Rust bubbles on roof - covered under extended warranty?
 

My MY00 scoob has a number of rust bubbles coming up on the front edge of the roof, just at the top of the windscreen. They haven't "broken" yet, but it's obvious that there is corrosion underneath and the paint is blistering. The car's only 4 years old, so I'm not very happy about this. Anyone have any idea whether I'd be likely to get it fixed under the (extended) Subaru warranty? Or would I have to wait until it actually perforates?

Get it checked as soon as possible, but I'd guess unless the bodywork service/warranty is uptodate you'll be given the "sorry sir that aint covered".
might be an idea to visit more than 1 dealer (as you may get different answer).

Ian.

Seem to recall that the roof is specifically excluded from any warranty. Had several stone chips on my roof and all went a bit 'spidery' but the paint never broke.

Had one customer that did get a respray from the dealership on a newly bought wrx; though it took several calls to IM & several frustrating visits. Customer came in 5/6 days ago & the respray looked like a top job.

Customer had to chase 3/4 spary shops to get them to say it was faulty paint from Day 1, 1 spray shop deals with Subaru direct & did refuse to make any comments. Also at the same time another customer refused their car on grounds of poor paint & got a new replacement.....

There is hope...but alot of despair along the way..........

Well I've rung the dealer who sold it to me 3 years ago, and I'll be taking it in for them to take pics and so forth, sometime next week.

The interesting thing is that the bubbles are right at the top edge of the windscreen - a friend suggested that the problem might have been caused by the fitting of a replacement windscreen causing damage to the paintwork on that part of the frame. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had rust problems in this area or as a result of replacing a broken windscreen?

If this is what happened, it'll be interesting to see IM's reaction - it would have been done before I bought the car, by the previous owners... who were a little company called International Motors - it was one of their lease cars for the first 8 months of its life...

It all depends on whether the rust is coming from inside the metalwork and pushing the paint out for from stone chip damage.

The Impreza has a 6yr warranty on the bodywork, but you need to have the body work serviced according to the service manual - I think that includes you covering the cost of taking care of any damage to the paint.

If it's stone chip damage, I'd be very surprised if they covered it under warranty. You could argue that the paint is so thin and weak, it's poor quality that's led to the problem.

Stefan

Just to add, they were more than happy to repair a small rust spot on my door when it was obvious it was coming from under the paintwork. Any bodshop worth their salt should spot the difference.

Stefan

Ozzy:

It's definitely not stone chip damage, like I said in the original posts there are no breaks in the paint - yet. It's definitely coming from "inside", although in this case "inside" could actually mean "from a damaged section of paintwork which is currently covered by the edge of the windscreen". And yes, I've got an extended warranty (5yr/60Kmiles) and I've kept the bodywork servicing up to date as per the book. Although the bodywork servicing certainly doesn't say anything about the roof - I think all they do is renew the underseal etc.

Anyway, I'll take it in and see what IM have to say. I feel an argument coming on... :(

I recently had the roof resprayed on mine due to rust under/just above the top of the windscreen seal. The body shop did mention it was highly likely to have been caused when a replacement screen had been fitted, the previous one cut out with paint being chipped & not repaired.
As I needed a new screen anyway, total cost for paint & labour was £200 & £50 for the glass excess.

D