Letter from Toyota - Super White and Blizzard Pearl Peeling Paint?
 

So today in the mail I received a letter from Toyota Customer Support Program notifying me that apparently some folks have reported issues with peeling paint on metal body panels. The letter states that this issue has only been reported for Super White (040) and Blizzard Pearl (070). The letter goes on to say that Toyota is working on a fix and once they have one in place (a few months) they will send another letter. The letter also says that if you have already paid out of pocket to repair this issue, you may receive compensation.

The letter came from the Toyota Customer Support Program and the address is the Toyota Customer Experience Center in Plano, Texas.

I haven't heard of anyone on here with this issue, nor have I seen another thread stating anyone else has received this letter. Also, my 2015 Trail Premium does not have any peeling paint that I have noticed. I do think the paint is rather thin, but I think most newer vehicles are made this way.

Has anyone else received one of these letters? I do not have access to a scanner but will try and scan the letter and upload it once I do.

My 2016 SW 4Runner doesn't have a paint issue, but I've read recently over at TW a bunch of Tacomas do.

I'm interested to see where this goes. I have a couple blemishes on my 4Runner - the dealer just said - eh Toyota has soft clear coat - sorry.

Was a problem in the 90's on American made cars and trucks. I saw many white vehicles especially trucks with paint peeling off leaving behind primer. From what I remember, they let too much time go by between the primer and the paint in the factory so the paint didn't adhere to the primer like it was supposed to.

Seems like nowadays there should be no excuse. So far my white is ok.

I received the same letter. When I inspected my car in the showroom it was rought to the touch. I just assumed it needed washing. The pearl white paint was covered with rail dust, as well as the glass. I live in TN, but no white with 3rd rows in the area. LittleRock AR is where I had to buy it.

The contamination was so bad seeing at sunset was impossable. I took it wolfchase toyota in memphis and informed them it was insafe to drive and they replied it was a common problem, not to worry.

I picked it up and the paint was smooth, driving off in the sunset I could see the swirls left by razorblades. My windshield cracked in weeks, as most do driving in a third world city such as Memphis TN. Sand and gravel from snow storms years ago develop layers of strata in areas that modern citys clean with 30s technology called street sweapers.

The new windshield no longer reminded me of the swirls that undoubtly etch the paint. The true reason for the recall.

The salutation at the end of the letter reads „thank you for driving a Toyota.“

If they repaint my 4runner at 200,000 miles, it will be remarkable!

We have a 2014 070 Perl White 4Runner and while I have not noticed any peeling paint, I will say that the front end is remarkably sand blasted from winter driving, lots of little pits in the bumper, this is from city driving not some crazy highway commute, my wife drives 11 minutes to work. We'll see where this goes but I have not received a letter to date.

My paint is holding up exceptionally poorly. I should prob give it some preventative love. I've got all kinds of gouges, nicks and chips (from heavy use). All down to the primer. It's like they used latex spray paint.

It would make sense to me that they time the painting process poorly and the color isn't sticking to the primer.

Would be cool if I could get a bedliner job comped.

I forgot to add that the letter did have my VIN number on it. I too have several rock chips, many more than I would expect to have at this time. I try and take care of my paint by hand washing it and applying paint sealant frequently. It would seem that some of the paint on the 5th gens is just poor quality. I know that the paint on my 1999 is much more substantial and has held up really well given its age.

Curious as to how they would remedy this for people with significant issues. Obviously they wouldn't just spot touch up, but honestly I'm unfamiliar with the process.

If the paint issues are as significant as they say, resulting in severely premature rust concerns, would they repaint your vehicle as is, removing all your gear, disassembling the whole thing etc to strip, mask, and repaint as is, or would there be another option?

Most likely yes. GM did that for my parent's suburban in about the mid 90's. Full media blast to bare metal and repaint in the body shop. They did thousands of them. Repaint was pretty decent other than that they screwed up and painted part of it the wrong color of gray (it was a two tone). But the color they ended up was okay with my parents so they just kept it.

Back in the 80's GM had 2 paint related issues on the Grand AM and Corsica. One was paint fade and the other flaking due to bad primer. They issued (what they called) no notice recalls - which apparently they can do if safety isn't an issue. By the time I found out it was too late. I missed it by about a month. The dealer wouldn't budge - so I no longer buy GM. I hope they enjoy the strike!

The GM issue with White peeling in SHEETS has not been proven cured on the Express Van Cargo version as of now! It typically strikes about 7 to 10 years in. My 15 is too young to tell but my 88 and 05 lost almost the entire roof. I shot the 05 with Plasti-dip to cover the primer.......it was Butt ugly up close, but OK from 50 foot! My 16 Super White is fine so far but I miss the good old days like my 83 that has sat in the Sun here in up to 125 degrees with no shade for 37 years and still has Her Creme paint!

So the letter said that Toyota is working out the details for the fix, but it did say their plan was to "repaint the affected areas". So its hard telling if you have a localized issue with say, your hood, would they only paint the hood or more? I find it odd that if the issue with peeling paint was pervasive enough for them to send out a letter, more people on this forum would have brought it to everyone's attention.

The issue is more common on Lexus GX470's, where the Blizzard Pearl color was probably the most popular color for that model. This issue has been brought up on a large and active FB User Group called: "GXOR - GX OffRoad".

Here's a link to a thread about the letter from Toyota and there's 50 or so comments with photos of bad paint/peeling issues.

Facebook link: Security Check Required

I just bought my GX470 used in July. It's a 2007 and doesn't have any paint or clear coat issues (knock on wood)!

Blizzard Pearl Paint Peeling
 

I have a 2010, 070 Blizzard Pearl 4Runner that had paint peeling on both fenders and the hood. I first noticed a small bubble on the right fender last fall and it continued to get bigger. By the spring of this year I noticed the same thing on the hood and also paint peeling on the left fender by the headlamp. I didn't see any problem on any other panels so I had both fenders and the hood repainted in May of this year. Today, I received a letter from Toyota Customer Support recognizing there is a paint adhesion problem with Super White (040) and the 4-Coat Blizzard Pearl (070) and my vehicle is included in this customer support program. So, now I am worried the peeling is worse than I thought and may soon affect the entire vehicle. The letter states Toyota is working out the details for the repairs under this program and will send another letter once repairs are available. The letter also states reimbursement may also be available if you have previously paid for repairs involving this condition prior to September 26, 2019. I guess we will see what will happen with this program and if the paint peeling starts on my vehicle with the remaining body panels.

Toyota Canada to follow the lead of Toyota U.S.A. with regards to this issue.

Link to a CBC News article, which includes a picture of the letter to Toyota U.S.A. owners.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...port-1.5290488

I got my letter this week also. 2015 Limited Blizzard Pearl, but I havent had any issues yet. Lots of dings though.

Does your letter specify a production date range? Specifically, for Super White?

Copy of Letter:

No letter yet to me. I have a 2017 super white.

Interesting. I haven’t seen anything yet but I’ll post back if I receive a letter. 2016 Blizzard Pearl here. My paint has been fine, although I did have it Opti-Coated as soon as I brought it home.

2019 super white with 4,300 miles. No letter yet.

Living in AZ this worries me.

I have a few small spots like that on my 2015 that I assumed were rock chips. Nothing on the fenders, just the hood mostly and one really high on the a-pillar

So it would seem from reviewing the previously linked facebook thread and posts of folks who have actually had paint peeling issues that the peeling paint takes several years to rear its head. That makes me wonder if Toyota will still be covering vehicles with this issue if the owner doesn't have problems until 3 or 4 years from now. Also, I wonder if installing ceramic coatings or polymer sealants and keeping up with maintenance would delay the peeling paint to the point where Toyota will stop covering the problem.

I second that. I'm just up the road and driving a 2018 super white SR5.

Got my letter last week, as I noted earlier we're not noticing any specific paint large scale paint issues, but a surprising amount of larger than normal rock chips on the hood and a-pillars... from the looks of the images posted above the chips can turn into more peeling. Either way we'll see where this goes and whats covered etc.

Got my letter. The front lip of my hood has rock chips like crazy but it also has spider cracks where you can see the unchipped paint just peeling in a pattern like a small flower bud would open. So I am hoping my hood gets repainted.

Hi All,

Hoping a few of you who received hard copy letters in the mail have time to see if your VIN registers a hit on toyota.com/recall

I got a hard letter, and my vin does not show up on the recall / repair campaign website.

The notice says 9/26/19 is the deadline date for reimbursement if you paid yourself.

So if anyone that has a Super White paint job, you still have a day to do it. You should find the best and most expensive auto body shop in your area to get a show class paint job since Toyota will be footing the bill. :biggrin1:

After 9/26/19 they are going to have some kind of cheap half baked garbage fix.

Thanks for the information

Did not get a hard copy letter.

Attachment 344958

Attachment 344959

Thanks Anonymous4Runner, I wanted to determine if those who received a hard copy notification letter in ground mail also receive a hit on toyota.com/recall.

What I learned:

- Those who received a hard copy letter in ground mail notifying their truck is included in the paint customer program do not always receive a hit on toyota.com/recall.

- Toyota uses the name and address associated with your 4Runner's state license plate for mailing the notification letter of inclusion in the paint customer program.

- When phoning Toyota customer service at the 800 number provided on the Notification Letter shown above, the customer service representative simply refers to the Models Matrix shown above. There are no queries of your VIN in alternate databases or other means to determine inclusion of your vehicle in the paint program.

Although my 2017 Super White is not included in this particular program, I have zero confidence that Toyota suddenly got their act together on the paint in May 2015. Possibly someone more familiar with auto manufacturing or auto painting can explain the odd pattern of affected toyota models and years on the Models Matrix and how something like this can be traced and predicted.

I also know there is zero possibility that any re-paint job will be factory quality. It just is not possible.

I bought this truck because I wanted something that would perform well and look good in 20+ years knowing my life long practice of hand wash/wax and following the factory maintenance schedules.

If people are annoyed by the faint click of the brake peddle, possibly there are owners here that get my OCD on the exterior paint and why this paint issue is such a big deal to me.

There is a really nice blizzard pearl Lexus, about 6 years old in my parking lot at work that has this paint issue. It is a real kick in the gut to see along with the 4runner photos posted in this thread.

Wow dude. I'm not happy about my year not being covered too. Mine's a 2018...

Peep at these pics I took. I was going to share it with Toyota as soon they responded to my inquiry.

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Looking at these pictures gave me great confidence mine would be part of the recall, too. I'm legitimately salty now.

Yeah, that'd be my brand of luck alright.

Good thing I did full-body Xpel U+ on mine but what happens when I inevitably remove a panel to replace it and the paint comes off with it? I'd assume this would be considered a "mod" of the paint by Toyota and they'd send me packing if there was a problem?

Time to start researching sources of RhinoLiners that do full-strips and sprays?

I agree with another member that this didn't just get fixed in 2015 so get ready.

I knew the "Super White" was utter shit on these cars within a week of buying it but had no idea the situation was this cocked-up. The glass quality of windshields likewise.

This is an example of what happens when envirofascism and ecohysteria affect the progression of our civilization as Dr. Fruit Fly David Suzuki and Leonardo fly back and forth around the world to air-conditioned vacation homes... Wait until lead-free solder doesn't hold electronic components into PCB's anymore because regulations stipulate it must be made of fermented soy and satisfy a gender-neutral mandate. Huge /s

Best of luck to all those having to deal with this fiasco that should absolutely not be happening in this day and age...

"It's always something - if it ain't one thing, it's another." - Roseanne Roseannadanna

Ultimately this is the state of mind to have with vehicles and everything else in life for that matter. You can research, explore alternatives and make all the right decisions and 'they' will still get you.

I suppose it becomes a state of mind and keeping things in perspective. I consider someone who lost a family member to an auto defect (Pinto exploding gas tanks, Broncos tipping over, Toyota gas peddle acceleration etc.). Wonder what they must be thinking reading my boo hoo story about paint issues.

Paint repair
 

I take my blizzard pearl RAV 4 monday. They will do a paint inspection and only repaint affected panels. He said the campaign will be open til Dec of 2022 so i would have to come back each time theres a prob instead of repainting the whole car now as they should. I just had half the fuel door lose paint 3 days ago. Its a 2011 rav 4 limited so it took 8 yrs and boom, the paint starts coming off!

Anyone else here taken their Blizzard Pearl colored 4Runner to the dealer for the paint recall? On my 2012 I noticed a few rust spots right above the windshield where the roof line starts and one dead center of the roof. I want to know your experience when you had it done, wait times, and the results if you were happy with the service and how well it all matched. Hopefully no Macco job, like some Reddit postings.
Much appreciated T4R Brothers!

Yeah same here on gray 2018. Wind will put a dimple in the paint. Very soft, poor paint. I have had many Toyotas in the past, great service and reliability, but crappy paint is hard to overlook, correct, and accept.

2020 TRD ORP in Super White with less than 1,500 miles. The paint is paper thin. It scratches to the metal WAY more easily than any other vehicle i’ve owned. i’ve owned about 15 vehicles, including 2 other 4Runners, Tacoma, GX 470 and GX 460.

Tomorrow I will be touching up my 3rd nick that went to the metal. I also have a deep scratch on a plastic part. The F-150 I had before this Runner was my beater and it would get scratches but never had anything go to the metal. I could buff or get out.

The one thing I have noticed is the paint is crazy thin. I had a dealership scratch my first 4Runner and the paint was much thicker. My Tacoma was taken off-road a lot and I never had a scratch go to the metal.

I am NOT happy with this. It would be OK if these could be buffed out but I at this pace I will have spots of touch-up paint all over the body in a year. The paint is so thin that in order to fill the scratch and it not look like a glob of paint I am using a SIM card extractor and touch up paint dabbed so lightly that it just fills the scratch. It is about as thin as a clear layer of nail polish. How THE F is this OK?