I bought a Tarmac Black 03 Evo in January of 05 (used) that had perfect paint. After only a month of owning it, my hood was covered with rock chips beyond anything you could imagine. It was so bad that random people would be commenting on my car, see the hood and say "woah wtf happened here?"

Sold the car last month because of financial problems, bought a Black Magic Pearl 03 20th Anniversary GTI and after one month of ownership, I am getting an unbelievable amount of rock chips again. I take care very good care of my paint and live in Southern CA (I'm not driving on dirt roads here). Of course I plan on getting a clear bra, I know this will be a solution, but is there something I could be doing that is causing more rock chips? All of my friends have black tuner cars and of course they have SOME rock chips (everyone gets em), but my hood looks like it was sprayed with rocks; I have literally never seen so many rock chips on a hood and front bumper. Any ideas of why this is happening would be helpful...

Sorry for the vent, but now that this has happened to a second car, I am really confused... It seems like it is something I am doing, but how can your driving style make your car more prone to chips? Let me know what you guys think...

P.s. I owned a black ford focus before I had the evo, throughout its two year ownership and I had very few rock chips, only minor ones... wtf?

 

idk what to say about the Dub, but I know if you do a search on this forum, there are a lot of ppl having paint issues with the evo. SAME ISSUE! I guess Mitsu just did a crappy paint job on the Evo.. Actually, I do believe 05-06 Evo have a way better clear-coat. I dont think there was any "real" clearcoat on the 03-04 evos..

 

Its probably the roads you are driving on. Certain asphalts break down easier and cause excessive loose gravel-like particles that are kicked up by other cars. May want to invest in a clear-bra, or learn how to paint =)

 

Do u do alot of highway driving????? Cause that will get yah everytime, if u do only word of advice is stay far far far far away from all other cars or trucks. My rule is the bigger the car/truck iam behind the furthur away iam from them!

 

try staying away from trucks in front of you and definately don't get behind big rigs. once i had a huge crack in my windshield and thought someone hit my car but when i looked closely, a tiny pebble was lodged at the end of the crack.

 

Dont drive too close behind someone!!!

 

wear really really thick glasses and DODGE all those rocks.

 

Thanks a lot for the responses all.... I do quite a bit of highway driving and for those of you in so.cal you know that the roads here are not the best in the country... a lot of beat up roads with loose gravel...

I didnt think about the "riding too close to the car in front of you" on the highway.... but that makes perfect sense. With all of the traffic we experience here, I am kind of forced to ride close to other cars. I guess the main thing that bugs me is that I dont see rock chips on other cars as severe as mine. No sense in b*tching, time to repaint and go clear bra.

On a side note, I test drove an 06 IX MR the other day and all I can say is, when I get some money saved up I will be a part of the group again ;-) ... Thanks again guys!

 

yep drive as far away as possible from trucks and buses and even cars this happens also i you do a lot of highway use!

 

If you're a street racer, then that's it. I had a few friends in South FL that would street race all the dang time. Since they were hitting 100+ for periods of time, they had massive chips like you describe on their hood.

If that's it - stop street racing.