P Daddy

I have the GT appearance package and the front edge of my side skirts are basically chipped down to the urethane. I've ony got 9,700 miles on the car. Unfortuantely 95% of it is highway miles and the amount of paint chips I have on the front of the car disgust me.

Does anyone else have such extreme paint chipping on the ground effects?

Patrick

rjacobs

I have chipping on mine as well, I was thinking about getting some of that clear film to put on just that. I dont have any chips on the front of my car yet(knock on wood). I only have 1600 miles on my car so it is kind of rediculous. See what the dealer says about it I would like to know.

TheDosDog

I've had the same since about 2k. Now at 11k the rockers are pretty trashed too. I suspect the combination of high speeds, low ground clearance and sticky tires are the culpret. I added front flaps but those has only helped marginally. I plan to repaint the rockers and flares with an added dose of chip guard and see if that helps.

VikingDJ

Within 1k miles I had chips on appearance package, and front. I now have about 2600 miles on car, and the road rash is taking it's toll. I'll be in same boat before too long unfortunately.

red_rx8_red_int

I have 17k miles on my red 8 w/ ap/pkg and have too many chips to count. I think high speed has a lot to do with it. At least for me. I drive 80 to 90 and a random rock hit at 90 causes much more damage than at 60. Also the low ground clearance is going to result in more impacts. Yea it sucks, but damn we own an 8. Well worth the extra time and $ to repair these chips. FWIW, I highly reccomend Langka aka mothers powered by langka tech.

restob

1300 miles and no chips. I drive an average of 30 miles a day. 15 of those are in the highway which I average 70 mph. With the info you are giving here, I guess it'll be a matter of time before I start getting them I guess.

P Daddy

Well I guess it's better I'm not the only one. I guess I am going to look at gettting them repainted as well. Throw on some clear bra material and hope they last better the second time around.

Has anyone removed and reinstalled these. I guess just a screw or two and some two sided tape????

CrackerJax

OMG, I thought it was just me... not that I'm glad that others have this happen too But I think mine started to chip as a result of it not being installed properly. The passenger side deflector is fine. Here's a pick of the drivers side defelector.

If the deflector is coming off slightly and starts to chip, isn't that a dealer issue? As i was told by my dealer that any accessory that i purchased before the delivery date would be covered by the factory warranty (not to mention the 1 year warranty for the part hasn't even come close to expiring yet). You guys be the judge and tell me what you think.

2001F4S

I picked up my car and within the first 400 miles took it on a 600 mile trip.
During the drive I picked up lots of rock chips on the air dam. I had the 3M Clearbra installed and no more chips. Except that I get to look at the original chips through the Clearbra from that 600 mile trip

mikeb

mine suck too
but I guess the front mud guards would help block that area but I dont' have those on my 8

rjacobs

The front mud guards really dont do anything to help it, it cuts down on it a bit, but not really to much. I think I may try to get the clear bra material put on mine before they get to bad or bitch to my dealer about them. Maybe this is something that mazda needs to look at and start coating them with something extra from the factory since alot of people seem to be having problems with.

bumperhead

since mazda did not paint these(they were painted and put on at the port) i stayed away from them like the plague. i know they were not primed correctly. you must sand blast or sand the plastic before your prime. i can tell they did not. you must have at least 2 to 3 mm of primer. if you do not put a lot of primer, the paint etches(soaks) all the way through the primer and latches on to the plastic. at this point the paint does not stick to the primer, it tries to stick to the plastic. when you get a tiny hit with a rock or bug the paint releases.
the factory front bumpers were done correctly. if they were not
you would see a half raw plastic and half painted bumper.
there is going to be a lot of half black/half painted ground effects out there. will mazda warrenty them??? they should, they were not painted correctly.... joe