My Audi A8 3.0 litre TDI is three years old with 29000 miles and it is suffering from severe stonechips on the bonnet.
Audi have checked and say there is no problem.
My previous cars Jaguar and BMW did not have this problem with the same kind of use.
Audi dealership say not their problem.
Has anybody else had this problem? How wide spread is it?
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I think it depends, to a degree, on the aerodynamics of the front of the car. In any event it has become a lot more prelavent since the tree huggers got us onto water based paints ie softer!
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 23/07/2008 at 13:53
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I've heard anecdotally on a few websites that Audi paint is quite thin nowadays, it isn't black by any chance is it?
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All my cars have suffered stone chips, the worst by far being the Focus. A combination of very soft paint and a sloping bonnet.
My current A3 has a few stonechips, as did my previous one, both in dark colours. The fact the undercoat is light grey highlights them, but my valeter is very good at making them disappear come trade in time!
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Newer cars also have a lower bonnet leading edge because of the pedestrian collision safety tests here and in US.
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My 2005 allroad is black and has severe rust bubbles on the doors just above the alloy strips ,but as just out of paint warranty blah blah and the perforation warranty has as many get outs . Anyone else been fobbed off by audi?
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<< I think it depends to a degree on the aerodynamics of the front of the
car. >>
Does it not depend to a greater degree on how closely you follow the car in front? I guess young enthusiastic drivers often wanting to overtake suffer from chips far more often than those who follow at a stonesfall distance! [yet another new word for our wonderful English language? ]
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>>stonesfall distance! [yet another new word for our wonderful English language? ]>>
A scandinavian friend once told me "If you need your screenwashers you are too close to the car in front", must apply to stone chips too.
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Then again if you are driving very close to the car in front then stones will not have sufficient distance to rise enough to hit the bonnet; more likely to hole the radiator. There must be an optimum distance to drive behind the car in front to avoid stones hitting your car.
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i find most stray stones thrown up at me are caused by vehicles cutting into my safety zone
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It depends to an extent on the type of roads you use. Leaving a greater gap between yourself and the vehicle in front also helps.
Since I retired and now use less motorways, stone damage to the bodywork and the windscreen has decreased dramatically.
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Maybe it's a water based paint thing?
I have a Mercedes with their "nano" paint, which is very hard, but yet it chips very easily, as it's too brittle - I don't get the kind of "starring" around many of the chips that you see on other cars. just little chips of paint come off, so it's obviously not being done by big stones hitting hard. I've never owned a car that chips as much.
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