally Posted By: jj51702
Why is it that I see so many Japanese cars (mainly Toyota and Honda, Nissan too) where the clear coat seems to be consistently failing. My moms 2007 corolla that was bought new began to have clearcoat failure roughly 5 years into ownership, granted it has been outside all of its life. But I see tons and tons of corollas, accords, Camry, tacomas, etc with bad clear coal out here in California and most of the cars are less than 10 years old.

This issue doesn't seem to plague American manufacturers as much.

What gives? Can this be prevented by consistent waxing?


Honda had this issue on the 06-11 Civic. The primer was too soft for the paint, so under extreme heat (like the hood), the primer would expand and the paint would not, causing cracks. There is a service bulletin covering the issue and an extended warranty.

I just had my 2010 Civic repainted under this bulletin. They stripped it down to the bare metal on the hood, top of the front fenders and resprayed. They also repainted the roof and trunk lid.
 
Originally Posted By: E150GT
My wife's 2012 Yaris roof is already oxidizing. Its been waxed once


Well what do you expect? I wax my truck every 6 months and it looks like new.
 
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Single stage paint + apathetic owners + outside parking 24/7.


Dunno what single stage paint means (and am too apathetic to try and find out) but my cars paint scheme definitely included primer because I can see there is still quite a lot of it left.

If there was any clear coat it was before my time.


You cant have base with a clear coat in single stage. Base/clear is 2 or more stage paint depending on the effect, one of the last Japanese cars to use single stage was Honda IIRC on one model and it was a white.
Thinly applied medium quality paint and base color are all contributing factors in clear coat failure. Reds and Yellows are the worst, the pigment dies under the clear and the clear sometimes separates, dark colors heat more than light and can cause heat related clear failure in some extremes.
A light color or white with a high end clear can go for more than a decade in extreme temps with very little care without failing.
 
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