While swapping the wheels over on my car at the weekend, I noticed a few scars that winter has caused.

There are a few stone chips that picked up over the winter, which have started to corrode with the paint bubbling

around them. I did touch-in the majority last autumn and get a good skin of wax on the car, but that obviously didn't

help protect the new ones picked up over winter, which have corroded already !

That didn't really bother me too much, but I did notice some blisters in the paint along the sill (normal paint) around

the drivers sill area. It doesn't look to have had any paint damage to start the blistering off, so a bit annoyed at

this !

Now I can't say that all the paint is original on the car, as I bought it second hand and don't have a paint thickness

gauge to take any readings, but there are no real obvious signs of paintwork, apart from two smart repair areas, which I

knew about before buying the car, but aren't rusting !

Has anyone else noticed corrosion like this. Mine is an early 2005 with 115k, it gets plenty of TLC on the bodywork, but

not quite so many jet washes as I'd normally do over the last winter due to low temperatures and frozen jet washes and pipes !

I know salt is a killer for corrosion, but having had the same thing happen with a passat before, I can't help thinking VW

groups corrosion protection is starting to lag behind other manufacturers these days.....

Update:

A quick google search shows that its not uncommon Golfs of similar age.

Edited 18 April, 201115 yr by swil00

Hi, there I haven't noticed anything like that on mine as yet, but would agree that modern paint is very thin and nowhere near as robust to stone chips as older paint, all part of environmental improvements, both in the fumes etc from the paint and also vehicle weight reduction.

My 56 plate is in the the bodyshop today to have a corrosion warranty repair.

It is on the drivers side just in front of the rear wheel (under the plastic protector) I suspect if it had been anywhere else i.e not under the plastic then it would have been deemed a stone chip and not covered.

The dealer told me whilst doing the claim that he didn't think Skoda would cover it, but then came back 2 weeks later and said it had been approved.

Paint / corrosion warranties are generally the most difficult to get sorted as its very easy for the manufacturer to blame lack of care etc even if it is a factory defect.

Something that is worth checking is that there is not a large amount of decomposed leaves behind the drain holes.

These are easily blocked and can be cleaned by removing the screws that hold the wheel arch liner in. Pull the rear edge back and remove the crud, then wash down with clean water. Once that is done, you can put the liners back.

Hopefully that should reduce the problems in the future.