Corrosion

[Warriorb0y]

Hi All - just thought I'd share my little tale and maybe help a few of you from my experience....

Decided to hand wash my car (m3 performance) on the weekend as I was at a bit of a loose end and noticed a fair bit of corrosion at the front end of the sills.

My car is an early, high mileage m3, I have extended warranty.

Assuming it to be covered, logged it through the app, only to be told that body corrosion is covered only in the original basic vehicle warranty, (mine had expired Sep 23), and it was not covered in the extended warranty.

I did comment that this has not occurred in the last 5 months, and was informed, not covered unless informed before original warranty expired - basically 'piss off'.

IMO it is either poor quality paint or poor design to have a high impact area only protected by paint and not plastic or underseal or splash guards.

Don't know if this has been designed out of later models, sure you guys will inform me of this...

For the rest of you, go check whilst your car is in warranty and get the call logged....maybe you can learn from my tardiness, meanwhile I have a repair to pay for, exactly why I got the ex-warranty, for the peace of mind against unexpected bills.

 

[yessuz]

and you are not the first one who has corrosion issues with early M3

 

[Pink Duck]

I’ve often thought this unprotected area was a design aesthetic choice over plastic to appeal more from new. My own S arch rearwards edges are steadily roughening over time, the key being to wash rock salt/molasses sprayed picked up from road surfaces during winter rapidly.

Should hopefully be a fairly straightforward body shop repair to look reasonably new.

I didn’t opt for extended warranty, nor was offered/advised.

 

[GRiLLA]

Tesla provided mudflaps to all existing owners, I guess you missed reading that email ?

They were provided to fix this problem.

 

[Adopado]

Hi All - just thought I'd share my little tale and maybe help a few of you from my experience....

Decided to hand wash my car (m3 performance) on the weekend as I was at a bit of a loose end and noticed a fair bit of corrosion at the front end of the sills.

My car is an early, high mileage m3, I have extended warranty.

Assuming it to be covered, logged it through the app, only to be told that body corrosion is covered only in the original basic vehicle warranty, (mine had expired Sep 23), and it was not covered in the extended warranty.

I did comment that this has not occurred in the last 5 months, and was informed, not covered unless informed before original warranty expired - basically 'piss off'.

IMO it is either poor quality paint or poor design to have a high impact area only protected by paint and not plastic or underseal or splash guards.

Don't know if this has been designed out of later models, sure you guys will inform me of this...

For the rest of you, go check whilst your car is in warranty and get the call logged....maybe you can learn from my tardiness, meanwhile I have a repair to pay for, exactly why I got the ex-warranty, for the peace of mind against unexpected bills.

Tesla subsequently provided the plastic mini deflector "mudguards" (with an added bigger mudgard section to fit as well if you want) to owners of the earlier batches of cars. Unfortunately if they weren't fitted the constant stone blasting of this section of the sill is going to remove paint. The good news is that it is likely to be superficial and can be rubbed down, treated and repainted for little cost. Once the plastic guards are on you should then be "good to go".

 

[Warriorb0y]

wonder how many other improvements I may have also missed???

 

[yessuz]

wonder how many other improvements I may have also missed???

Car does updates OTA.. did you know that?? ))

 

[MrBadger]

Car does updates OTA.. did you know that?? ))

For bodywork? That’s quite some advancement…

 

[MrBadger]

Tesla provided mudflaps to all existing owners, I guess you missed reading that email ?

They were provided to fix this problem.

I doubt it was to specifically address the OPs issue with front wheel sill area since they offered the front mud flaps OR the rear PPF, but not both.

The free mudflap or PPF was more likely to address the issue with sill area ahead of rear wheel that was being ‘shotblasted’ and stripped of paint with kick up from front wheels. The rear PPF protected the rear sill area being shotblasted but not the front directly behind the front wheel that OP has experienced.

 

[yessuz]

For bodywork? That’s quite some advancement…

I will put /S just for you next time

 

[Jason71]

Hi All - just thought I'd share my little tale and maybe help a few of you from my experience....

Decided to hand wash my car (m3 performance) on the weekend as I was at a bit of a loose end and noticed a fair bit of corrosion at the front end of the sills.

My car is an early, high mileage m3, I have extended warranty.

Assuming it to be covered, logged it through the app, only to be told that body corrosion is covered only in the original basic vehicle warranty, (mine had expired Sep 23), and it was not covered in the extended warranty.

I did comment that this has not occurred in the last 5 months, and was informed, not covered unless informed before original warranty expired - basically 'piss off'.

IMO it is either poor quality paint or poor design to have a high impact area only protected by paint and not plastic or underseal or splash guards.

Don't know if this has been designed out of later models, sure you guys will inform me of this...

For the rest of you, go check whilst your car is in warranty and get the call logged....maybe you can learn from my tardiness, meanwhile I have a repair to pay for, exactly why I got the ex-warranty, for the peace of mind against unexpected bills.

If it makes you feel better they may not have covered it anyway. Corrosion warrantees are normally for where corrosion happens under the paint. Here the paint has been worn away and the metal exposed so I would be classed as a paint issue rather than a corrosion one. And Tesla have a habit of calling this sort of thing "normal wear and tear" on a high miler. I mean look at it this way you would not expect Tesla to fix stone chips on the front of your car would you? and that is basically caused by multiple stone chips. So in there eyes you have damaged the paint in the course of your driving. The fact that stone abrasion should not be possible in that area in a well designed car might not be something they wish to discuss. They built the MY with plastic arches for a reason...

 

[Whyone]

I suspect that mudflaps will not necessarily prevent this - there will be an accumulation of road grit beind the mudflap and this will slowly abrade through the paint.

The fact that the mudflaps hide the area means the rust is more likely to go unnoticed and get a proper hold.

 

[GRiLLA]

wonder how many other improvements I may have also missed???

Mudflaps are the only thing where they offered them to owners for free, however there have been at least a couple of recalls they would do at the same time as any other service work. If it's not been in to a service centre I would raise a service request. There was a pretty important one I remember about making sure the steering cables were well protected from water ingress.

 

[GlynG]

The car is very low to the ground and wide tyres - of course this combination will throw road debris backwards and will make contact with bodywork, now given road debris includes little stones - especially around road repairs they behave like a very coarse sandpaper - or probably better described as shot blasting, wouldn't matter what paint is applied it will chip and wear through it, once the metal is exposed it will rust.
The only answer for a permanent solution is mud flaps, flaps are pliable and will take this shot blasting and the flaps totally cover this entire section of exposed bodywork - for the sake of £40 for colour coded flaps to all 4 wheels its a no brainer.

It really doesn't matter about accumulated debris that will be trapped behind flaps so long as its an area cleaned out once maybe every couple of years and certainly no worse an effect than the debris that gathers behind the wheel arch liners with all cars.

I fitted flaps within days of having the car - 3 years ago, I took the front flaps off a few months ago to fit the new fog lights with sequential indicators and whilst there was a small amount of accumulated dirt, there was no evidence of any rust or damage to the paint on that leading edge.

If that was my car I would sand off all the paint around the rust, apply an anti rust formula and mask off - rattle can spray an undercoat and a top coat of gloss white - I wouldn't even be bothered to get a perfect shade match as its just the leading edge and maybe a tiny bit of blending around the side (the change of angle would hide any shade differences) and then fit mud flaps all round - the entire area wouldn't be seen and the prep and paint would ensure no further rusting