I have an 06 CGM STi and I was washing it over the weekend when I noticed yellow stains in my paint. I am 100% sure that is from bird crap. I wash my car every weekend with the exception of a few weekends. I also have waxed and clay barred my car 3 or 4 times since I bought it in Sept. Anyway, as I was washing it this weekend I noticed a bunch of yellow stains where the crap landed, most are about the size of a BB, but others are about half an inch long and about the width of angel hair pasta(sorry best thing I could decsribe with). After using bug and tar remover, a really good detail spray, and some WD-40, but its still there. It still has a nice shine over the stain, but it loooks like it got embedded into the clear coat.

So my question is:

Is this a warranty issue since the protective clearcoat didn't protect the paint?

Would insurance pick this up? I have Mercury Insurance

Or am I just screwed and have to fix this problem out of my own pocket.

TIA

Brent

And so i dont get flammed for this:

Damage Caused by the Environment
These warranties do not cover damage caused by airborne fallout (which includes but is not limited to chemicals, tree sap, and bird droppings), salt, water, flooding, hail, windstorm, lightning, extreme temperatures, or any other environmental cause.

I have read this.

 

Try using a strong polish like Optimum Hyper Compound/Compound then follow with a lighter polish like Optmium Polish then wax. I had some waterspots on my wing that I thought were to deep to get, but then I used some OC and they came out fine, I followed with OP. Then waxed.

 

pollen does that too. You see this little brown things on your car after parking around trees. if you don't take your finger and rub them off when you see it, the next time you wash your car, it will leave a yellow stain in your paint because it had a chance to settle in the sun. The stains on my car do go away, but that is after like 5-6 washes and waxes.




Just be sure it's pollen before you rub them off with your finger

 

it could be paint from the road. Has there been any new construction in the area you have driven?
Tar will also leave a little bit of a yellowish stain. From my detailing experience, you will probably need to give it a good 3 step detail.

 

+1 It's pollen, I drive a white car and get lot of those in Marin County. I wash my car every week to try to get them off, it takes a week or so for them to finally go away.

 

No it's not paint from the road. I dont drive the car at all during the week so it can't be that.

It could be pollen because there is a buttload of pine trees and ish around my house.

I forgot to mention before there was one spot that I had noticed about 4-5 weeks ago, so 4-5 washes ago and one clay bar/wax with wash.

Thanks for the tips and the somewhat good news of it maybe working itself out.

Brent

 

This is too late to tell you, unfortunately, but you shouldn't have been so aggressive with the car's finish in the first place. My dealership advised me not to wax the car AT ALL for six to eight months after I received it, and then only use synthetic wax and a soft microfiber pad -- NO CLEANER WAX, no rotary buffer, nothing the slightest bit abrasive. Clay bar shouldn't be used until almost two years after the car was painted, unless there is serious build-up that can be felt with your fingertips. When you use cleaner waxes and clay bar, you are removing clearcoat along with the dust that is embedded in it, weakening the car's overall finish.

Have you ever seen a car that looked like it had a bad sunburn, with bubbles and holes in the clearcoat? This happens when people use a harsh detergent (such as laundry or dishwashing soap) on the car, especially just after they bought it. Modern car paint has up to eleven layers of paint, and the bottom layers take months -- even years -- to fully "cure." If just dish soap can harm your paint, you can imagine what clay bar (which is just sand embedded in clay!), WD-40 and just the heat of a rotary buffer can do.

My dealership brought me back in every three months after I bought the car for a spray of AutoMate, a paint curative and extra clearcoat. They did this for free, not as a scam to get me to do extended warranties or extra service. If they were so concerned about the paint to do 9 treatments of this stuff for free, they must have thought it would be cheaper than replacing my entire paint job.

What you did made perfect sense for an American car or many older cars, but modern cars have very, very weak paint due to restrictions on the chemicals used in solvents put in place in the early 90s. My wife had a '92 Civic, the first year they were forced to give up on using those solvents (nasty stuff!) and switch to water-based paints, and the paint literally washed off the roof of that car in less than a year.

This is a great site: http://www.autopia.org/

Go there and click on the "Learn" button at the top center, and read all the how-tos. I knew NOTHING before I went there (I was the one that wrecked the paint on the '92 Civic using laundry soap on it!) but now I know better. My '02 WRX has zero signs of paint damage; only the bug-eyes give away the fact that it is an older model (and most assume it is an '03). My advice is to concentrate on preventing the stains from happening in the first place, by using layers and layers of synthetic wax and sealants, rather than trying to aggressively remove stains from the finish. For instance, some of the expert tutorials there recommend using clay only once or twice a year, maximum.

 

well im jealous

 

I have the same stains your talking about. I saw one after the first time I washed it and another in the parking lot at work, after I scraped off a little brown thing, there it was again.
your right it looks like a piece of noodle, almost same exact color to.
I have yet to reomve them but Ill keep you posted if anything works.
Suck my car only has 700 miles on it.

 

Im jealous as well. I have waxed my car twice in the past 3-4 months :x. Am I screwed?

 

I have a white wrx and I have the same issues. My friend with a white STI see them too. I got a paint chip on the way home from the dealership. I had to drive 4 hours to get the car from a dealership that wasn't trying to me sign off my first born as a down payment. That is a horrible feeling... driving home and finding a paint chip while washing it. Why did I wash it as soon as I got home? The dealership didn't wash it very well, they didn't detail it, and they didn't fill my tank. They say that next time I'm up (4 hours north mind you) they will fill my tank and detail it for me... ha!
So no more clay bar for me; syn wax only... thanks for the tips guys.