So I just finished detailing my car...
 

& put on my plate grimmspeed plate re-locator kit. And I notice these two blemishes on the front bumper.

http://i61.tinypic.com/19s587.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/25rld1e.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/28aqbv7.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/10441ao.jpg

I haven't taken the car in for service yet. To me it looks like someone (the dealership?) started to maybe start drilling for the license plate. Ironic, right? Since I just installed the re-locator kit.

For all I know these blemishes were here from the start, from when I purchased the car.

Regardless, what do you think these blemishes are from? And how could I possibly fix them :S? I can't see these could have come to surface from hitting something (since I haven't). The fact that they're semi-circles makes me think it was a drill or screwdriver of some sort :paddle:. Maybe possibly go after the dealer for some help? Ehh they bother me help haha...

Those are there from the original license plate holder. The two blemishes are there because the dealer went too deep with the screws. I work for a dealer and have seen way too many FR-S's damaged because of their neglect. Go back and see what they can do for you :thumbsup:

i never realized the front black grill had the T symbols that are throughout the interior of the car..

Original license plate holder? Can you explain. Why are they drilling behind the bumper?

I want to be armed with knowledge for my visit.

The license plate mount gets screwed to the grill with sheet metal screws. There is, apparently, no specifically defined location for it, so it boils down to how observant the installer is. Unfortunately, it seems like this task is generally dumped on the least skilled technician in the service bay. I was at one Scion dealership and noticed that all of the FR-Ss had their plate mounts installed up high on the grill, so that the license plate bolts bottomed against the painted part of the bumper. This appears to be the case with your car. At a different dealership, the license plate mounts were installed lower on the grill, so that the plate mount bolts could only touch the black plastic of the grill. That's the dealership where I bought my car.

Thanks for the explanation.

I'm gonna go pay them a visit today & see what they can do...

Autonation Toyota - Irvine if anyone is curious :paddle:

Edit: Of course the service department is closed Sunday, so I'll have to be stopping by on Monday.

You didn't notice that before the detail? I would've guessed someone backed into you.

I washed my car at night. Then used cleaner wax the following morning in dim lighting. Also the front bumper is generally covered in bug guts, so it more or less blended in.

I don't see how someone hitting me could leave a mark in such a manner. What the above posters said makes the most sense to me, it just confirmed my initial beliefs.

That's unfortunate. :-(

I hit a hardware store for a pair of large rubber grommets and stuffed them into the oval cut-outs in the back of my factory plate hanger. The rubber sits on the grille plastic and spaces the plate hanger a little more safely away from my vulnerable bumper. Now it takes quite a lot of pressure to send the plate hanger toward the bumper. I also swapped out those awful zinc plated bolts. Stainless cap-screws are like $.15c each.

I don't know what I'm looking at.... It looks like they started to drill your bumper and didnt finish.

I have to same indentation. This is caused by the way Toyota installed the plate first. The screws are too long, and they scrape the bumper by a tad.

How is the plate installed if there are no holes? I dont understand. Someone please clarify.

The top two holes cause the indentation.

The bottom two holes are drilled into the black part of the grill. Take a look at your front license plate holder that came with your car

The plate bolts to the plate mount, which in turn is bolted to the black plastic grill. Depending on where the plate mount gets mounted, the license plate bolts may or may not hit the painted part of the bumper.

I have the same exact thing on my front bumper, but only one screw mark thankfully, not both. Like others said it's because of a careless tech screwing in the screw too far and allowing it to mar the bumper's paint. Totally avoidable and really unfortunate that they are damaging our cars before we can even take them out for our first drive. :paddle:

Good luck getting any compensation from your dealer. I called my salesperson shortly after discovering the mark and then also sent a follow up email asking him to send me some Whiteout touch up paint - nothing. No response whatsoever.

I guess all they care about is making that initial sale and getting your ass out the door. :mad0260:

Yeah I feel like it's going to be a pain in the ass. It pisses me off because I wanted to avoid putting the license plate there and come to find they drilled too far. I probably never noticed because I was so excited to have my first car. Wasn't really paying attention to detail.

I'm not gonna deal with emails. Just gonna go to the service department tomorrow. See what happens I guess... I mean it's 100% their problem so I'll do the best I can to get what I want. There's no reason that I shouldn't be compensated considering I've paid the amount of money I did for a brand new car. At least that's my logic.

I'm sure the dealers logic will be, we already have his money that's all that matters.

I had same problem when dealership put plates on the front. Ended up having them repaint the scratch X_X.

Did you at least have fun detailing your car. I love it since I cant afford to mod anymore.

Looks like some with screw holding their plate on hit you.

Of course, until I find stuff like this :P

My bet is that someone pulled up too close to you front bumper - to - front bumper in a parkinglot and hit you with their front-plate screw holes. I've seen that on rear bumpers a lot in cities.

Like this:

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...lvoonme001.jpg

May as well post an update. So I went to the dealer & talked to the service manager, explained him the situation & let him look at the cosmetic damage. He said that he definitely agrees that the damage was caused from a tech drilling a screw(s) too far.

Now I have to go visit again tomorrow (hopefully) & let a "factory rep" see the damage. From there I suppose they will give me my options.

For the NAY SAYERS, yah I'm talking bout you... Here's some pics of plate mounted at the dealer. Thanks for your help guys :). Will post another update when I have one, so far no hassle or arguing.

http://i58.tinypic.com/xgh8hs.jpg

http://i62.tinypic.com/szc1sj.jpg

Any updates on this? Decided to do a plate relocation and I noticed the same issue :(

Nothing yet... I'll post when I get more info. I'd suggest talking to the service manager, best place to start.

Good call. Might also talk to the sales rep that sold me the car, he was super helpful throughout the process.

Preferably, I'd take my car to the Autonation in Cerritos, CA as it's closer and where I've brought it for some work already... but I bought mine in Buena Park so I'm guessing that might not do the trick.

I talked to sales and they sent me to service lol.

I'd just go straight to service.

Spoke with my service rep. Told me that they're actuall instructed to drill 6 holes in the actual bumper to mount a j-bracket, which means that it could've been much worse. But unfortunately there's nothing I can do about the drill marks. It's a bummer, but I guess that's how it goes.

Hope you have better luck than I do.

For reference, here is the installation file he sent me. I doubt he's just trying to gloss over the issue because he has been extremely helpful and understanding during my last few visits. The specifications for the install are on the 2nd page.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Cn6N8SgyxCQ2gtZElxNG1xUGttM3F6cnNBWlpfTXRSV0xN/edit?usp=sharing

Wow glad they did not do that to mine.

I told them when I picked it up if they touched the front bumper trying to install a license plate holder I would not sign the papers.

They didn't call me back today so I left a voicemail... So I'm gonna give them a call back tomorrow.

I just don't see the validity in the excuse. They should not be damaging a brand new painted bumper straight off the lot. It SHOULD be avoidable & if it isn't that's just messed up. I'm gonna fight to get mine fixed or at least some free touch up paint.

Also if there is a "prospective frs buyer thread", I'm not sure if there is or not. This should definitely be added to it, I've read about this car for about a year before I bought & haven't read anything of this sort from dealerships.

UPDATE.

I just got off the phone with the service director & he said they would service the bumper, in which he said they would repaint the bumper.

Cha-Ching.

Hmm, maybe I should try calling the service director at the branch I actually bought it from. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll be stupider about it.

Definently talk to someone from management.

Also just show up, don't call ahead.

Final Update.

Dropped my car off for paint, AutoNation provided a rental car for me (2014 Corolla). God that thing was so frigging boring to drive, had it for like 5 days. I missed my 86 so much, anyways car is back & the front bumper is totally re-painted at no cost to me. The service dept. covered the charge.

Here's a pic, it may be dark but if you'd be able to see the blemishes regardless. Completely clean. Very happy with the result, hopefully those who have a similar issue can get their's fixed.

http://s14.postimg.org/473vs3iht/20140815_162144.jpg

The dealer I bought my from (Livermore, CA) gave me the same document.

That's funny, they drilled mine into the front grill.

Ya they're on the floor mats, the dash, the gauges, the reverse lights everywhere!

There was a guy on here one time that was convinced that the Ts everywhere were a hint from the designers that they were making a turbo! I laughed so hard I spewed my coffee. Don't remember what thread it was on and it was a while ago but will try to find since it was hilarious. He got soooo mad when everybody told him he was a conspiracy theorist.

Ts?

Nah man they're space invaders which proves that we have a flux capacitor under the hood, cause you know spaceships DUH!

:burnrubber:

Don't be foolish! Everybody knows that flux capacitors are for time machines not space ships you noob!

uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Flux_Capacitor

Lies.

Slow :clap: