Zinc inclusions, and paint wear.

[Andy Sayle]

Hi folks.

 

I've read a fair bit about the zinc inclusions issue on Yetis of around 2012 vintage (like mine).  I hadn't noticed anything to be concerned about on mine, but when I washed the car last weekend, I've noticed small bubbles under the paint on the doors.  All 4 of them.  Most of them have not broken through, and are small (maybe 2-3mm across), but one is showing an orangey stain on a tiny spot.  I'm miles out of warranty, and haven't been using Skoda for servicing ever since the exploding clutch of 2016 issue where they basically flipped me the bird, and denied any claims.

 

Also, where the seal rubs on the front door (the seal that is mounted on the front of the rear door!) I've noticed the paint wearing extremely thin.  At the bottom corner on the drivers side, there is evidence of it breaking through and some corrosion too 😞

 

So, has anyone had these things repaired, as to stop any future issues?  I'm not massively concerned about appearance, as my Yeti is certainly not going to win any concours!  I just want to make sure that the rust is kept at bay in the future.  But, I don't have a massive budget for sorting this sort of thing out, so if anyone has any experience of this, including ballpark costs to repair, could you let me know?

 

Thanks!

Andy

[kenfowler3966]

What you describe is almost certainly the zinc inclusion issue, which starts as a bubble and then once burst starts to rust. You need to get this looked at as a warranty item, if still covered, whilst they have not burst as otherwise it will be ruled out as stone chips.

The only complete cure is to strip and treat the affected area and repaint, or in very bad cases some have had doors replaced. It only seems to affect the doors strangely. Skoda will not fix this issue if the car does not have a complete service history with them, and the paintwork recorded as checked each time. If its not warranty work, and appearance is not too concerning the only cheap remedy is to locally treat each spot before it gets too large? Spot rust killer having removed the bulge or indeed rust once established, then touch in?

 

This is not confined to early cars.

 

My second 2014 company car yeti developed a serious patch of rust on the offside rear door where it rubbed all the paint of at its front bottom corner on the rubber seal. This spread arround the edge onto the outer face of the door and had to be repaired before returning to the lease company. Personally I think the repir was poorly done and would not have lasted long for its next owner.

 

I own my own current third 2017 yeti, and this seems to be developing Zinc inclusions on again the rear offside door. One has burst into rust, the other just bubbling and I am currently taking this up with the nearest dealer.

[Ootohere]

@Andy Sayle

The first action needs to be to check if the Zinc Inclusion has been already dealt with under Warranty.

Has the car had new panels already or supposedly Approved Workshop Repairs carried out.

Was the car inspected a report carried out and approved and warrantied work done.

 

If so then that is one thing.   

If never had warranty work that is another matter, and if you want to pay yourself go visit a bodywork place.

Edited 6 March, 2020 by Roottootemblowinootsoot

[muddyboots]

On 06/03/2020 at 12:46, Andy Sayle said:

Hi folks.

 

I've read a fair bit about the zinc inclusions issue on Yetis of around 2012 vintage (like mine).  I hadn't noticed anything to be concerned about on mine, but when I washed the car last weekend, I've noticed small bubbles under the paint on the doors.  All 4 of them.  Most of them have not broken through, and are small (maybe 2-3mm across), but one is showing an orangey stain on a tiny spot.  I'm miles out of warranty, and haven't been using Skoda for servicing ever since the exploding clutch of 2016 issue where they basically flipped me the bird, and denied any claims.

 

Also, where the seal rubs on the front door (the seal that is mounted on the front of the rear door!) I've noticed the paint wearing extremely thin.  At the bottom corner on the drivers side, there is evidence of it breaking through and some corrosion too 😞

 

So, has anyone had these things repaired, as to stop any future issues?  I'm not massively concerned about appearance, as my Yeti is certainly not going to win any concours!  I just want to make sure that the rust is kept at bay in the future.  But, I don't have a massive budget for sorting this sort of thing out, so if anyone has any experience of this, including ballpark costs to repair, could you let me know?

 

Thanks!

Andy

You're in the exactly the same boat as I was.

 

Mine seemed fine for years and then quite quickly I started getting the bubbles on every door.

Plus rust had started on the bottom corners of both front doors where it rubs the rubber seal that runs between front & rear doors.

I'd also not been near a dealer in years.

 

Sad to say, but coupled with another issue, it made me decide to get rid.

[muddyboots]

After I got rid of mine, I set up a search on BCA auctions for Yetis, to see if mine popped up.

Nearly every other Yeti I looked at on there, of similar era, had a bodywork condition report which mentioned rust bubbles on doors....

[bargee1759]

My car's early 2012 & I've had it since new. Both sides were repainted under warranty at 2 years old for this. Last year rust started to appear again so I looked around at a few dealers with a view to swapping the car, but a fair few of the (much newer) Yetis I looked at were the same. I also looked at the Karoq & various other cars, but none ticked my boxes like the Yeti. So as my car has been 100% mechanically reliable for its 128k miles & I couldn't find a clean replacement with the options & spec I wanted & have now, I had mine repainted again. It won't last but as every model has shortcomings & compromises, I'll put up with it to keep a great car as long as I can!

[Urrell]

4 minutes ago, bargee1759 said:

I had mine repainted again. It won't last but as every model has shortcomings & compromises, I'll put up with it to keep a great car as long as I can!

 

If prepared and painted correctly there is no reason why it will not last.

[kenfowler3966]

Could just accept the inevitable and diy repair it as if it was a stone chip? OK it will not be indetectable but it depends on the value of the car. Unless selling it doesn't really matter anyway, only importnt thing is to stop it getting worse?

[eribaMotters]

The bodywork warranty is 12 years. I'd take it to a main dealer and let them inspect it. This must not be at a cost to the owner.

 

Colin

[Ootohere]

The corrosion / perforation warranty is on rust coming through panels and the zinc inclusion is on the surface.

(That is a paint preparation failure, so a fundamental manufacturing or materials failure.)

The paint warranty should have had the work done to the factory spec, that was not the faulty factory spec though.

 

The panels should have been replaced with Zinc Inclusion then finished to the correct spec, not just a cheap paint refinish job.

That has been well covered on this forum and in this section for years now.

The owners of the car originally maybe let Skoda off too easy, or the car was punted and then buyers of the used cars did.

 

Edited 31 March, 2020 by Roottootemblowinootsoot

[J.R.]

I have been flatting out all the scratches then compounding and cutting the paintwork on my Yeti prior to polishing, I thought it was rust free but can see these inclusions on the lower portion of all 4 doors, its a January 2015 model.

 

They are small and its a nice dark solid colour so the other touch ups have blended in well so should be relatively easy to do once they look like they will start blistering but what is the recommended preparation to prevent a recurrence on the repaired spots?

 

I was thinking of using a glass fibre pencil if I can still find mine amongst my draughting tools stored away for decades.

[Ootohere]

Rust Inhibitor / converter applied and allowed to act, and etch primer on bare metal. That is before any further priming or body filler.

Basically as the body shops were doing and are doing, but they were doing that when new panels should have been fitted, and this is what some vehicles did get.

[J.R.]

Presumably the etch primer is for the feathered out area where the zinc is intact?

[Ootohere]

The etch is important on the bare metal you have prepared.

on to the bare metal and do not touch before applying filler primer or primer.

[bargee1759]

On 31/03/2020 at 08:35, Urrell said:

 

If prepared and painted correctly there is no reason why it will not last.

The inclusion affected areas of the doors haven't suffered a return of any defects since its respray 6 years ago. However, it's the rear corners that suffer most. I agree with muddy boots, I think it's a combination of the doors constantly rubbing on the door seals as the body flexes (probably not helped by my "enthusiastic" driving style & bouncing from crater to crater over the UK's crap road surfaces) & also abrasion resulting from the airflow over certain areas of the doors carrying all manner of salt, sand & other abrasives as the rust starts in the areas where the crap & water collects on the rear, lower outer door skins. I also think modern paints are crap too though, I've covered well over 100K miles in every one of my last 8 or 9 main cars, but from my Alfa 156 (140k) the Yeti (currently 128k) the amount of stone chip damage on the nose is much worse than cars I had twenty years ago. I can see it already on my S3 & that's only on 31K, only 6k of that in my hands)

Edited 3 April, 2020 by bargee1759

[silver1011]

Sadly, a lot of owners didn't have the energy to fight their dealers and Skoda UK.

 

The zinc inclusions are a blatant manufacturing defect, in or out of warranty.

 

Skoda's insistence on meeting their requirement to have the bodywork periodically checked is flawed, as this isn't stipulated anywhere in their warranty terms and conditions.

 

A check of the bodywork is part of their basic service, so for them to rebuff some warranty claims due to the absence of these mythical checks on a car with a full main dealer service history is a prime example of Skoda UK going out of their way to make the success of genuine warranty claims as difficult as possible.

 

They hope you'll get tired and go away, alas this is exactly what happens most of the time.

[Greenliner1]

SWMBO 2014 Yeti has a small bubble forming on rear offside door. I will mention this to the dealers after lockdown, though I’m not holding my breath though (not a Covid reference).

 

40k low speed miles and no stone chips present, not good for a modern car, I thought the bad old days of the rust worm were behind us.

 

Is it covered on the perforation warranty? It’s coming from inside the panel and not due to an external influence? Does make you wonder what’s going on on the inside of the panels.

[Sad555]

On paper Skoda warranty looks good,.,,,,,,,,,it’s when you take it to their dealers that’s when it changes and the dealers then Skoda get their book of excuses out and try to worm their way out of the issue .

[J.R.]

2 hours ago, Greenliner1 said:

Is it covered on the perforation warranty? It’s coming from inside the panel and not due to an external influence? Does make you wonder what’s going on on the inside of the panels.

 

Its the zinc coating on the outside of the panel that is lifting/swelling from the base metal, not even sure if they are zinc coated on the inside. My car (2015) has loads of these developing now that I have got up close and personal with the bodywork, most beneath the trim moulding but there are a few above. Solid colour car so not a biggy for me.

 

If yours was perforated from the inside then I doubt they could really argue the toss.

 

 

[Greenliner1]

Well I don’t know, but it’s probably a zinc inclusion reading previous posts.

 

Shouldn't be happening to any cars in this day. I despise rusty cars, reminds me of the 1970s. Nothing’s perfect I know.

 

The corrosion is under the paint so I don’t know how deep it goes?
 

If SUK don’t want to know I suppose I’ll be getting it fixed myself, but finding a good body shop is always a gamble.

 

It may cost them more than me when I change both Skodas in a couple of years and I consider their support for correcting their sub standard manufacturing, or not, we’ll see. 

 

Some nice non VAG products out there! One can vote with their feet.

 

Edited 17 April, 2020 by Greenliner1
Typo

[eribaMotters]

As I have said above:-

"The bodywork warranty is 12 years. I'd take it to a main dealer and let them inspect it. This must not be at a cost to the owner."

Well it was 12 years on my 2014 that showed the zinc inclusion problem at 4 years old. I took it into the dealer where after dragging of heels it went to the body shop to be inspected, photos taken and report written. a month or so later it went in and was repaired under warranty. I also was given a loan car at no cost.

I cannot understand why owners are not taking the vehicles into Skoda.

 

Colin

[Greenliner1]

It’s on my to do list when lockdown finishes. I’ve also got a minor rattle on my year old Kodiaq that they didn’t find at first service.

 

I had to temporarily fill my own molar tooth when it broke and my filling came out on Monday, this was probably corrosion from the inside, an enamel occlusion rather than a zinc inclusion 😀, however I’m informed this isn’t covered under factory warranty and I can’t get in to get a professional do a permanent repair till June...
 

I know there’s much more important things going on at the moment and a lot of people are suffering, so it’s good to maintain a bit of perspective, best wishes to you all.

 

 

[eribaMotters]

10 hours ago, Greenliner1 said:

It’s on my to do list when lockdown finishes. I’ve also got a minor rattle on my year old Kodiaq that they didn’t find at first service.

 

I had to temporarily fill my own molar tooth when it broke and my filling came out on Monday, this was probably corrosion from the inside, an enamel occlusion rather than a zinc inclusion 😀, however I’m informed this isn’t covered under factory warranty and I can’t get in to get a professional do a permanent repair till June...
 

I know there’s much more important things going on at the moment and a lot of people are suffering, so it’s good to maintain a bit of perspective, best wishes to you all.

 

 

Well said, and keep to soft centres on that tooth.

 

Colin

[ltskoda]

Hi,

 

according to the dealer in Lithuania, Zinc inclusion does not exist, the bubbles are caused by rock chips, ie rocks hitting the car, a picture of my 2013 yeti;

 

what can I do ?

 

 

[Ootohere]

Was that a Drug Dealer or someone employed at a Skoda Dealership that buys and uses their products, or was that words from the mouth of the Dealership Principal maybe?

 

The Dealer Principal, or Workshop Manager or the Master Tech need to go look at the TPI's from Skoda CZ on it, or contact Skoda CZ about 'Zinc Inclusion'. 

 

PS

Has that door not already had a repaint since it left the factory?

?

Did 'the person' at the dealership measure the paint thickness or have a 'Warranty Manager' have that done?

Edited 27 August, 2020 by e-Roottoot