My 3 month old 4 runner already has several chipped areas under the front lights, top of hood (front area) and top of bumper. Doing a search I noticed that a few others are also complaining about the paint quality. Curious to find out how many of us with 03 runners are actually having a problem with chipping paint with titanium as well as any other colors. Have just been using my runner for city/freeway driving.

 

Only have 6900 miles on her, but there have been 3 or 4 chips.

Billy

 

I never had a problem with mine after a Winter driving on roads where crushed cinders are used for traction instead of salt, which is illegal here.

 

I have 5300 miles and no problems with the paint. I even went through Big Falls which is tons of stream crossings and trees/bushes scraping the sides of the truck. I got one tiny scratch in the front bumper paint on top-from a branch. That's it and you can't even see it.

 

I've had some problems with the clearcoat cracking (mine is titanium as well). The cracks are very tough to spot and look like very fine scratches, but are really cracks. It goes into the dealer's bodyshop on Monday for a repaint of the affected panels.

 

I too have the silver titanium. My problem with my first truck, which was the gray color, was moisture under the clear coat. It showed up as white spots under light at night on the roof and hood. Dealer took the truck back and sent it back to the Boston port to get wet sanded and re-clearcoated. I told them I refused to take the truck. The replaced it with my Titanium silver color now. Guess what, a few spots showed up on the roof. I marked all of them with painters tape and the dealer said the Toyota paint specialist said to take the spots out with denatured alcohol and a heat gun. It worked. I watched them do it in front of me. The dealer told me they have the same problems with the Volkswagons. The lovely white protective tape covering they put on the cars today traps moisture under clear coat. Anyway, sorry to ramble, but it's documented now. Only a couple chips in mine and a couple of A-hole scratches I buffed out from parking lots.

 

I wonder if the plastic being applied too soon after painting is why the clearcoat cracks develop too. I noticed that Hyundai has started using Tyvek to protect their cars in transit... Tyvek breathes and will let any trapped moisture escape.

 

I try not to pay to much attention to the chips on the front bumper, front fenders, hood, front doors, or rear bumper where the tires throw everything up onto the side of the fenders :cry: my 03 ES300 has the same paint quality, something hit the hood and took the paint off almost to the metal.

Do I care not really, the paint quality is the way it is cause it's a water based paint and not an oil based, cleaner for the envirorment especially those that live in or around crowed cities.

The Dutch Man
My Silver truck had orange spots in the paint on the hood and roof, since I bought it in Feburary I could not really do anything about it but wait till the summer heat, soon as we got a heat spell in July where their was a constant 90+ degrees, I made sure I parked in the sun for several days and the spots vanished, paint is not anything proof, tree sap will sink through the paint if left on long enough so moisture will bake out in the sun.

I feel bad for the owners who take their cars in to have they buffed out, wet sanded or repainted and all it needs is hot sunlight I don't think this happens on dark colors, but I could be wrong

 

I took my runner to the dealer and showed the service manager the chips. He went through the explanation of use of water based paint due to environmental issues and that this paint is not as "resilient" as oil based types of paint. We walked through lot and he showed me many vehicles with various amounts of chipping. Obviously, the chipping was much less noticeable on vehicles with darker paint. He also showed me the "fallout" on my runner. He did offer to wash car thoroughly, touch up chipped areas, remove fallout with clay bar and then wax 4runner. I will probably take him up on this offer. Did say that before I bring it in I will probably have more paint chips and that after all the touch ups and waxing there will be chips again within a few days or so. I do have "official" Toyota touch up paint and will try that out in an inconspicuous area. Just seems that the paint is a bit globby and not a "perfect" match.

When I first got the 4runner, I noticed that there were some marks on the side mirrors from the protective tape. I was able to easily buff these out.

 

My Gallactic Gray '03 has a bunch of chips in the paint on the hood, dings in the plastic of the front bumper and chips in the windshield.

The paint looks nice, but is not very tough. Agreed that it's due to the water based paints used these days.

Best options to protect the front end is to apply the 3M clear plastic products. I have not bothered since my truck is already battle scarred, but would do so on a new truck next time.

 

Edge,

What your saying is exactly what the dealer told me. Either they use denatured alcohol and a heat gun to bake out the moisture or leave it in the sun during a few hot days in the summer. Supposedly the moisture will bake out naturally. That was the response from Toyota. I oppted to let the dealer fix the problem. However, I'm a little leary now whether we will have paint peeling problems in the future. Biggest thing for me was to make sure it was documented so I can force Toyota to fix the truck should anything ever happen.

 

so far there are no chips or problems with mine, Maybe some of that has to do with the fact i bought it in the middle of the summer (100+ degrees at the dealer) so it had to be sitting at the dealer for atleast a week, and it got some time outside when at stores, or work.

 

Any of you guys with 4th gens looked at the clear bras?

*Sorry for the size of the pics.


Can't even tell its on!