Technique

Evitzee and Ahohnstein: I understand your point. But I was not saying, "don't ever take your car to a dealership"... What I was saying was, "If a place messes up your car so bad the first time, why would you bring it back?" This applies to ANY store, dealership or independent shop... Honestly, installing a spoiler is VERY easy, and if any business messed it up that badly the first time, then blamed it on "defective tape", I would not give them a second chance to mess up again, I'd take my business elsewhere...

Evitzee

I agree with you there. I suppose the owner figured since the spoiler should be a fairly easy install the dealer could handle it. Unfortunately it seems he couldn't. I took a look at the instruction sheet for the spoiler on the Sewell site and although in concept it is easy the instructions are 10 pages long with lots of measuring and adjusting. No rocket science, but care must be taken when drilling into the trunk lid.

I know some just use tape to install it, but is tape really going to be sufficient in the long term when considering all the water/snow and freeze/thaw that is going to take place over the years? I suppose one could just retape it at a future point, but I'd prefer a permanent mount. I assume the port installed spoilers are drilled and taped.

ISbb

Come on dude I don't know for you but 3M tape should be a big OK and even if the tape not sufficient enough you should be notice that since you drive the car everyday and you will check your car everytime before you drive it out right so should be OK IMP...

Soda

Make the right phone call; treat the person with respect and make your position known and you're likely to have an agreeable outcome. JMHO.[/QUOTE]


I couldn't have said it better myself!

Technique

Soda? Great name! Are you George Costanza's kid?

mattssi

I am very polite - and the customer service manager is very helpful (she's the one who got my trunk repainted cuz of the license plate mishap).

I'll see what I can do...

Here are the pictures - I know its small, but thats the kind of thing that bothers me. It's also what I tried to avoid by going factory rather than aftermarket.

Car is a little dusty, but you can tell...

Evitzee

From your pics thet fitment is completely unacceptable. The gap on the right hand side is far too much, and the left hand side would be marginal, at best. The lip should fit uniformly. Don't let the dealer tell you that is the best they can do as something is definitely wrong. Although a slim chance it is possible that the spoiler is warped and will never fit right. It's a blow molded piece and it could have come out of the mold 'not quite right'. Keep working on the dealer till they get it right.

mattssi

This is the second spoiler - so I think they probably drilled wrong or something. I saw a bunch of them today at the mall w/ no fitment issues

I will def call the dealer...or they will probably call me first so "rate my experience"

ahohnstein

You're probably right. If they drilled even one of those holes out of alignment then the whole thing is going to torque and won't fit right. Make sure when you take it back in that they tape the template back onto the car to check the hole placement. Good luck. I hope it works out for you. Let us know the result.

NINEZeRO

hey, what kind of 3M tape? Can you give me the exact name/type of the tape? I want to add a factory spoiler but keep seeing these horror stories from bad dealership installs. how difficult is it to line it up?

kenjimaru

just want to share my personal experience here..

Last week I just did my installation with Harrison from Kansai Lighting, drilling was no difficult task, but i believe the tricky part was to adjust spoiler to make the "gap" on both end fit equally. What we did was to spray some windex on the tape after peeling them off, and let the spoiler "slide" for adjusting purposes. After the position was determined, a heat gun was used to make the tape adhere to the trunk surface.

Hope this helps, if anyone around socal wants to do it, you can certainly drop by Kansai Lighting/Genoq Motorsport and talk to Harrison about it, he'll be more than willing to do it for a small fee.

mattssi

The gap on the left and right is equal (meaning the spoiler is centered OK), its just that each end is lifting slightly off of the trunk lid. By the pictures, it may seem off center also, but that's just due to the angle.

NEW TRUNK LID I say!

IS_Mine

Oh I feel your pain. That would drive me insane too.

ahohnstein

BTW, installed my spoiler this morning. Used a Dremel to hack off the bolts. There is sufficient sticky tape on the bottom of the lip to hold it in place. It was a breeze. So, no drilling in my trunk lid and it looks great. I'd suggest to anyone not to drill. The provided tape is all that you need. Will post some pictures later.

Evitzee

It appears a tape only approach is ok for now, but the nagging question I would have is 'why does Lexus use tape and bolts in the design if tape only is sufficient?'. Permanence as an installed item, or is there some other reason? If tape is completely sufficient why are bolts designed into the system? Enquiring minds want to know!