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-   -   Body & Bumper colour difference - Is this normal? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/238031-body-bumper-colour-difference-normal.html)

Hello fellow BHP'ians, I am having an issue with my car color. The car bumper is now showing a discoloration, it has slightly turned yellow all through (the attached photo, not sure, how far it is visible, but through the naked eye, the yellowish tint is clearly visible). I have a fully covered parking with no reach of sun or water. Mine is the first-gen model, manufactured in Sep'19.

Has anyone else faced this issue, please?

I am a suspicious person when it comes to sales people or dealerships. This type of discolouration so early in a car that has its covered parking indicates two things in routine circumstances:

1. The paint quality from factory is questionable. Could be this car, this batch or this colour.

Or

2. The bumper was repainted before selling the car (due to some damage etc?).

My 2 cents.

@PaddleShifter: Yes, I assume it is point 1 :thumbs up, probably the batch is having this issue, as you know the bumper is plastic and the body is metal, so probably the paint mixing in factory would have caused the issue. I am planning to raise this issue with KIA via mail and also take to the service center once the Lockdown settles down

I dont Own seltos, However had Hyundai Verna White colour. Mfg date was June 19th and registered on June 23rd. My car after one month of ownership had discolour in bumper compared to metal area. the reason given in service center is colour depth will be different for plastic compared to Metal. It sounded genuine to me. there will be light difference is what they meant when we compare plastic and metal. I lived with this explanation for 7 yrs before sold off the vehicle.

Now not sure if you want to live with it or bring to notice of service center. I'm 100% sure they will give above explanation.

Shouldn’t this difference in colour be there in both front and rear bumpers then?

I would like to add a particular point I observed in a car that we own, A Fiat Punto 2013 base variant in Ref colour.

Plastic (bumper) vs. metal (body).

The same shall hold true for both front and rear bumpers in that case. In our above mentioned car, the rear bumper had a slightly darker shade when viewed in photos but this could not be spotted when viewed in reality. The same was not aparent for front bumper as far as I remember. I did not make this as issue because the car was an year old model bought at a massive discount of one lac so it was kind of justified not to make an issue out of it.

There will always be a slight variation between the color on the bumper and that on the body. In some colors the difference is more prominent. This is perfectly normal. There is no need to take it to the ASS for rectification.

@PaddleShifter: Yes, the difference is there in the rear bumper as well, I missed to mention in the earlier post.

@AMG Power: This discoloration was not there when the car was delivered, now it's 1.5 years and it has developed over time. My worry is for the moment, this is not noticeable at one go, but after a while, this discoloration continues and then it becomes very evident, and the bumpers turn yellowish like our transparent mobile covers lol:. I have owned a red i10 for 10+ years (non-metallic), yes it's a darker color though, but it never had even the slightest difference of color either in the front or rear. My guess is this is a batch issue because I have been checking other white Seltos' and don't see this difference.

Hi, attaching a picture of my car with the same issue.



I started noticing this just a few months ago. The car is a January 2020 MFG.

Since multiple owners are reporting it, we are moving these posts to a new thread.

And I thought this was totally normal and have seen it in may cars irrespective of their maker. I mean, the degree of difference unless seen with focussed eyes is not visible for most colors (White and Silver as exception).

I was assuming this is because of the difference in the material of body versus bumper which is metal and plastic respectively and the way the paint behaves on them.

A little bit of discolouration of white can be expected in a car mostly parked in the open. Especially between painted metal and plastic panels. It’s like the unpainted black plastic bits fading and going grey over time. You can’t escape sun damage, certainly not in mass market cars painted at a cost.

This is almost inevitable with white colour. Metal and plastic panels go through different painting process at the factory (even worse, they could be done in different location). How the paint gets cured and aged also differs between metal and plastic panels. Very easy to notice this difference on white colour cars.

I would have expected this problem to show up only after 5 years so. This is way too soon for a car that is not parked under the sun and points to poor factory-paint quality. I am not sure KIA will agree to fix and even if they agree to fix I don't think I will take up their offer - paint matching a white bumper is really hard and this yellowing will happen again.

Kindly update on what response you get. Will take it up with them accordingly or just decide to live with it. Even thought the bumper is of different material I don't think it's feasible to happen so early.

I'm quite a noob when it comes to coatings on cars, but is a PPF/any other coating going to help retain the colour after rectification?

@androdev: Yes, absolutely. I don't think this issue is going to be responded well, and the service team might not acknowledge this as a problem and would associate it as my OCD ;), but as you rightly said, I was not expecting this to happen with just 1.5 years and only 7K in ODO (thanks to the lockdowns). Someone who looks at my car might not find the color difference in a glance, but "I know" there is discoloration and that matters, let me see what can be done on this.

@Arnav612: Yes, I will definitely keep this group posted. I have raised my issue with KIA and they have scheduled an inspection in Cochin with the dealer as and when the LD is over here.

Reminds me of the discoloration that used to happen in maruti post white cars being painted, they would have a yellow tinge just after a month or so.
When highlighted the service center would acknowledge and repaint. i believe the core issue here was something to do with the painting process which was later rectified.
You could show it to KIA and take their feedback on the same and see. Frankly speaking if its not too much i would just live with it. Removing and refitting the bumpers usually messes up the fit and finish and some careless guy may end up breaking the locking tabs and then you have had it,a bumper thats jutting out.

Try applying some polish to the bumper and see if it takes away the yellowness.
Thats what i would do first and see if its just some paint oxidization.