F Sport Ultra White - Rail Dust Paint Issues
 

I have a 2015 RX350 F Sport in Ultra White which is covered with rail-dust spots. I mean hundreds of spots. Do any other Ultra White F Sport owners have this problem?

The dealer has clay-barred the car once and the problem returned. Here are some pictures of my car right after the car was washed.

-- Sue

Sue:

Here is crossection:

metal/plastic
primer
pigment/paint
clear coat
----------------> encapsulated dirt [If wax was applied before cleaning]
wax [reapplied 3/6/12 months] * some say never duration depends upon environment and quality of wax.
-------> daily dust/sap/air-borne heavy particulates .. heat cycle can bake it on. [depends upon the environment] --- should be washed weekly

First thing is to determine if the issue is above the clear coat .. which in your case seems to be the likely condition

The problem you are facing is that the base color and the deposit on the top are in high contrast to each other and you can visually see the problem. With black vehicle i can even see fingerprints. Personally I think the dealer was nice to do the claybar (light scrub of clear coat) and then add a wax directly on top of the fresh-surface clear coat.

I would suggest weekly wash and wax every 3/6/12 (choose your frequency based on wax quality and your environment).

Salim

You are not alone...Most cars have this to some degree over time. Some colors just hide it better. My grey RX had hundreds after the winter. Removal was fairly easy with no (that I could see) damage. They were also all over any plastic trim pieces.

Hi Salim,
Thank you for the response and I do hand wash my car weekly and towel dry it with high quality show car products. I had a black lexus before so I got very good at keeping my car looking pristine. Issue is these are metal shards that are imbedded in the paint and were noticed within 8 weeks of driving the new car off the lot. I have not seen any other cars with this much rail dust before. Car is also garaged all of the time and stored for most of the winter and has very low mileage.

Even the dealer agrees the car has an issue but unwilling to do anything about it. Just trying to find other F Sport owners to see what their experience with this paint has been. Mine was manufactured and shipped in August 2015.
Sue

FastFord
Do yours come back after removal? Dealer is talking about having to remove them more then once a year with a clay bar and I wonder what that will eventually do to the clear coat and long term down the road rusting issues. Most of the spots are not stains but visible pieces of metal. I can see having a few but my car is covered except for the hood and roof. They are everywhere else.

See my thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/aut...x-advices.html

My car is also Ultra White (Fsport), had it for about 2 years, bought new, never did a full decontamination. I bought a product called CarPro Iron X, this stuff will remove a good amount of the rail dust/iron particles/etc. After this product, I followed with clay bar, and washed the car again, before applying a sealant.

Car looks shiner, and cleaner, but only time can prove that my techniques works lol

Your questions about clay bra, claying once or twice a year is no problem. Just don't clay it weekly or monthly, little excessive there.

Plus, I personally would like to learn to do this stuff on my own. The dealer will just do a crappy job at it. =]

Mine looks just like yours in the spring. Our winters are brutal so cleaning these little spots is difficult. This coming winter I am going to have to do it as it was just too bad to leave it til spring. My old RX had some, but the new 2016RX F sport is really bad. Mine have not come back since the spring, but I clean the car a lot during spring, summer and fall. It's the winter that it gets neglected.

I have had this before on other cars and found that going to a different disk brake pad fixed 90% of the problem. I think that staying on top of it is the best solution. Lots of good help here to recommend something that works for you.

I had an Ultra White F Sport for close to 3 years and the paint was flawless.. Even though I never experienced anything like you have I would still clay it several times and year to remove contaminants. Usually a regular polishing with a cleaner wax would keep it looking great..

In your case you may want to try a product like Iron X.. http://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpr...m_campaign=CSE.

BTW, after your RX is clayed, how long is it before you notice the rail dust / spots are back, days, weeks, months ???

FastFord
I wonder why the new F Sports are so much worse with this problem? Do you have staining or can you actually feel metal? That is what is throwing me so much is how is metal off the road or my brakes hot enough to embed into the paint and not come off without a clay bar? We have neighbors with white Lexus and friends who have had white cars here is MA who don't wash theirs hardly at all and do not have the problem. This is my first experience and I am baffled.

Sue

It was months before the spots came back. The local Lexus dealer has offered to clay bar it again but the owner is concerned on the longevity of having this problem with the car. They want me to trade the car and take a huge hit in value to move onto another non white F Sport. They then want to sell my car at auction as they don't want the liability of selling it. That is why I am here trying to figure out what is so special about the Ultra white paint. I have looked at hundreds of white cars, all different manufacturers, and have seen a few stains but nothing where you can feel metal. I so appreciate all the help and I am new to using forums so thank you for your patience with me.

We did ask the dealer why don't they try iron x on the car and they seem very reluctant about it. I have done nothing other then religiously continue to wash it weekly with Zanio car wash soap as we are still working through the dealer and corporate on answers and a solution. My DH has a red lexus and no problems and I only used a clay bar on black Lexus twice in 12 years and it was still beautiful and I sold it for good money to buy this one.

Does anyone get the raildust spots on their hood?

I do love the ultra white and cabernet interior like you had and that is what I so dislike about having a car that looks like it has the chicken pox. Dealer does not want to use the Iron X on the car for whatever reason. Working through them too as I had the PolySeal applied to the car to protect against environmental pollutants and it does make washing the car like a dream except for the metal shards..

How do you like your Audi now? I almost got the Q5 but liked the room in the RX as I haul a lot of stuff as I run a charity.

I had the same on my SFP IS350 when I purchased it 2 years used back in 2012. The previous owner, nor his dealiership could get rid of the spots. They always used a clarbar to make the spots less noticeable. I performed a full paint correction shortly after I got the car. Part of my decom process was using a fine grade clay bar followed by IronX. Five years later, I still do not have any orange industrial fallout spots on my paint. You need to neutralize the PH of the iron particles with a product such as IronX to truly get rid of them.

WOW. That's easily one of the worst cases of iron specs I think I've ever seen.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen alot worse but typically on much older vehicles that have been completely neglected by the owners.

To address this problem you need to understand why it's happening. Here are the two most common things that can be causing it:

1. Heavy brakes dust landing onto the paint (Most of it is from your own car but some can be from other cars driving beside you on the road).
2. Rail dust. If you live in the city or industrial area, this can be a very frustrating problem.

Once the iron deposits get on the paint, if they are not washed off in time, they will turn into rust specs that are embedded into the paint as soon as you drive through some rain.

The best way to minimize these specs is to have a detail shop do a full decon service to remove everything, and have them install a ceramic paint coating that is your best bet at resisting these specs from getting embedded. Contrary to popular belief, coatings DO NOT eliminate this problem, they just make these specs alot easier to wash/scrub off during your normal washing routine. Once the vehicle is coated, spray the car down with iron-x every couple of months to remove any that may be on there.

Wash the car often, don't let it go to sht, regularly use iron-x and you will never have this problem or need to clay bar your car for many years. Yeah you might have a spec or two here and there but won't be anywhere near this bad.

Hey Sue, after you clay bar do you apply some sort of protection on it, this will make life much easier and prevent this from happening and allowing your routine wash to remove these contaminants. This is normal as your car is exposed to the elements, but with some dedicated protection i.e. wax sealant or coating it should be much easier to remove. I would try to avoid the rail roads or anything along your routine drive that may cause stuff like this to bond to your paint.

You can clay the paint it won't damage the paint, you can also use iron x, this will work perfect for your car as sc300 said.

I also see a lot of white paint, but here in cali we deal with more road tar that look like black specs all over the area. They are mostly noticeable on a clean white car as the black specks offset the white. Thats one of the downfalls of white paint, it may look cleaner a lot longer, but you will be able to notice these types of contaminants easier.

I don't know why my 3RX had much less spots than the 4RX. I live in the same area, drive the same roads, but this past winter was really bad and I didn't "clean" the car as much as the old RX. This coming winter I have found a place I can use to detail it at least 2 or 3 times. At least this way I'll be putting down a fresh coat of polish/sealant/wax, etc.

Some people have posted some good info here. Not saying your dealer does not do a good job, but I bet you could do just as well, or go to a detail shop for an evaluation and recommendation.

I can't tell from the photos if you have mud flaps. I have them and I think it helps a bit, but does not eliminate them.....just in case the dealer recommends them, you'll know they don't really protect from getting the spots.