Aluminium Trim Issues

[Dave.B]

Hi,

I purchased my RS4 aaprox 4 weeks ago from Aberdeen Audi - went up as hadnt seen the car in the flesh and noticed some tarnishing on the front grille

The chap at Audi offered to replce this for me as good will gesture - great.

It was peeing it down when got the car so didnt notice the same thing happening on all the aluminium around the doors and the boot sill when I got it home and polsihed car for the first time last week - its in on Friday at Teeside Audi to take photos etc and see if covered under warranty.

Has anyone experienced this - the marks wont polish put with metal polish/normal polish...

It surely must come under the 1yr warranty I got with the approved used audi (een under the manafacturers body corrosion warranty)

Help ...

Dave

[silent-gerbil]

Yes, a friend has just bought an '07 avant with silver trim, and has the same problem with the window trims, he is a very experienced panel beater and painter and has tried everything to polish the tarnishing out but with no effect, he has ended up buying a full set of trims, I think he said they were around £170+vat
Removing the old trims is very tricky as you can easily damage the door.

[Dave.B]

Did Audi not offer to help out?

[silent-gerbil]

He bought the car privately so it was sold as seen

[Ollieb7]

Got small amount around one rear door on mine. A mate of mine also had same prob on S-Line model. Pretty common and poor for a quality product.

[Dave.B]

ok - will see if any warranty claim possible and will let you all know

[bam_bam]

...

^ Classy username

[Dave.B]

The Audi garage are saying they are not covered as they are plastic....

Im sure the trim is aluminium - anyone confirm?

[spikeyboy101]

Think its plastic with a clear film over it made to look like aluminum.

I have the same issue on my B6 S4 - i think its where the plastic clear film starts to detach from the plastic trim - as the tarnishing is between the clear film and the plastic you cant polish it out.

[KernowPete]

Dave, this is a really common problem, there are loads of threads about it on here. I posted pics of mine recently. Lots of cleabing products have been recommended but nothings worked on mine. Another favoured option is having the trim wrapped which I believe is quite a bit cheaper than replacement. Most people go from silver to black to give the impression the car has the black optics pack, but it has been suggested you should be able to wrap silver with silver. I haven't looked into it any further though...

[Steve_C]

The guy who details my car has tarnished alu trim round his windows. Said he's tried everything to clean them up - all to no avail.

[ShouldveBeenAGerman]

Might be worth a group letter to Audi UK, most seem to suffer from it to some extent so it cannot be blamed on incorrect cleaning products.

[Dave.B]

I have managed to get the Audi dealer where i bought the car - Aberdeen to agree to getting the window trim replaced as a goodwill gesture.

Its not under warranty as its not body work technically and is plastic

I think a group letter might carry more weight - the only reason I managed to get somewhere was that I bought the car unseen from Aberdeen - travelled up from Yorkshire and then found the bodywork issues when the chap said all was a1