Wheel & Brembo Brake caliper scratched.

[buzzman]

Picked up my new car recently and had a great epic 400 plus mile drive back home with it. The other day when out checking the tyre pressures I was gutted to discover one of the front wheels has a scratch to a surface area between the spokes, and even more gutted to see the Brembo brake caliper also has a scratch across the face of it. I’m guessing I must have picked up a stone en route home. I never heard anything and the roads, the majority of which were motorway were well surfaced. The one and only drive in the car, if a long one and it seems just back luck was with me as I’ve never had a problem like this before.

I’ve spoke to a guy who’s involved in car detailing, of performance cars and he said cars with larger brakes can suffer stones getting into the tight areas between the wheel and caliper (It later transpires he means the inner drum of the wheel and brake caliper, i.e. not the surface area of the caliper when looking side on at the wheel) . Once I’d emailed him some photos, he came back to say that the area of damage to the surface of the caliper was very odd and difficult to see how a stone could have done that damage. Damage to the face of a caliper in his experience is uncommon.
He also mentioned that, “say your wondered if it could been caused by the slip of a screwdriver there isn’t anything in that area that would have been being “adjusted”.

I’d been over the car in fine detail before driving off the forecourt, and unfortunately photos I took of that exact wheel on the day on the forecourt, captured with the car parked in two different locations have an alloy spoke covering the area that has the scratch on the caliper.

I’m not saying it was or wasn’t already there, and it’s kind of irrelevant having driven 400 plus miles home. No dealership is going to say it’s a possibility it was already there!

I’ve attached some photos.

Has anyone else here suffered similar damage to any make/model of car before, especially performance ones? I’m hoping its just an unlucky event, and will look at what the cost to rectify the damage will be. I’m sure the wheel won’t be an issue to get patched up, but am less certain about the caliper, as I think the paint finish on these is special heat resistant stuff, plus the scratch crosses some of the printed text.

If a ton of you reply to say yes, suffered similar damage, I’d probably be less inclined to fork out a large amount to fix it, if it more than likely to happen again.

[Familyman 90]

That's a tool mark.

Proving it happened before you got the car is never going to happen though. A good SMART repairer will sort that invisibly.

[volvocamper]

I agree it is highly unlikely it is anything you have done but cant think how it could have happened. As you say I think highly unlikely dealer will admit it could have happened during assembly/preparation so best bet is cosmetic repair. The wheel would be very straightforward although if mine I would apply masking tape either side of the scratch, run some gloss black paint along the crack with a tiny amount of paint on end of a straightened paper-clip (put a drop of touch up paint on an old plastic lid and pick up a tiny amount of paint on tip of the paper clip). May need to go at it 2 or 3 times to ‘fill’ the scratch.
The calliper will be more of a challenge, the biggest one being matching the paint colour. A local body shop would advise the nearest auto paint mixer to you, they will be able to scan the calliper and provide a small amount of that colour. I would then repair as per the wheel, letting in a touch of black again to reinstate the secret ached letter.
Upsetting but you could get that to an acceptable standard with a little time.
The wheels and calipers are in a very damage prone area.

[smithsc]

Originally Posted by Familyman 90

That's a tool mark.

Proving it happened before you got the car is never going to happen though. A good SMART repairer will sort that invisibly.

Agree that's a tool mark, I know the dealer probably won't do anything but have you tried them?

Are these the 19" or 20" wheels?

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by smithsc

Agree that's a tool mark, I know the dealer probably won't do anything but have you tried them?

Are these the 19" or 20" wheels?

Says 19" on the sidewall in the photos

[smithsc]

Originally Posted by Philip Fisher

Says 19" on the sidewall in the photos

Doh! should have zoomed in

[buzzman]

Thanks all for your comments and views. Volvocamper, thank you for the detail on how you'd approach it. I'm certain I lack some DIY genes so will get a few quotes, unless anyone would like me to practice on their wheel first :0

I'm not planning to contact the dealer over it, had it been a few miles on the clock I probably would have.

I do plan to park the car up so as the wheel is in as near as identical rotational position as the photos I took on the day i collected, using the valve cap and spoke position over the caliper as reference points, to see where the scratch on the wheel lines up. Facing down and i'm likely to have missed it, facing up I'm sure I would have spotted it. My brother and myself are known for being hawk eyes! Though I think when looking at wheels for possible damage your eye can be drawn to the edges with the assumption any damage is likely to be kerb related.

I'll certainly have a car rolled slowly forwards to inspect all areas of wheel and caliper in future before driving off a forecourt for the first time. It might be a good thing to do after the car has been in for services too.

[Nippy]

I used a company called Revive to remove car park scrapes. Very impressed with them after using Chips Away on my previous car and being very unimpressed with them.

https://revive-uk.com/territory/high...SAAEgKl7vD_BwE

[Familyman 90]

Chips Away are all franchises. The quality of the job depends on the skill and diligence of the operator rather than any inherent issue with the name under which they trade.

[Nippy]

Yeah that’s fair enough. Most of these types of service are franchises. I told a local neighbour about Revive, and they have been very happy with the smart repair they received. But for me, I won’t ever use Chips Away again and nor would I ever recommend them as my only dealing with them was not good. Obviously others will have different opinions, this was just my experience.

I found another company and used them, I rated them really highly. I think they’re a franchise as well, however if the OP lives in Berkshire they would probably get the same chap I had as he lived over that way.