Attended Jet Wash Removed Laquar From My Car

jackied85

I have my car over 2 years and I have had it washed hundreds of times but on 14th February I had it washed at a different Carwash Place where he spent about 20 minutes washing my car, leaving the chemical suds on the roof and bonnet for over 10 minutes while he washed the back of the car. He then proceeded to vigourously power wash my bonnet and i remember thinking god, it must be filthy.

When i got home i realised that there was laquar peeling off the bonnet and roof in patches and there was also little black marks all over my bonnet. when i had a panel beater look at it he said that the marks were left by the chemicals being left on it too long and that he probably tried to remove them with the jetwash hence removing the laquar.

He was really horrible when i went back about it telling me i was a liar and that i had had the car resprayed etc and it was my fault and my bad panel beaters fault. My car has not been resprayed and I have been told that the paint work is origial. My car is a yellow 00 Renalut Megane and i will have to respray the whole car to get the colour right again which is going to cost me around €800 at least.

I have brought a small claim agianst him and his reply was nothing but ignorant!! he is <SNIP> and owns the carwash business and it a rude unhelpful and pig of a man. I dont know what to do as he is making me sound like a right fool in his denial of my claim. Any advice???

dudara

Hi

I've added paragraphs to help make your post easier to read. In addition, I've removed the reference to the owner's nationality, as I feel that this isn't relevant to the argument.

dudara

foggy_lad

You should go ahead with the small claims court case as his denial is just intimidation to get you to do nothing, I would also tell everyone I know about the experience and about his reaction and insulting treatment of your claims.

jor el

jackied85 wrote: »

II dont know what to do as he is making me sound like a right fool in his denial of my claim. Any advice???

You've already done all you can for now, so wait for the court to make a decision. Apart from that, your only other course of action would be to involve a solicitor, and take a case against him for the damages.

Nonoperational

A proper respray will cost around €2k not €800. Anyway it's very very very hard to prove it was his fault. It's a 2000 car, it's not unreasonable there could have been some lacquer peel from previous damage.

Did you take photos at the time? What's stopping him saying the damage happened somewhere else? It's a bad situation but it's something that's very very difficult to prove unless you notice it straight away.

Cabaal

Boston Unsightly Pest wrote: »

It is possible that due to the paints age the power wash just helped it peel, it would have probably done so anyway soon enough. I mean this with all due respect but with an 00 car I wouldnt worry.

Have to agree with this, its certarnly likely that the paintwork on your 11 year old car will degrade over time and its also very likely a powerwash could cause degraded paintwork to simply degrade further. This is not nessasrily the fault of the person washing the car.

Thats the risk you take with powerwashes and drive through car washers, if you want to be really careful with your car then wash it yourself without any sort of powerwasher.

I'd be suspect about the likelyhood of the OP getting what they want from this as a court is certainly going to take the age of the car and its paintwork into account, even if the court doesn't first do this the car wash owner will most certainly raise it as a cause of the problem the OP experienced.

Its also worth noting that you only have this 11 year old car for two years so you do not know what chemicals may have previously been used on the paintwork etc.

keithclancy

Cabaal wrote: »

Have to agree with this, its certarnly likely that the paintwork on your 11 year old car will degrade over time and its also very likely a powerwash could cause degraded paintwork to simply degrade further. This is not nessasrily the fault of the person washing the car.

Thats the risk you take with powerwashes and drive through car washers, if you want to be really careful with your car then wash it yourself without any sort of powerwasher.

I'd be suspect about the likelyhood of the OP getting what they want from this as a court is certainly going to take the age of the car and its paintwork into account, even if the court doesn't first do this the car wash owner will most certainly raise it as a cause of the problem the OP experienced.

Its also worth noting that you only have this 11 year old car for two years so you do not know what chemicals may have previously been used on the paintwork etc.

11 years is not old for a car .. ffs ..

Idiot used the powerhose incorrectly, its in the instructions for the thing, don't use in close proximity to paintwork.

You can take the paint off a brand new car with a powerhose.

Solair

In general, I think it's a better idea to just use a sponge to clean off any really heavy dirt e.g. bird poop, then run the car through a normal automatic brush wash.

I find a lot of those forecourt attended car washes are way too aggressive with the pressure-washer wand. The pressure washer nozzle should never be put up very close to paintwork as it will damage it. You are not cleaning concrete pavement, you're cleaning a highly polished, highly painted metal surface.

It's actually in the instructions on most pressure washers that you are supposed to hold them about 15cm from surfaces that are painted.

A pressure washer, held too closely, can remove paint and even remove plastic components !

If there is 'dried on dirt' you really need to pre-treat that with a sponge and soapy water.

Car paintwork should absolutely never been treated with high pressure water or with abrasives.

Assuming that he used car shampoo / polish on your car, there shouldn't have been any issue with chemicals. They're just detergents to break down oils / grease / insects.

Tip I got from a classic car enthusiast :

If you need to get rid of insects / bird poo on a car, one of the best products you can use is Persil Colour* liquid. Just mix it up in a solution with warm water and sponge it on (while wearing gloves as it will dissolve your nails). The enzymes (protease [dissolves proteins], mannanase [dissolves edible/natural gums], amylase [dissolves sugar / starches] and lipase [dissolves fats]) + all sorts off complex detergents and polymers to deal with other aspects of stains. They will relatively quickly breakdown most naturally occurring splodges on your car ranging from bird poop to insects etc.

*Always use the colour version though, as it does not contain optical brighteners. These are fluorescent dyes which literally make your white clothes 'glow in the dark' / 'whiter than white', however they could stain your car or streak the paint work slightly and leave a weird kind of flourescent streak that you will notice in sunlight. These dyes are present in all normal laundry products, except the colour versions.

Cabaal

keithclancy wrote: »

11 years is not old for a car .. ffs ..

Idiot used the powerhose incorrectly, its in the instructions for the thing, don't use in close proximity to paintwork.

You can take the paint off a brand new car with a powerhose.

My point being that the OP can in no way prove that the age of the car, paintwork or any products used on it by the previous owner of the car did not affect the paintwork.

keithclancy

Cabaal wrote: »

My point being that the OP can in no way prove that the age of the car, paintwork or any products used on it by the previous owner of the car did not affect the paintwork.

Before carwash - No Damage
After carwash - Damage.

Its pretty clear cut to me.

Would be similar to someone hitting you in a car park and then arguing that that scratches/dents were already there before hand.

cojomo2

keithclancy wrote: »

Before carwash - No Damage
After carwash - Damage.

.

yes, I agree, but can the OP prove this?

Dymo

There must be some difference in the OP's car's paintwork to other cars or else this would be happening to all the cars being washed. The car wasn't washed with acid and those cleaners would really have to be burnt into it to make the paint peel. Interesting to see what the court makes of this. Was the car ever resprayed in it's 11 years?

slimjimmc

Dymo wrote: »

There must be some difference in the OP's car's paintwork to other cars or else this would be happening to all the cars being washed. The car wasn't washed with acid and those cleaners would really have to be burnt into it to make the paint peel. Interesting to see what the court makes of this. Was the car ever resprayed in it's 11 years?

Unless the OP has first hand knowledge of the entire history of the car or he has had the paint thickness measured he can't say with 100% certainty that it never ever had been resprayed before he got it 2 years ago.

Nonoperational

keithclancy wrote: »

Before carwash - No Damage
After carwash - Damage.

Its pretty clear cut to me.

Would be similar to someone hitting you in a car park and then arguing that that scratches/dents were already there before hand.

How can you prove there was no damage before the wash? How can you prove this wash did the damage? How can you prove that he held the washer too close to the paint? How can you prove he used extra strong detergents? Were there any other cars damaged by this wash?

I'm not disputing it but it's so so hard to prove.

It would be similar to someone parking next to you and you claiming they hit you. They say they didn't and there are no witnesses. It's exceedingly hard to prove and make them pay. At least in the car situation there may be evidence on their car but with the wash there won't be.

ejmaztec

gpf101 wrote: »

How can you prove there was no damage before the wash? How can you prove this wash did the damage? How can you prove that he held the washer too close to the paint? How can you prove he used extra strong detergents? Were there any other cars damaged by this wash?

I'm not disputing it but it's so so hard to prove.

It would be similar to someone parking next to you and you claiming they hit you. They say they didn't and there are no witnesses. It's exceedingly hard to prove and make them pay. At least in the car situation there may be evidence on their car but with the wash there won't be.

A chemical analysis would be proof enough, there's bound to be an expert around.

jackied85

Ya I have to agree that it is going to be very tough t prove my point and i see all your comments as extremely valid!!

to my knowledge the car has not been sprayed but i cannot understand how i have had it power washed so many times by a power washer owned by other carwashing services and not a mark and the first time i used this car wash there are lumps gone from my paint work. I have pictures i took of my car on 19th Jan coz i had it washed and cleaned up and was thinking of sellin it and decided to take pics to have as it was a nice day and car looked fab!!

I again took photos after the incident on 21st February after visiting this business to compain and recieved no joy with him - i then took the new pictures. In his statement of denial of this he has stated to the court services that it was over a month afterwards that i went back to him about it!!!

God Im so angry i could screem. I cant sell my car now coz its such a mess and I cannot afford to do the paint work myself like and i cannot believe that there might be a good chance of him getting away with it. I have discussed this with many people and have found out that i am not the first person to have a problem with this place.

This place does carwashing, valeting and minor body work and one man had his motorbike wrecked, another girl left her car in for valeting and had a head light smashed. He woundnt apologise t them either or accept responsibility and he got away with that too.

I have tried to attached pics of my car but keeps saying service unavailable!! :-(

jackied85

ejmaztec wrote: »

A chemical analysis would be proof enough, there's bound to be an expert around.

ya i have contacted the nearest renault garage and they are putting me in touch with the guys to have it tested so that and my before and after dated pictures im hoping is enough to get me through!!

ejmaztec

jackied85 wrote: »

ya i have contacted the nearest renault garage and they are putting me in touch with the guys to have it tested so that and my before and after dated pictures im hoping is enough to get me through!!

We're all armchair experts in forensics after watching all of those tv programmes, but no doubt you'll get a real one.:D

Nonoperational

Good luck with it.

Slasher

I would really like to know the name and location of this car wash, so I can avoid it.

While there may be a question about the responsibility for the laquer peeling off, I think his attitude is unacceptable, and I don't want to go there.