Paintwork

[Saxmaniac]

I love this car as it suits the laid back way I drive (like your granny!) but I've found a few stone chips in the paint on rear wheel arches and treating these I realise the quality and thickness of the paint and rustproofing underneath is appalling for a supposedly quality car. My 13 year old Vauxhall astra is vastly better in this respect, thicker paint, thick rubberized underseal  and loads of wax injection in all cavities. I dread to think how this will fare unless I get busy with the Dinitrol! 

[Heidfirst]

I think that you are going to find that with the paint for all modern cars (however, the steel is probably better treated) due to the shift to water-based paints & also weight reduction.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Since 2007, all manufacturers have taken steps to reduce weight including Vauxhall. Measures include no top coat in areas which are normally out of sight  - such as beneath carpet and boot lining, engine bays, boot openings, etc - thinner paint coats, etc. Now that Vauxhall/Opel are owned by PSA, most of their range is based, or very shortly will be, on Peugeot/Citroen models and follow the French owners anti corrosion methods, and so on.

The stone chips are on the rear wheel arches - do you have mudflaps fitted? If not fitting mudflaps especially at the front may prevent further damage.

[Saxmaniac]

I moved away from Vauxhall as I didn't think the build quality is how it used to be and PSA can only make it worse!  I have been spoilt by the quality of Astras in the first half of the 2000s. Galvanized bodies and lots of wax and thick underseal. I'll be applying stone chip and chassis wax all over this one!

[Gerg]

1 hour ago, Saxmaniac said:

Galvanized bodies and lots of wax and thick underseal. 

Some random areas that might be worth looking at if this car is to be a long term proposition:

The small, plastic aerofoil bits at the front of both rear wheel arches are prone to coming loose and chafing through the paint behind them as they rattle.  This isn't entirely surprising as they are secured by just one poorly-self-tapping screw and a push-clip.  If they are not loose there is no need to investigate further.  But beware if you pass over a particularly stubborn tuft of grass etc.  Don't be disappointed if you notice that you can distort the sill in this area with your thumb, that is normal.

The centre exhaust box has two substantial brackets that can eventually fail (fall off) at the welds (6-7 years +).  Potentially, very expensive.  (Copper-loaded grease here?  Suggestions welcome!)

The brake pipes on the oldest Aurises can fail (MOT) where they pass behind the fuel tank.

The area around the boot release/reverse camera seems to be a paint weak spot.

The dust shields behind all the brake rotors can rust at an alarming rate, and soon look like the car regularly spends time parked in the sea.

[Saxmaniac]

Thanks for those tips. I'm going to do go all over it with Dinitrol products. Do you happen to know if the factory wax inject the sills? 

[yossarian247]

5 hours ago, Saxmaniac said:

I moved away from Vauxhall as I didn't think the build quality is how it used to be and PSA can only make it worse!  I have been spoilt by the quality of Astras in the first half of the 2000s. Galvanized bodies and lots of wax and thick underseal. I'll be applying stone chip and chassis wax all over this one!

I owned a selection of PSA cars built from the 80s through to the early 2000s and one aspect of their build quality which they got very right was rustproofing. Noticeably better than any of the German or Japanese cars I've owned since.

[TonyHSD]

The Toyota cars usually has 10-12 years warranty against corrosion, doing so will invalidate those warranties, also in some cases applying antitrust agents underbody will block factory made drainage and vents which in long term will accelerate corrosion process. My car also has a corrosion here and there, mostly on unprotected ‘black metal’ parts like suspension and exhaust but in general it’s ok , quality obviously lower than on older cars. Very important imo is to keep the car clean, and properly washed underneath and engine bay after winter driving, especially for the cars that are not in daily use. Salt on the roads are the biggest factor for all these troubles. 

Regards 

[furtula]

Warranty on corrosion usually applies if it rusts through, or something like that.

On problems with surface corrosion, where the paint is damaged by it, or similar, but does not pose a structural issue, you wont have much luck.

[FROSTYBALLS]

A 2018 Auris will have a 12 year anti corrosion and perforation warranty and a 3 year unlimited mileage paintwork and surface rust warranty - both protect against a manufacturing fault. The application of third party products may well affect either warranty.

Stone chips obviously are not the result of a manufacturing defect.

[Saxmaniac]

I'll take my chances with the anti perforation warranty as I'm sure they'd use any excuse to crawl out of it. Meanwhile I don't want the underside to be a mass of rust. 

[Gerg]

1 hour ago, Saxmaniac said:

Thanks for those tips. I'm going to do go all over it with Dinitrol products. Do you happen to know if the factory wax inject the sills? 

I don't know, but if you were to remove the self-tapping screw and its attendant plastic plug mentioned above, perhaps using this (superbly researched [cough] ) thread as a guide:-

Then I guess you could use a bent Q-tip to check out the sill around that hole.  That plug is much harder to remove than you might imagine.  When i removed it I chucked i bit more Dinitrol 4941 immediately around the hole anyway. 

The doors have some light-coloured, sticky wax in their lowest seams and about 1.5" up their vertical faces, that I do know.

[FROSTYBALLS]

25 minutes ago, Saxmaniac said:

I'm sure they'd use any excuse to crawl out of it.

Toyota are better than most for customer support. One example being the respraying of white IQ's (some of which are up to 10 years old) due to paint adherence issues (several examples on these forums). Do what you want.

[eygo]

6 hours ago, yossarian247 said:

I owned a selection of PSA cars built from the 80s through to the early 2000s and one aspect of their build quality which they got very right was rustproofing. Noticeably better than any of the German or Japanese cars I've owned since.

my neighbour works at the Astra plant in Ellesmere port in maintenance

and since PSA have taken over their moto is to get the cars out of the door

we'll deal with any issues later.

its all about money / sales, forget about making a quality product.

[yossarian247]

2 minutes ago, eygo said:

my neighbour works at the Astra plant in Ellesmere port in maintenance

and since PSA have taken over their moto is to get the cars out of the door

we'll deal with any issues later.

its all about money / sales, forget about making a quality product.

Sadly that attitude seems to be prevalent in a lot of industries now, including the one I work in. 

I must admit that whilst I was a fan of many of the cars PSA were producing 20+ years ago I don't think I would touch any of their current or recent offerings with a bargepole. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

18 minutes ago, eygo said:

my neighbour works at the Astra plant in Ellesmere port in maintenance

and since PSA have taken over their moto is to get the cars out of the door

we'll deal with any issues later.

its all about money / sales, forget about making a quality product.

In 2018, Opel/Vauxhall announced their first profit in 20 years. 

GM restricted the sale of Opel/Vauxhall cars to Europe. Leaving the US to their American brands, and Asia/Australia to Holden/GM Korea. Holden no longer manufacture vehicles.

PSA intend to expand Opel/Vauxhall into markets beyond Europe.

[Gerg]

1 hour ago, eygo said:

my neighbour works at the Astra plant in Ellesmere port in maintenance

and since PSA have taken over their moto is to get the cars out of the door

we'll deal with any issues later.

its all about money / sales, forget about making a quality product.

An interesting insight.  Perhaps that's partly why the Astra was bottom of the customer satisfaction survey in AutoExpress.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/best-cars/driver-power/95238/best-cars-to-own-driver-power-2019-results

[FROSTYBALLS]

2 hours ago, eygo said:

my neighbour works at the Astra plant in Ellesmere port in maintenance

and since PSA have taken over their moto is to get the cars out of the door

we'll deal with any issues later.

its all about money / sales, forget about making a quality product.

Reminds me of when a manufacturing defect was identified during vehicle production with some front cross members of the Aygo/C1/107. Toyota rectified the issue at the Joint Venture plant before the cars were distributed. PSA rectified the issue via the dealer network after distribution..

[Saxmaniac]

A mate of mine worked at an automotive oem supplier to various makes including Toyota and he said that while other manufacturers took an off the shelf unit and had it branded/ programmed whatever that was fine for them but Toyota would want a load of further reliability testing before approval

[FROSTYBALLS]

Similar to how Honda used to operate, and still probably do.

Back in the 90's, Rover assembled the Honda Concerto and the Rover 200/400 clones at Longbridge. Competed Concertos were shipped down to Swindon to undergo Honda quality control inspection (QCI). Those passing the QCI entered Honda's distribution system. Those failing were returned to Rover Longbridge for rectification and then re-submitted to Honda for QCI.

Parts also had to go through Honda's QCI. For example we'd bought a new Concerto 1.5i and at six months old, the drivers door switch that controlled the alarm failed. Honda had none of their door switches in stock in Europe, but refused to fit the identical Rover switch as it hadn't gone through their QCI process. The dealer had to cannibalize another new Concerto to replace the switch in ours.

[Gerg]

Not exactly paintwork with this suggestion.  There are about eight 10mm bolts with captive washers that sit vertically behind the front valance, these are not very visible due to their being recessed into the plastic moulding webs they sit in. After about 3-6 years worth of average UK driving, these will have rusted to the point of seizure, probably.  These are only as big as they need to be and will readily shear off when you try to remove them (unless using great patience and/or penetrating oil).  These thread into hefty chassis pieces that seem keen to rust as well. 

As your car is just 1 year old, these bolts will still come out like a dream (Saxmaniac), some generous application of grease or copper-loaded grease will keep them like that.  Note that three or four of these bolts have to come out to remove the large engine undertray.  But for oil/filter changes the undertray has a dedicated pull-down flap set into it; so regular services will not keep these loosened-up through annual removal at the garage.

HTH.

[TonyHSD]

That’s right, I had changed mine with stainless Steel ones and more than year since they still looks like new. Only needed to take them out once for transmission oil change and had no problems.

Good advice Gerg . Thanks for that. 

[Saxmaniac]

Brilliant replies. I am going to get busy on it around August when I have a chance to stick it on axle stands for as long as I want. Re the exhaust bracket I'm going to dose that with ACF 50 which is well known in the motorcycle world and I've got experience of how good that is. I asked the company if it's safe round an exhaust and he assured me that if it gets very hot, I will fet a oink smell but no flames! Dinitrol, copaslip, stonechip round wheel arches etc etc

[Gerg]

Also, while you're looking at the all other bits, the nearside driveshaft has a rubber damper about half way along its length.  On older Toyota models of similar design, corrosion forms directly underneath the rubber damper and the driveshaft eventually shears in half after the effective diameter of the shaft is reduced.  This happens to other makes of car as well, of course.  The drivers side driveshaft has a damper as well, but this doesn't seem to corrode as quickly.

You are years away from this happening, if it even happens at all.  But if it does, it could really ruin your morning.