Paint suddenly peeling around headlight washers

[NoCarrier]

I just noticed on Sunday that I have serious paint peeling around my headlight washers. Has anyone else experienced this? I pay pretty close attention to my car, so it seems like this went from no peeling to these big chunks very suddenly. A couple thoughts:

- A week earlier I took the car to an area where the temperature got down into the teens overnight, which is much colder than where I live. Other than that I can't think of anything out of the ordinary that happened.
- I'm not the original owner, so it's possible that the bumper was poorly re-painted before I owned it.

Thoughts?

[Ervin87]

Unfortunately, poor preparation and paint work when the bumper was repainted.

[dparm]

Yep, mediocre paint job. It's possible they cut corners and just masked off the washers, which could have lead to too little paint or whatever hitting that area (they would have been nervous about it getting through the tape/paper).

Once the weather warms up, looks like you'll be getting a respray. Look at it this way: your front bumper will have all its other flaws fixed at the same time.

[NoCarrier]

That's what I was afraid of. It would seem the carfax doesn't tell you the whole story. Thanks for the input!

[carenthuziast]

That bumper doesn't look well cared for. Could be residue from the wiper fluid damaging the paint.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by NoCarrier

That's what I was afraid of. It would seem the carfax doesn't tell you the whole story. Thanks for the input!

CarFaxes will rarely show accidents unless they were severe AND in a state where they're reported correctly. It might have also just been a case of the owner getting lots of rock chips and deciding to respray it.

Originally Posted by carenthuziast

That bumper doesn't look well cared for. Could be residue from the wiper fluid damaging the paint.

Doubtful. The washer fluid isn't going to stay in contact with the paint long enough to do something like that. It will dribble off, evaporate, or get flung off by the air hitting the bumper at speed. Car paint is pretty resilient and washer fluid is a very mild chemical, compared to some of the other shit that paint gets exposed to.