My 2018 Model 3 (received in October) has 47K miles and peeling paint on both left and right rocker panel trim. Tesla says my problem, I have a gravel driveway and paint is not capable of withstanding the impact of the stone, did not realize the car was designed for driving on paved roads only. Interestingly, only the plastic trim is peeling, none of the metal parts are chipped or peeling. Wondering if others are having same issue, and recommended fixes, after I pay to have it re-painted.
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Peeling Paint on Rocker Panel Trim [driving on gravel driveway]
- Thread starter gmountfo
- Start date
isn't the lower part of the rocker panel covered with PPF from factory... at least that's the case with my 07/2019 Model 3 AWD. I noticed it when my tires kicked up a piece of metal which slammed into the rocker panel at highway speeds and left a deep scratch... you can see the PPF pretty well
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stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
The rocker paint peeling is a known issue, and Tesla covers under warranty if it occurs when the car is very new (usually within days or weeks out of factory).
2021 M3 LR Rocker Panel Paint Peeling
However, your car has very severe rock rash which are not present in those examples, and your car has been on the road a long time, so I can see why tesla denied your warranty claim, given much of the damage to the paint is from the rock rash (which is likely long term), even though the peeling of the paint on the edge might not necessarily be 100% because of that.
"Paint and glass stone chips" are explicitly excluded from warranty coverage:
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/tesla-new-vehicle-limited-warranty-en-us.pdf
Anyways, don't really know what to say to approach this from a warranty angle (going to be hard to prove it's a factory defect due to the circumstances), but after you get it fixed you can do mudflaps and PPF on the rocker panels to prevent similar damage.
2021 M3 LR Rocker Panel Paint Peeling
However, your car has very severe rock rash which are not present in those examples, and your car has been on the road a long time, so I can see why tesla denied your warranty claim, given much of the damage to the paint is from the rock rash (which is likely long term), even though the peeling of the paint on the edge might not necessarily be 100% because of that.
"Paint and glass stone chips" are explicitly excluded from warranty coverage:
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/tesla-new-vehicle-limited-warranty-en-us.pdf
Anyways, don't really know what to say to approach this from a warranty angle (going to be hard to prove it's a factory defect due to the circumstances), but after you get it fixed you can do mudflaps and PPF on the rocker panels to prevent similar damage.
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Rocker Panels built-in "PPF"
I tried searching for this and I'm a bit surprised no one has mentioned the fact that Model 3 has a built-in "PPF" section on the rocker panel. There is a subtle line that runs across the rocker panel. The paint below that line is coated with a self-healing, PPF-type material. You can use...
teslamotorsclub.com
so i guess it's technically not PPF but rather self healing paint... the deep scratch i have in my rocker panel (before touching it up) showed the paint to be very thick with a plasticy layer
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