Paint blisters on doors

[Herbie33]

Hi all,

following me giving the car (2014 981s) a wash I found a small paint blister (about 5mm)on the drivers door, I took it to an OPC who said it’s caused by a stone chip so won’t be covered by corrosion warranty, they’ve  given me a quote for £700 to fix and respray the door, I’ve now found a smaller one on the passenger door, it’s metallic black so very difficult to see unless your really looking) so the questions are, is the OPC stance reasonable that it’s not covered by warranty? If I don’t get it fixed will it get worse, I think the doors are aluminium, if I take it to a body shop will it be easy to blend in if they do a localised repair compared to a whole door respray?

 

sorry for the number of questions 

 

thanks 

neal 

[daz05]

It's not a paint defect if it's a stone chip that was left unattended to so just need to suck it up.

Has it happened in your ownership or like that when you bought it? If it was an approved used car maybe you have a chance.

[Herbie33]

It’s not an approved used and the warranty I got with the car doesn’t cover corrosion.

just seems unusual to have corrosion on a modern car, not had it on a modern car before 

[daz05]

Maybe the paint isn't original because does seem a bit odd.

[huytonman]

Neil, something that small can be handled fairly easily with touch up paint, a bit of care and patience is whats needed. Will it be as good as a respray, not a chance but it will suffice and with these cars stone chips are a way of life so something to live with IMO but stopping the corrosion impact with a local repair always makes sense.

Keith

Edited May 28, 2021 by huytonman

[Herbie33]

So took it to OPC today, they can’t see any chips on the passenger door and have said both doors are original paint, so corrosion on one side likely to be a fault, they have submitted a warranty claim to Porsche so may end up with one door under warranty and the other I’ll have to pay for (I did argue the “chip” in the paint may have been caused by the corrosion bubbling through.

As a positive I’ll get a courtesy car whilst OPC fix it so that’ll hopefully be a fun car 

 

[daz05]

Decent result hopefully all goes through ok and your paint bill for the other isn't too bad. 👍

[bandit_287]

Courtesy cars are normally a Porsche, be aware though that ANY damage to the vehicle you’ll pay a grand on their insurance for the excess including windscreen chips/cracks. Ask me how I know. 

[Simo_UK]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:55 AM, bandit_287 said:

Courtesy cars are normally a Porsche, be aware though that ANY damage to the vehicle you’ll pay a grand on their insurance for the excess including windscreen chips/cracks. Ask me how I know. 

Wonder if that's a dealer specific excess or a recent change for all? Portsmouth only had a £50 excess for both test drives and courtesy cars, but that was a couple of years back. 

[martyn]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:55 AM, bandit_287 said:

Courtesy cars are normally a Porsche, be aware though that ANY damage to the vehicle you’ll pay a grand on their insurance for the excess including windscreen chips/cracks. Ask me how I know. 

Same at Colchester OPC but to be fair,  you only pay up to £1,000 excess, ie if the damage comes to £300, then that’s all you pay.

[Herbie33]

Update:

Good news - Porsche have agreed to cover repairing both doors under warranty, that’s £1400 saved!

 

just off to buy a lottery ticket 

[Ringmaster999]

30 minutes ago, Herbie33 said:

Update:

Good news - Porsche have agreed to cover repairing both doors under warranty, that’s £1400 saved!

 

just off to buy a lottery ticket 

Good result 👍

[Herbie33]

Update

got the car back today, amazing job by Porsche Cambridge, both doors fixed, they also went over the rest of the car and touched in any stone chips. Full valet and polish. Also discovered the car has extended Porsche warranty until end of Sept, question is do I extend the warranty!?
 

only downside the loan car was merc A class diesel 🤐(first world problems!) 

[Paul P]

1 hour ago, Herbie33 said:

Update

got the car back today, amazing job by Porsche Cambridge, both doors fixed, they also went over the rest of the car and touched in any stone chips. Full valet and polish. Also discovered the car has extended Porsche warranty until end of Sept, question is do I extend the warranty!?
 

only downside the loan car was merc A class diesel 🤐(first world problems!) 

Warranty is one of those emotive topic on here ( in the same box as N rated tyres, 99 ron low ethanol petrol, 2 quid brakes from ebay and of course - everyones favourite - why buy a ctek when you can buy a lidl charger) and there's no wrong answer.

Me - I choose Porsche warranty because I can, and I think it's good and I have budgeted for it - if you take it its something like 1400 for 2 years ( there or there abouts) - 55 ish quid a month - same price as 2/3rds of a tank of v power or 4 lidl trickle chargers.

pays your money - takes your choice - but there are some rules that some find onerous - to RENEW the warranty - it's porsche parts ( including battery ) - fairly recent matched n rated tyres and no modifications ( grills, funny exhausts, different head unit etc.) - of course  - recently they waived the inspection for renewals - and if you pitch up with ebay disks and pads and say " the abs warning light is on" - I can imagine the response.

End of the days its insurance and thats a personal risk/reward call - save the 1400 and the possible 500 quid on genuine parts and nothing fails - you win - gearbox fails or engine dies or big issue happens in electronics you lose.

Others of course will have their own opinions and views on the subject - but I figure its a very personal choice.

[daz05]

Here's my take, extend it if the following applies:

You aren't very handy with a set of spanners, you don't have an Indy nearby to help you out if something goes wrong, you have no intention of modifying, you are happy with OEM parts only, you have a higher mileage car and you use it regularly, you enjoy the odd track day. You don't like risk even when the odds are in your favour

If the above doesn't apply you can generally trust the car, there are faults and the Porsche dealer will always find a way of making that extremely expensive by replacing rather than fixing hence having an indy or some of your own experience useful. Remember the warranty won't cover everything.

Damaged air con condensers, blocked drains, gearbox mounts on cars with sports chrono and seized pse mechanisms are the worry but most of these you can prevent. My maintenance video on YouTube is reasonably useful or so I'm told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[iborguk]

15 hours ago, Herbie33 said:

Update

got the car back today, amazing job by Porsche Cambridge, both doors fixed, they also went over the rest of the car and touched in any stone chips. Full valet and polish. Also discovered the car has extended Porsche warranty until end of Sept, question is do I extend the warranty!?
 

only downside the loan car was merc A class diesel 🤐(first world problems!) 

@Herbie33

Cambridge OPC are my local go to, on the whole found them OK.

I warrantied my car with them at the end of last year and like @Paul P my maths tells me it's worth the £50/60 quid a month to be covered if my pdk or engine eats itself. I've neither the skills or kit to fix those (well pdk is a pretty  closed unit anyways even if I did).

I also had the warranty on a previous car and that time "I won" (with the agg of course that some things had gone wrong with it - nothing world ending but it all added up to more than the warranty cost).

As @daz05 said it's replace not "fix" a lot of the time, because that's what the guided fault finding in PIWIS says. That said when they bled my brakes and the brake nipples seized we didn't jump straight to "new caliper's please", they persisted and offered a calliper refurb service (by a 3rd party at £50 a corner) if it was needed. In my case it wasn't, 3 days of soaking the bleed nipples freed them and they replaced them at cost.

Again as mentioned taking out/not taking out the Porsche Extended Warranty, if the car is in scope is a very personal choice and one which currently works for me.

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by iborguk

[iborguk]

As a follow on I've had some nice courtesy cars from that OPC (718 Cayman S) on the last go (don't tell @Davey P) but you tend to have to book up months in advance to get that kind of car.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by iborguk

[Herbie33]

Cheers everyone for the advice, I have what I think is decent indie not to far away in dove house cars so leaning towards letting the warranty end. 
 

 

[R1HJK]

Great result on the warranty, I bought my car from Porsche Cambridge and they were great to deal with.

ive just extended my warranty, the big thing that it saves me is time and convenience. 2 coil packs went at the beginning of the year and it was a phone call to Porsche assist to come and collect the car from my home - job done. Ive had various other things done and my local OPC have fixed them all without issue. 

[Menoporsche]

9 hours ago, Herbie33 said:

Cheers everyone for the advice, I have what I think is decent indie not to far away in dove house cars so leaning towards letting the warranty end. 

Many good comments about Dove House here.