Corrosion
 

Has anybody had any joy with going through Audi to resolve corrosion issues (12 year anti perforation warranty)?
I have a 2011 model which has small areas of the stuff!
Cheers

I've had no experience with corrosion and I'm very interested to know where the corrosion areas are on D4. The areas were not repaired, right?

Can you load some pictures for the benefit of this community so we know where corrosion was found?

It goes without saying that I'm very sorry to hear that D4 corrodes.

I had an issue with my first A6's roof corroding along the gutters - it was a known issue and there was an updated version of the gutter trim to deal with it. At 10 years old and 235K miles my local dealer repaired and repainted the roof under warranty +++

Hi, I will get some pics sorted - it's currently wet, cold and grim here in the northwest, so will wait for a break in the weather (could be months :):):)).
I've seen some mention of corrosion on early D4s on this forum some time back.
I was aware of the corrosion when I bought the car a few weeks ago, but, wasn't put off by this as it can be dealt with.
It goes without saying you shouldn't expect to find ANY corrosion on these vehicles, but, I was won over by the other merits of the car.
I also still have my D3, which suffered corrosion on the lock trim above rear no plate and one of the roof runner strips. I dealt with these myself and now that D3 has no corrosion any where.
I'm enjoying D4 ownership but am in no rush to ged rid of the D3. Both cars benefit on the 4.2tdi engine - which is amazing!

Pictures will be great, thanks.

Just to confirm: Corrosion area wasn't repaired in a bodyshop before. Corrosion has developed on untouched area as it came from factory. Correct?

I bought a 2010 car at just under three years old, on collection I found corrosion on the tailgate lid. Was an approved used car so there was no question they would need to rectify, but it was done under the corrosion warranty as the paint was original.

In the end, I had a new boot lid, two new door skins, and corrosion on the other two doors, two front wings and also the A pillar/roof repaired. As it was done piecemeal it looked like a patchwork quilt in the end, but to be fair they fixed that by painting the full car :ROFL:

I know that a lot of the work was goodwill/dealer funded, but it was right when done :Confused:

I looked at a number of other D4's at the time, as I was under the impression I had bought a lemon - lots of a similar age showed signs of similar problems. I came to the conclusion I was better with the car I had as Audi seemed bought into putting it right, and may not have been on another car.

Suspicion in the body-shop was a bad batch of cars of a similar age, speculation of a assembly line shutdown (breakdown/shortage of parts) may have left a number of bodies without paint, possibly for weeks!?

Good luck in any case +++

I had corrosion on my D3. Yes they do corrode and have number of know issues in this area. Anyway, Audi refused my claim, using an creative list of excuses, despite it having a complete Audi service record

Well this has really peaked my attention as the main reason I bought my D2 S8 was because of the resistance to corrosion.

I understand galvanic corrosion but surely aluminium just left exposed doesn't corrode does it? I actually bought a spare A8 wing, rubbed, burnt and ground some paint off in three separate areas. I left it exposed in the garden for 2 years and could find no real corrosion issues. Does aluminium not self heal?

Are we talking real penatrive corrosion here or are we taking paint lift.

Am really interested in if someone could clue me up on how big a problem this is / can be.

Resistance to corrosion, yes. Corrosion proof - 100% no.

Iron oxide - rust, brown and flaky.

Aluminium oxide - hard and white bubbles.

Bear in mind, it isn't pure aluminium, it is an alloy, so may not actually be the aluminium that is reacting....

I've seen it start as a tiny spot but also grow across a panel to be a huge "bubble". Unlike steel, I have never seen a hole form!? Which kinda defeats the 12 year perforation warranty......

Look at fuel filler caps on D2s - the paint wears through on the lower left corner and then they just rot away. The cap may be a different alloy to the rest of the body since it corrodes uncharacteristically quickly.

The rest of the panels are not immune either though - again, where the paint wears through on corners, oxide creeps under the paint like plant roots. I have this on the sunroof and one door of my S8. Its quite common at the top leading corners of the rear doors too.

I’ve got some bubbling on my D3’s doors and flaking of paint around the rear arches. The bubbling has been there for as long as I’ve had it. The flaking lower arches was an unpleasant surprise to me recently.

Is it worth my time contacting Audi?

I have to say folks, this is a real concern for me. I am meticulous about maintaining my vehicles and have spent thousands (as we all probably have) over the years on nice cars just to loose out to corrosion.

I don't as yet have any signs of corrosion. None that I have noticed anyhow. I even have quite a large scratch on the front ns wing, down to the ally and yet I don't see any signs of paint lift or corrosion.

This car cost me £3200 3 years ago and I have already spent over £5000 more getting it back into a good state. I am increasingly frustrated by the lack of parts availability but if I find any signs of corrosion on the bodywork, I think that's what will kill my enthusiasm.

Can someone list the common areas to check on a D2 please.

Thanks Frank

I would say that, with the exception of galvanic or chemical corrosion, aluminium oxidisation tends to be limited to the surface. Unlike steel, which will continue to oxidise until nothing remains, surface oxidisation of aluminium actually prevents deeper oxidisation (which is essentially how anodising works). Aluminium oxidisation can of course get under the paint and spread across the surface if left untreated but it's not generally structurally damaging.

By comparison, here's a Mercedes S class of a similar vintage to a late D2 A/S8:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMFmVYvYqyA

Now the Merc may be a particularly badly neglected example, but I've never seen an '8 with anything like as much surface corrosion and structural corrosion seems to be pretty much non-existent on '8s (with the exception of the steel subframes of course).

What have you to lose? GO FOR IT!
DailyMike

It’s disappointing at the very least. I was drawn to the A2 and the A8 because of the aluminium. The A2s I’ve had have not had bubbling or flaking and were considerably older than my D3.

I just may. Would Audi UK be my first port of call?

I've never seen any corrosion on a D2 outside of the fuel filler flap, or an accident damage repaired section on Andrews old S8 so I wouldn't worry too much about it....

The early D4's did seem particularly bad for it for some reason, but it does seem quite isolated to them overall.

Yup!
I'd ask to speak directly with your AUDI Dealer Principal...he'll have a vested interest to maintain an excellent relationship with a long-term AUDI customer.
Best of luck and DON'T take "NO" for an answer...fellow-forumites have "case history" setting the precedent for you to quote if you experience resistance...
DailyMike.

I've not seen any others than the areas I mentioned before.

Filler flap (by far the most common)
Upper leading corner of the rear doors just below the brightwork
Sunroof panel

I'll get some pics later.

I've not seen any creeping corrosion on the body shell - only bolt-on panels.

My D3 is going on the rear plate holder light/grab bar. Looking carefully at it, it seems to stem from the screws that hold the bulb covers. I guess these are causing a contact reaction with whatever material's in the grab bar and it's slowly creeping up to the outside-facing part.

Please alert me to the regular flight-paths of any anvil-carrying Chinooks.

Thanks for all the replies. It seems that body corrosion is not a major problem on the D2 and the fact that I can't see any on mine is reassuring.

I do expect to have to do something with the subframes at some point in the future, I think that's inevitable if keeping the car long term. I have already started collecting parts.

Just for information by the way. It seems, from what I have been reading, that salt water will remove the aluminium oxide that prevent further corrosion. Thus allowing further corrosion.

Cars that live by the sea, you know, like the magic dragon, may be more susceptible.

On that point. Has anyone else ever heard about these car wash places using recycled water? I read something a few years back that whilst they filter the water they cannot remove the salt from it. As the day goes on, the salt content increases. Are people using these establishments washing their cars with salt water?

Or am I just talking rubbish? Happy to be corrected.

Attachment 22558

Attachment 22559

Attachment 22560

Pics show corrosion fwd of rear o/s wheel and driver's door skin- just fwd of door mirror.

Apologies for upside down pics - not sure how to rectify......I don't insert pics often .....

The car is booked into Preston Audi, in the middle of Jan, for a proper assessment and to see if this will be covered by the warranty.
I'm not raising my hopes!

Attachment 22561

This is what I had on my D3, on the piece above the no plate.
I purchased a replacement part from prestige parts and sprayed it my colour (night blue) and good as new now.

I also removed one of the roof strips, which had slight corrosion present, rubbed it down, primed and painted etc. I'm struggling to find pics of that though.
These roof strips simply push fit into a shaped rubber seat which is wedged into the roof panel - very simple to remove, but, you need to be careful with these.

I really hope I don't make anyone feel worse than they already do but if I found levels of corrosion on my D2 like are in these pictures I would be devastated. I certainly would be reluctant to spend the kind of money I am in keeping the car mechanically sound.

So...............

The car went into Preston Audi to have the corrosion pictured/assessed and sent off to Audi.
After roughly 4 weeks I eventually heard that there would be NO claim available under the 12 year anti-perforation warranty...SURPRISE SURPRISE!

I do intend to contest this though.

The car has a FULL Audi history and is just 9 yrs old.

Has anyone here had any joy with addressing this issue on a car over 3 yrs old?

Doubt I'll be returning to Preston Audi..............their customer service was terrible!

Thanks.

I have similar to your small blemish on the door on the edge of roof over the windscreen and on the drivers door near the mirror on a 2011 D4.
Similar I have F.A.S.H and went about a claim last year. Audi vaguely offered a 30% contribution which I declined. I would still have had to pay €2500 approx as the bodyshop estimate was crazy money involving complete replacement of the drivers door, painting most of the drivers side and roofskin.
I couldn’t justify having it repaired as my car has high miles and isn’t worth much. I felt such extensive painting may well have a negative effect on resale value anyway.
Thankfully it hasn’t got any worse but it’s annoying and proves that 20 years on, Audi still haven’t got a handle on corrosion/paint defects on aluminium panels.
When I had a D3, I had a successful 100% claim on the passenger door window triangular trims and boot door handle panel. The D3 was probably just as old at the time of the claim.

Yeah that's where they go on the D3. Again, it's from the numberplate lamp holders and creeps back outside. I am guessing plastic screws might stop it happening again.

Poor design though. Although not as bad as the Phaeton doors, they do the same thing where there's some ally brightwork trim bonded to the steel of the door without the proper barrier and the corrosion is just like this, but all over every door.