Dealership washed my car.....

-Mike-

-Mike-

-Mike-

Soldato
Joined
22 Dec 2002
Posts
10,165
Location
Minehead
Hey all,

A little advice please - Had the car in the garage for a warranty repair (which hasn't fixed the issue but that's another story).

I said to the warranty administrator what has happened to my wheel caps which are all bubbled and he said he'd mention it to the service manager. Now I've got home a short while ago and my front grill (which I believe is probably fake chrome on a mk5 golf based jetta) is destroyed. It looks like someone has dripped acid all over it and whatever it's been washed with it appears the wheels have met the same fate.

Any suggestions on how to proceed here, I wasn't too bothered by the wheel caps as the car is getting on, but the grill looks plain nasty now :(
 
Diagro said:
Oh dear... what did they use to wash it? Acid rain?
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You tell me mate I've no idea. I'll be making a detour on the way to work tomorrow.... The grill was spotless, have photos from the last time I washed it and not a mark on it.
 
Gaygle said:
Are you sure the chrome won't be restored with just a bit of alcohol on a rag?
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I'm not sure of anything yet mate, I didn't want to touch it yet I want them to see it first. Looking at the wheel caps........ I'd say its probably damaged. Even the VW logo now looks like its got chicken pox in the front grill.
 
I would bet they've used TFR - traffic film remover - the sort of stuff used to wash HGV's, got the concentration wrong and that's the end result.

Horrible stuff, neat it will burn your skin, why they'd use it on a car I don't know.
 
Scania said:
I would bet they've used TFR - traffic film remover - the sort of stuff used to wash HGV's, got the concentration wrong and that's the end result.

Horrible stuff, neat it will burn your skin, why they'd use it on a car I don't know.
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I'm not too sure but I watched the guy cleaning cars pumping something all over someone else's car whilst waiting so you could well be right!
 
Yup, they've TFR'd it without a doubt.

I always leave a note on the dash asking for my cars not to be washed because frankly I don't trust anyone else outside of a trusted detailer to do it properly.
 
Lowe said:
Yup, they've TFR'd it without a doubt.

I always leave a note on the dash asking for my cars not to be washed because frankly I don't trust anyone else outside of a trusted detailer to do it properly.
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We don't use tfr anymore sir said the man, definitely wasn't caused by us otherwise other cars would be the same and we have never had this problem before now.. :mad:
 
This is why I always leave explicit instructions to not wash, clean, valet, hoover, etc my car in any way shape or form. I've seen how they wash cars and I don't fancy a bucket of water that's already washed 10-20 cars being used alongside a grit-ridden sponge going anywhere near my paint, let alone them using any kind of "product" on it.

So far, Audi haven't failed to adhere to my requests.
 
Yup pretty much that, I'm the only one that goes near my car with a bucket and sponge, more homework is done on what I wash my car with than my armpits.
 
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paradigm said:
This is why I always leave explicit instructions to not wash, clean, valet, hoover, etc my car in any way shape or form. I've seen how they wash cars and I don't fancy a bucket of water that's already washed 10-20 cars being used alongside a grit-ridden sponge going anywhere near my paint, let alone them using any kind of "product" on it.

So far, Audi haven't failed to adhere to my requests.
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Same here, and Ford have always honoured my request too. The guy on the desk always looks a little confused when I ask him, but I don't care. I'm far too anal over my paintwork and I'm the only one who touches it.



Born_2_Kill_83 said:
Yup pretty much that, I'm the only one that goes near my car with a bucket and sponge, more homework is done on what I wash my car with than my armpits.
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Reminds me of

YDbCQ5j.jpg


Heh.
 
Skillmister said:
Good luck proving it wasn't you then!
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kindai said:
Quite, this is why when you pick your car up from having any work you give it a good look over before driving off and pull up any issues before you leave.
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Was parked nose almost touching the wall so given I'm not too flexible currently I'd have had to reverse it to inspect. I told the guy about the wheel caps being a milky mess before I'd driven off.

On the plus side, I took some metal polish to the grill and its coming off with some elbow work, so given it was apparently age and they had nothing to do with it...... it's amazing how well the marks are disappearing! They definitely won't be washing it again! It's back in on the 5th april as their miraculous fix....... didn't fix the problem that I had described to them.
 
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