I purchased a new ES250 10 months ago. Twice I have had birds poop on my car and the uric acid etched the clearcoat. It's not a cheap repair.

My lexus is black which makes the etching more visible but I never had this happen with other cars. I suspect Lexus won't cover this under warranty but it's not right. Anybody else with a similar problem.

 

Lexus can't be responsible for birds crapping on your car so no, it won't be covered under the warranty. Any time this happens to any car it must be washed off immediately. Especially during summer months when it literally gets baked in. Sometimes this isn't possible. There are various treatments to improve the damage but only one that completely eliminates the paint damage and that is a refinish of the area damaged. This happened to my Honda and it went right thru the clear coat and into the paint. You were very lucky with your other cars that didn't sustain damage because all vehicles paint gets damaged by this acidic mix not only Lexus. And black is probably the worst...

 

Yes, black is the worst with regard to showing such damage. But the good news is that (non-metallic) black is, by far, the easiest one for which refinishing can be done with the result being a perfect color match. In fact, it may be the only color for which a literally perfect color match is possible, and that can be achieved without any blending into adjacent panels.

 

My 2019 ES300h lux is caviar. It is a pita to keep it clean. It is a big heat soaker. I measured the hottest spot at 170 degrees compare to just 130 on a white car. You definitely need to remove any bird poop off the surface as possible especially if you haven't applied any protection on the surface. I ceramic coated it myself last year and it is still looking great. Most of that time was spent trying to get the surface as pristine as possible so the coating can bond better and last longer. I occasionally use apply topper layer to "renew" the coating on top of regularly washing by hand with ceramic shampoo. There are so many good products out lately and it is a great time to be a weekend detailer.

 

what ceramic coating products did you use?

 

Agree 100%. We always have light color cars not for the bird poop and still carry in the trunk a spray bottle of water, latex gloves and paper towels to remove as fast as possible.

 

I also carry a bottle of quik detailer in the trunk just in case - I had a black car roughly 15 years ago - NEVER AGAIN.

 

Black is known as the detailer's worst nightmare. I concur. It appears any spec of foreign object on the paint is magnified a few times over. During pollen season after just 10 minutes after a wash I can see pollen on the surface already.

 

It is hard to go wrong with any brand names. Lately I have been using Ethos car care stuff. They make some good products. I tend to switch up and go with ones producing best results and not loyal to any brands as any company can produce a dud here and there. At the end of the day use something so it is better than no protection at all.

 

This is what I use: https://amzn.to/3o83TG3

Pretty much top ranked consumer stuff. IMO, superior to even the "pro" ceramic stuff due to price and ease of use. I've been detailing a long long time and have used it all. I think on my blog I'll post what I've finally settled on as a balance between price, effectiveness, ease of use. Just for fun! Everything I use is cheap. no need to get all fancy. my pro detailer friends agree. they laugh at all the guys that buy into the expensive stuff, especially ceramic coatings. yes they work best but it's kind of dumb.

As for bird poopie, yes, you'll want to clean it off immediately if you can. If you care about your car that much, you should scan the outside frequently and completely with your eyes and look for stuff. Otherwise you can't really get mad at lexus when your paint etches up.

You can remove 95% of that etching though with minimally invasive means. I'd probably use a drill and medium duty polishing attachment and some M105. should make short work of it easily.

 

^and just to be clear, no sprays or whatever are to REMOVE your etching. that's just to provide MAXIMUM protection against it. Even with that, bird crap will still chew through it.

If you ALREADY have etching, you need to mechanically sand it down.

 

Yeah that is a good product for the price point it is hard to beat. I use it on my neighbors and friends' vehicles when I detail their vehicles and I am short for time.

 

I just ordered a bottle of their ceramic product. I've also used this one which works well:

 

Yeah, Turtle Wax has really stepped up their game lately. These are top products can be found on most retail shelves. I would take them over most brands that sell in retail stores. Their new line of products punch above their weight.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Used to be a tub of cheap wax. Their Ice spray wax also works well.