Paint peeling from my E53 X5 - is yours peeling too?

[wauish]

this is hard to depart, but i think that you have solved this problem,
i think peeling paint due to session change like heavy rain and sunny,
and it could be fault in manufacturing color painting time.

[bcain79]

Wow - the pics were worse than I expected. Hope you get things worked out OP.

[BimmerBreaker]

I went to look at an X5 one day and it had REALLY sunburnt paint on the roof... it wasnt peeling or chipping off like that Estoril, but it was burnt really badly. The clearcoat was completely gone and the Jet Black was starting to show primer in some spots. Took a bunch of pictures to let my paint shop give me a quote on fixing it, but they ended up deciding not to sell the car and so I deleted the pictures. It was a mess though. It happens on a lot of X5s. Does not seem to affect the E39 or other cars from the same vintage.

[Xallarap]

Perhaps Wauish has a point that season changes are causing this problem.

I would expect what BimmerBreaker describes for a problem caused by sun alone. However, a couple of key points to keep in mind here:

1) While some cars present what appears to be an issue due to extreme sun exposure, looks like most of the problems appear first at the door seam. A place that hardly gets any sun. 2) The same for the section next to the rear door.
3) In my case, it is also showing under the hood at the corners near the hinges. Another place that the sun does not hit directly.

If anything, those areas are hit more by rain and/or wind while driving. I agree with Criter7r that BMW just used an inferior (cheap) product to paint the cars and after some time the paint just starts to wash away or peel.

[BimmerBreaker]

I just read through the thread a bit more and if infact the chipping problems as mentioned in this thread are exclusive to the Estoril Blue, I think I may know a simple reason...

This is what I was told by a BMW mechanic at the dealership in 2008... (I cant find anything to verify that EBI had lead in it, but I have been told this by two sources - I am able to verify that as of 2002 50% of automakers still use lead in their paint, so BMW phasing out lead between E36 and E53 production seems plausible to me)

What I was told: Original (E36) Estoril Blue had lead in it. The X5 was to be painted with lead-free paint, and they had to reformulate the paint without lead. They got the color right, but it seems it wasnt put through the same durability tests as the other paints because they figured it would still operate as it did with lead.
Note: Estoril Blue II is the Estoril on the F30 and it has been reformulated again and durability tested.

Also everyone talking about how new BMW paints suck... dont get mad at BMW, get mad at the government for wanting to protect you from lead paint and making automakers use water-based paints.

And if we really look at the damage, I think I can tell what is happening, it is happening with certain inclimate weather - looks like COLD weather is the trigger here. As the metal under the paint gets cold, it shrinks. A small amount, but in time, its enough to cause the paint to crack. If you look at places where the cracks have not completely chipped away the paint it looks like they have little ridges, whereas if it was hot (expanding metal) it would pull the paint away from eachother, leaving gaps in the paint but less prone to chipping since its still fully adhered to the surface (diagram below helps explain this, I hope). Whereas cold, it will chip because the paint is pushing against the paint.

Hope my terrible MS Paint diagram helps. This is what it seems like to me. Paint is not flexing properly and not adhering well enough, in cold temperatures with lots of contraction it pulls the paint together and the paint gives. Particularly this image gives me this impression:

Plus I have never seen an EB X5 have that problem here in AZ.

[nico16]

image-1618756824.jpg

[Critter7r]

Gas is cheap there.

[AusE39er]

Damn that is bad. Haven't seen any like that in Aus thankfully.

[Achtung911]

I have seen this. I worked for Rasmussen BMW in Portland or at the time

[Russianblue]

hate to blow up the Estoril Blue theory and/or the seasons/cold weather/hot weather theory.

2003 e53 with 130k. dealer maintained. garaged for entire life. single owner. this all happened 2-3 yrs ago with about 110k on the clock. got a lot worse on the roof before i finally just got the roof part repaired.

now i am getting the paint 'wearing off' look along the edges of the hood and in the door jambs.

climate? Louisiana for years 1-6. Charlotte, NC yrs 7-10. It's been in snow maybe twice. LIGHT snow at that. Car was treated VERY well. Garaged EVERY night. My dad is the ultimate 'balsa-footed' driver....which is why i bought it from him. The body shop i took it to said it was DEFINITELY a factory defect. it got a LOT worse than this before i got it painted. started bubbling up right in the center of the roof in 2 or 3 other places.

[M3C]

Wow, it appears this is X5 model related issue, were these cars produced in Spartanburg?
There should be a way to find out if the car has been repainted or not by checking the paint thickness and other methods that body shops know, based on what we see here these X5s have not been repainted, this is a BMW factory paint process quality issue.

[Colo Springs E]

Wow, that's just unacceptable. Disappointed to see this.

[gnarlycreature]

hate to blow up the Estoril Blue theory and/or the seasons/cold weather/hot weather theory.

2003 e53 with 130k. dealer maintained. garaged for entire life. single owner. this all happened 2-3 yrs ago with about 110k on the clock. got a lot worse on the roof before i finally just got the roof part repaired.

now i am getting the paint 'wearing off' look along the edges of the hood and in the door jambs.

climate? Louisiana for years 1-6. Charlotte, NC yrs 7-10. It's been in snow maybe twice. LIGHT snow at that. Car was treated VERY well. Garaged EVERY night. My dad is the ultimate 'balsa-footed' driver....which is why i bought it from him. The body shop i took it to said it was DEFINITELY a factory defect. it got a LOT worse than this before i got it painted. started bubbling up right in the center of the roof in 2 or 3 other places.

Sorry to dig up an old thread. You say your car is garaged every night., Why is the rubber seal so rotten?

[Critter7r]

Sorry to dig up an old thread. You say your car is garaged every night., Why is the rubber seal so rotten?

I'm going to guess because the sun isn't out at night when the car was garaged, and when the car does get parked outside, it's during the day.

Not that the paint needed any help. I haven't seen enough of these to postulate a common cause, other than all the ones I had seen were Estoril blue. Frequent parking in the sun was just a guess.

There was definitely an issue with the paint .... too much of something or not enough of something else in the recipe.

[BimmerBreaker]

Yeah seriously, garaging it at night doesn't matter much since the damage is done during the day when that car is clearly parked outside to let the rubber seals rot.

I stand by my earlier post. BMW was using some new alloys in the X5 and I dont think it expanded/contracted at the same rate as the paint. Estoril had also just been reformulated so it was still working out the kinks. I believe the X5 used a reformulation of Estoril I, the E36 color that originally had lead - seems not using lead messed something up. The newer BMWs use Estoril II.

[ZinkDifferent]

Mine has the exact same problem and symptoms. 2002 X5 e53, steel grey, 3.0.

Same exact paint fading between the doors, and inside the trunk joints, and hood joint sides, including peeling on the roof, between the joint of the windshield and the roof area. I'll add pictures later.

I live in Southern California.

Has anyone been able to verify that this is a manufacturing defect?

[jeffreymarksz]

Mine has the exact same problem and symptoms. 2002 X5 e53, steel grey, 3.0.

Same exact paint fading between the doors, and inside the trunk joints, and hood joint sides, including peeling on the roof, between the joint of the windshield and the roof area. I'll add pictures later.

I live in Southern California.

Has anyone been able to verify that this is a manufacturing defect?

I bought this car (steel grey metallic 2003 X5 4.4) used with 60k miles and didn't notice the paint issues when I bought it. But I have the same peeling in the same places...between the door posts, along the trunk lid, and some issues with paint on top.

Talked to BMW NA and they say they have no knowledge of this and that there is no warranty on the paint. I don't have the previous owners history, but it was from NY and had low miles so can't have been too abused. And, it's too much of a coincidence for the EXACT same peeling in the EXACT same places to have occurred randomly. This is clearly a factory defect and it's shocking BMW doesn't stand behind something as fundamental as paint.

If anyone makes any progress, please post an update...also, make sure you call BMW NA and complain.

[BimmerBreaker]

It's a 13 year old car. A little out of the threshold for when BMW should be remedying the situation...

Sucks but these problems occured right around the time the lead was being removed from paint formulas so it seemed to have taken them a bit to get it "right" after the change.

[ZinkDifferent]

I just read through the thread a bit more and if infact the chipping problems as mentioned in this thread are exclusive to the Estoril Blue, I think I may know a simple reason...

Nope - mine is SteelGrey Metallic, and exhibits the EXACT SAME flaking paint, in the exact same locations, as the OP's X5.

I live in California. Mine is a 3.0, Sports.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry to dig up an old thread. You say your car is garaged every night., Why is the rubber seal so rotten?

Rubber tends to get bad, no matter what you do, after 12 years. I've had mine replaced, and I get the inverse question "why does your rubber look so impeccable?"

Cant win, eh? ;-)