Accord Euro tinting woes

Have people with tinted Euros had any problems?

I had mine tinted recently and each window that can be opened has vertical scratches on it. I took it back to the tint shop and they had look at it.

They said that there is no felt on the inner side of the door (there is on the outer glass). They said Honda are cheap bastards for doing this. When dirt gets on the inside of the glass it sticks to the rubber and scratches the tint when the windows are opened.

Apparently there are two solutions to this - first Honda may have a felt insert that can be put on the inner windows of the Euro (does anyone know the answer to this?). Second - cut the inner rubber so it does not touch the glass.

The second option apparently is not advisable as it is possible the windows may "whistle" when driving at freeway speeds.

What should I do? I would prefer not to stick with scratched windows....
:cry: Any advice greatly appreciated as this is very frustrating!

I'd double check the felt story.. second if its true i'd get a second opinion from other tint ppl as the tint you got may be cheap dodgey stuff... third check with honda if they will do a tint for you.

They are right about the felt as they showed me - there is none on the inside of the glass.

The tint is a fully metallised tint from Tint Professor. They claim to do a lot of dealership cars from BMW, Alfa, Subaru, etc, etc in their area. www.tintprofessor.com.au

I don't think they are dodgy.. There are testimonials on their website from dealers.

My euro was tinted from the dealership, didn't have any scratches so far.

i dont know about tint ppl.. but I've seen companies that do nothing but cheap out and make excuses for the rest of the year on the job.. I'd get ya money back and go elsewhere.. maybe follow euro 77's example and go get a dealership job done hey.

sounds like crap to me, why would honda not put felt in the inner when pretty much every modern car does; there are so many tint places and so many variances in tint quality.

I got quotes anywhere from $199 to $700 for tinting. Aftrer doing some reaserch (3M, Cancer Council and elesewhere) I ended up going to Motor One (formerly Ming) to get their SPF50 tint (30% is the maxium allowable in QLD).

Having had a number of cars I have used the following tints
- Land Rover: Ming - very good
- Jeep: TVP - absolute crap
- Pajero: Solar Tint - again total crap, did not keep the vehicle cool at all.
- Honda: Motor One (Ming) - best yest

Check with the dealer, but keep in mind that the dealer will be charging comission on the tint most likely. A lot of dealers try to sell paint protection, fabric protection etc as well as tint. It costs them next to nothing and they sell it to unsuspecting buyers at enourmous mark up.

You would be best to go direct to the tinters (IMHO).

Yes, I totally agree that the dealer will charge a fortune for tint. but at least if something wrong happen with the tint (because of the car factor, not the tint itself), you are 100% protected. Mine was tinted for $249 I think.

Yep, my Euro is also tinted from the dealer, and there's no problems whatsoever.

The Honda dealers don't tint the cars themselves. They send them to a local tint shop like Tint-a-car, Tint professor, etc.

Neil - there is no felt on the inner window. Wind down your rear window and take a look! There is only felt on the outer side of the window.

When I say "scratches" they are not deep. They are fine lines on the inner side of the window. You need to look carefully from the inside and in full sun - they are not visible from the outside.

I will ring Tint-a car today and see whether they have seen this problem before.

Spoke to Tint A Car - they tint all the Honda cars at the dealership I purchased my Euro.

When they first tinted Euros every single one of them was coming back with scratches..... They said the same thing Tint Professor said - there is no felt on the inner side of the window. Honda - what the hell are you doing??!

The solution they came up with? They bend the top of the door metal of the door over. This stops the dirt getting trapped between the inner rubber and the window..

Hmmm. I am not too keen on any solution that involves "bending" a door or cutting rubbers. There doesn't, however, look like there is anything else I can do.

Honda has definately tried to cut cost of building the Euro here... Pity.

No problems with Tint Professor. Very professional organisation. I had my girls civic done there about 3 weeks ago. She got a courtesy car and they picked up and delivered the car after tint done. Can definitely recommend them actually. Had tints on other cars over years done by other companies and these guys in my experience have done the best job out of all of them.

Very interesting topic though as I was going to get my euro tinted also. Will check this out. Thanks for the info.

Tint Professor are "ok". They tried to push the scratching of the tint back to me though - despite the life time warranty spiel. They eventually installed felt which has fixed the problem --- it took a bit of arguing to get them to do it though. I found they do not have the best service when responding to issues.

My advice is don't even think about tinting a euro unless you are 100% sure they will install felt on the inside of the window. If they say the car doesn't need the felt - go somewhere else.

From what I was told by Tint A Car, some Euros have "tight" doors which causes the inner guard of the door to rub against the tint. There will be Euros which will experience this problem as well as Euros which will not. SO the bottomline line is, it's whether you wanna risk trying it to see if your euro has "tight" doors :P

Hey all.

I had the same issue with the drivers side door. I only noticed it on the night I purchased the car. I can only assume it was there when I purched the car however didnt notice it It had pierced the tint from bottom to top. The dealership got it fixed. I think it has to do with the tinting people not prepping up the door properly as it hasn't happened again.

Bingo I got it too on passengers side. It will be going back to tint shop

I had the tinting down at the dealers.

No problem at all, they did a fantastic job but it costs an arm & a leg.

I have this issue and have been ignoring it. :confused:

Might be time to get it sorted, and discover the reality of the lifetime warranty.

i dont even have tinting on my car and have noticed light vertical streaks in drivers side window.

I thought you had to get felt fitted on the doors to stop it from scratching etc..

I'd love to have tinted window's again, but i'm still reluctant to get the side of the doors ripped open and have felt fitted.

Just have to be careful with what i throw in my car without tinted windows nowadays ;) not like the good ol 20% tinted window days - throw anything inside and forget about it.

Same here.. Until there is a solution to this problem.. I think I'll hold off tinting the car...

if your tinter does a good & proper job they should remove the door skins anyway. they can then fit felt if needed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VirIIx

I thought you had to get felt fitted on the doors to stop it from scratching etc..

I'd love to have tinted window's again, but i'm still reluctant to get the side of the doors ripped open and have felt fitted.

Just have to be careful with what i throw in my car without tinted windows nowadays ;) not like the good ol 20% tinted window days - throw anything inside and forget about it.

---

I wouldn't worry about tinting the Euro - it will be fine if they install felt.
I have learned the hard way!

U guys can get felt installed inside the window sills. But a word of advice sometimes the glue from the felt can be smeared on the inside windows when the windows go up n down. I have some smears on my window but then u just use a cloth with some warm water to get rid of the smudges.

I think its better this way to have felt on the inside of the windows if u have tint. If not it will definetly scratch if something gets lodge in the inside window seals. The best way to put felt is to remove the door panels. The tint a guy removed the panels to install the felt on my euro.

So far non my windows are scratched just for sometimes the glue smears on the window. Other then that its fine and is livable. U just got to have dark tint on a black car, although its illegal it took 2 years for me on my old car for the cops to put a defect sticker on the car.

Yeah I have had those fine scratches in the glass also!

The dealership replaced the glass on the driver and passengers side, but after a while they ended up with fine scratches also :(

The scratches on my accord are on the outside, supposedly caused by dirt built up on the window seals.

One way out is to purchase some glass polish, and polish out the fine scratches (biridium oxide)

Thats gotta be so frustrating

I know how you feel dude, I had the same issue and my Euro isn't even 6 months old yet :( . I spoke to my dealer about the scratches, the saleslady said she hadn't heard about it, but when I spoke to the dealerships service centre they said that they HAD actually heard about the issue and that there was a service notice sent to them warning of the potential problem. Now if Honda bothered to send out a notice to all their dealers Australia wide then it is obviously an issue and have had many complaints and repairs done already.

My Service Centre told me that the reason why the felt was removed from the inside was to install another component which is meant to stop wind noise, who knows why they didn't put it back in afterwards? Maybe they thaught that they would get less people coming back and complaining about scratched tints than they would have if there was severe wind noise?

At any rate my Euro is going in to the dealer next Monday, they said they are going to have to retint the windows and insert the felt to stop it happening again... while they are there I told them they can fix the door lock rattle/vibration ! Hope this helps?

By the way it doesn't matter what tint you have, or even have tint at all, the lack of felt will cause it to scratch in numerous cases, I have the top quality Ming Tints and it still happened so it is obvious where the issue is, no felt equals scratches.

I haven't got scratches on my windows (I don't have tint yet), but I am well aware of the problem. I asked the dealer about the felt and he said that he had never heard of such nonsence and then wanted $650 for tint.

I don't use the windows at all, and I have told my girly to do the same. I will be getting felt installed when I get the tints, but I am worried about the felt glue smearing on the glass. It gets to about 50deg here, much higher ambient temp too. I was thinking about using 2 part epoxy resin "Arildite" or super glue to stick the felt on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Type R Positive

I haven't got scratches on my windows (I don't have tint yet), but I am well aware of the problem. I asked the dealer about the felt and he said that he had never heard of such nonsence and then wanted $650 for tint.

I don't use the windows at all, and I have told my girly to do the same. I will be getting felt installed when I get the tints, but I am worried about the felt glue smearing on the glass. It gets to about 50deg here, much higher ambient temp too. I was thinking about using 2 part epoxy resin "Arildite" or super glue to stick the felt on.

---

Oh it is an issue alright, and Honda knows about it too, like I said my service centre told me they had already recieved a notice about it. Don't speak to your salescentre, go straight to the dealer servicecentre, and if they still don't know then get them to ring the Honda dealerships here in Melbourne, they know about it ! I am gonna let them attach the felt that way if there is any glue issues then they are responisible for it not me !

I have had tint on my car for a bit over a month and I have yet to see any scratch marks. I heard about this problem so I paid extra attention to see if I get any scratch marks but none yet. I didn't like the idea of removing the door panels and stuff to get the felt installed anyway. I got SuperCool SmartFilm on my car and it's very cool inside.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by coladuna

I have had tint on my car for a bit over a month and I have yet to see any scratch marks. I heard about this problem so I paid extra attention to see if I get any scratch marks but none yet. I didn't like the idea of removing the door panels and stuff to get the felt installed anyway. I got SuperCool SmartFilm on my car and it's very cool inside.

---

Without the felt there is every chance you will get scratches eventually as it is impossible to keep the windows perfectly clean all the time. You also need to open and close the windows frequently. I learned the hard way with this and I can't believe you didn't push your tinter to install the felt if you knew of the issue before hand!... Hopefully others will listen to my advice of months ago to avoid grief .... "don't even think about tinting a euro unless you are 100% sure they will install felt on the inside of the window. If they say the car doesn't need the felt - go somewhere else." :( It costs nothing to install the felt so why not ask for it ! Anyway - it is your car and good luck with it.

The only way to check for the scratches is to look through the window on a sunny day - look for very fine vertical lines in the tint. You will not see the scratches at other times.

I am not sure why you have concerns with the removal of the door panels - a good tint shop will always remove the door panels so the tint goes to the edge of the glass. They probably did this when installing your tint.

my tint got scratched recently aswell. :(

just goes to show that every Euro with tinted window will get their tint scratched eventually.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by baboo

my tint got scratched recently aswell. :(

just goes to show that every Euro with tinted window will get their tint scratched eventually.

---

Ring up your dealer, and do what I did, get them to add the felt and redo the window tints at their expense! I can't believe Honda would be so stupid as to not install the felt on the inside, I mean they have made a quality car, I expect more from Honda than this sort of oversight!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thorn2004

Ring up your dealer, and do what I did, get them to add the felt and redo the window tints at their expense! I can't believe Honda would be so stupid as to not install the felt on the inside, I mean they have made a quality car, I expect more from Honda than this sort of oversight!

---

I am told it is not uncommon for car manufacturers to do this. The tinter mentioned a few cars like the Toyota Echo and the new Range Rover have no felt on the inside of the window....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yfin

I am not sure why you have concerns with the removal of the door panels - a good tint shop will always remove the door panels so the tint goes to the edge of the glass. They probably did this when installing your tint.

---

Removing things like that leads to rattles in cars. My tinter didn't remove any panels and did a perfectly fine job. When I asked about whether he removes the panels, he told me that he didn't understand why some tinters remove panels as it requires a lot of work and hence costs more. After having seen his job, I agree with him. He also told me luxury cars like Mercedes also do not have felts inside (can someone confirm this?) and most of them didn't have any problem with scratching.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by coladuna

Removing things like that leads to rattles in cars. My tinter didn't remove any panels and did a perfectly fine job. When I asked about whether he removes the panels, he told me that he didn't understand why some tinters remove panels as it requires a lot of work and hence costs more. After having seen his job, I agree with him. He also told me luxury cars like Mercedes also do not have felts inside (can someone confirm this?) and most of them didn't have any problem with scratching.

---

Coladuna - I hope it works out for you, I really do. I am sure your guy did a great job as well - but I really think you will be seeing him again in the not too distant future to get the felt installed.. A manager at Tint a Car Oakleigh - a large tint dealer in Melbourne told me they eventually had EVERY Euro come back with scratches in the tint. Not some, not a few - EVERY Euro. The guy was pulling his hair out saying this to me in utter frustration..

I'd also rather the mere risk of rattles than almost certain scratches on my windows... Go felt baby! :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yfin

I am told it is not uncommon for car manufacturers to do this. The tinter mentioned a few cars like the Toyota Echo and the new Range Rover have no felt on the inside of the window....

---

Well as long as they get no dirt in their windows then they will probably be fine, but maybe they have some other precautions stopping the scratching from happening instead? It is strange that the US counterpart the TSX doesn't seem to have this scratching problem, why would they decide not to include the felt in the Australian version? I would have thaught that there would have been a greater chance of Australians wanting their cars tinted due to the warmer climate than those in the US?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yfin

Coladuna - I hope it works out for you, I really do. I am sure your guy did a great job as well - but I really think you will be seeing him again in the not too distant future to get the felt installed.. A manager at Tint a Car Oakleigh - a large tint dealer in Melbourne told me they eventually had EVERY Euro come back with scratches in the tint. Not some, not a few - EVERY Euro. The guy was pulling his hair out saying this to me in utter frustration..

I'd also rather the mere risk of rattles than almost certain scratches on my windows... Go felt baby! :p

---

Well mine is getting fixed on Monday, which dealer did you deal with in Melbourne dude?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thorn2004

It is strange that the US counterpart the TSX doesn't seem to have this scratching problem, why would they decide not to include the felt in the Australian version? I would have thaught that there would have been a greater chance of Australians wanting their cars tinted due to the warmer climate than those in the US?

---

How did you come up with that idea??? If you go and read threads on tinting at acura-tsx.com, they also mention this problem. So Australian Euro's aren't the only ones with this problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by coladuna

How did you come up with that idea??? If you go and read threads on tinting at acura-tsx.com, they also mention this problem. So Australian Euro's aren't the only ones with this problem.

---

Because I posted a thread on tsxclub.com about this issue and the only one's who knew anything about it or bothered to reply were Australian, not only that but the technical moderator there moved my thread from 'General' to the 'International' area, I haven't seen anything mentioned about tint scratching in that forum? Doesn't matter either way, I still need mine fixed regardless of who has the problem.

Gday Thorn - Not many people visit tsxclub - it is a common problem on acrua-tsx.com - here are 2 posts i found - I am sure there are others.

My dealer is Garry Warren Smith - Oakleigh

http://tsx.acurazine.com/forums/show...t=tint+scratch

http://tsx.acurazine.com/forums/show...t=tint+scratch

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yfin

Gday Thorn - Not many people visit tsxclub - it is a common problem on acrua-tsx.com - here are 2 posts i found - I am sure there are others.

My dealer is Garry Warren Smith - Oakleigh

http://tsx.acurazine.com/forums/show...t=tint+scratch

http://tsx.acurazine.com/forums/show...t=tint+scratch

---

Cool thanks for the heads up, sorta relieved that it isn't only an Australian issue, wouldn't make sense that they would single us out for the felt-less versions!

How has your dealer been? Are they reliable?

I deal with Josh Sady Honda in Essendon, they have been pretty good so far, friendly and seem to know what they are doing, even if their service centre and salescentre don't seem to communicate too well sometimes!

I have had my Euro for over a year now and had "dealer" tint. It cost a fortune but I have no scratchs on mine.

Well we got the Euro back yesterday and the retint is redone, they also installed the fix for the back, something about a replacement loom? Anyhow they have installed a rubber seal on the inside of the door inbetween the window and the door trim to stop the scratching from happening again. The service centre was actually quite good and informative, they explained to us that when the Euro's first arrived Honda advised the dealers not to tint the Euro's windows as there was only a very small clearance between the door and the window. Apparently, according to the service centre manager, the reason they designed the doors/windows this way was to reduce wind noise, as a result some of the tint companies are designing a thinner tint which can be safely installed in the Euro's without having to get the rubber seal installed.

So it is fixed they also added some dampening material to the inside of the door trim so there isn't so many rattles as there was, I have got to say that I am impressed with Josh Sady's servicing !

Does anybody know of a good place to get the felt done in Sydney? Sol-ace won't install the felt but suggested that i go to this particular motor trimmer who wants $120 per door :!: Sounds a tad expensive.
Scotts Honda aren't interested :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by itsedd@hotmail.com

Does anybody know of a good place to get the felt done in Sydney? Sol-ace won't install the felt but suggested that i go to this particular motor trimmer who wants $120 per door :!: Sounds a tad expensive.
Scotts Honda aren't interested :(

---

Just get them to install the rubber seal instead ;)

Anyone know a good place to get the felt installed in Perth? Felt on the driver side has come off after 4years when the tint was installed. I was thinking of doing it myself but where do I buy the felt from?

The reality of tinting Honda Euros is this..........
Honda make this model with an inner door seal/weatherstrip that does not have any felt made on to it.

Any after market felt strip additions that are stuck on are not made for the purpose intended for this application.
The stuff is junk but there is nothing else available as a stop gap measure....fact!

Heat can get to the felt as it does in summer and deteriorate the glue making it come off and there goes your felt cushioning.
The aftermath of that is a very sticky mess on your wind up windows.

Alternatively I have seen tinters bend the top of the door trim back with such force to permanently banana shape the door trim so it doesn't sit so tight against the glass but this doesn't do anything good for your door sealing and should not be condoned.

I have also seen a technique whereby tinters cut the entire rubber seal off below what can be seen and that is very amateurish in order to remove the offending obstruction....again hoping that the customer doesn't notice its removal.

In simple terms...don't tint a Euro at all....buy something else for the car.
Rob.
Car Tint Melb