Peeling film or whatever it is(tint??)— see picture

Whatcha have for breakfast this morning?

Oh right, some apples .

Because one hit you on the head I bet you’ll remember today’s breakfast.

Better than me.

I barely remember driving to work this morning .

 

Just found out my 2017 right side peeling off too. Ahhhh. 40 k miles out of warranty too.

 

Just got this done this past weekend. Was tired of looking at the peeling. Shop in SD charged me $100 to sand the panels and apply 3M 2080 vinyl film. Satin black. Car is really dirty.

 

I just noticed mine chipping just like that on one side last week. 2017 prius 3 touring and I am at 38k miles. I went to the dealership today and got turned down because i was past 36k miles. Looks like this is a common problem. This is so annoying. The car is only 3 years old. This should not be peeling. I know people have posted part numbers and such, but does anyone know where i can find some solid instructions on how to do it? It seems like it should be easy enough to do, but i need to see how they do it before i would feel confident enough to do it. I wouldn't mind paying for a replacement, but i definitely don't want to pay the price the dealer is charging for parts and labor.

 

Has it been serviced by the dealership exclusively? I'd be pushing for a courtesy replacement.

If they won't - and it's been TOYOTA serviced, contact TOYOTA themselves.

 

It has been exclusively been serviced at the same dealer i got it at. I forked over the $99 for the new part though.

Turns out, it is a very simple process to replace. All I used was a knife to cut through the old double sided tape and some shop towels and good gone to clean off the residue from the car. No need to pay the dealer to do it. I took mine off and have cleaned the double sided sticky tape residue from the car. The part that took the longest was probably the cleaning.

There were some very minor differences between the old part and the new one.
First off, the corner clip/insert post (don't know what to call it) is different. The new one has a thicker, white plastic piece that gets inserted into the car while the old one was a much thinner post. It looks like it should have a snugger fit once installed, but i haven't installed it yet. I gently test fitted it to see if it went in and it got about halfway before requiring any force to push it in completely. I didn't want to push it all the way in yet because i wasn't ready to fully install and was worried it would do something to that piece if i tried to remove it again.
EDIT: Now that i look at the pictures again, maybe the original panel did have a white tip for that corner that gets inserted and it just got stuck in the car's body? I will have to see if it comes off when i get around to it again. It did feel like it was pretty tight in there and did not feel like it would come off easily, which is why i originally thought it was part of the car body, not part of the panel.

Secondly, the old part had a piece of double sided tape towards the center of the panel. The new part does not come with this. Would any type of double sided tape work or should i be looking for something specific? I wanted to install the new piece just how the one was installed and want to put a piece of double sided tape just how it originally had.

The fact that there were some differences makes me hope they also improved the clear coat they used on these things. I have attached pictures showing the new and old parts.

 

I know this is freaking me out. My car gets hit by the southern cali sun over 300 days a year

 

Mine is 3 years old and has 30K miles. It started to peel too. Seems like this is a common problem. Got to see if the dealer will cover this since I am below 36,000 miles.

 

Have the same issue, noticed it right after my warranty was over and I just put some touchup paint in the areas that were peeling but now 15K miles later a lot more has peeled..

 

I wonder if it has to do with parking the car consistently in the sun and not in a garage...not that should be "ok", 3 years is too short for a piece of the car to wear out that way.

 

Let us know, please.

 

Would love to see some Phoenix cars... we used to live in Phoenix, and that sun can be brutal. Our metal landscape lighting dissolved over 10 years.

 

I hope you do not mind me asking but where did you get this done? I live in SD and have the same issue with my Prius Prime. And was that for both or one?

 

Has anyone applied clear vinyl to protect this part?

 

Adding myself in as well...!

 

My 2016 has this too. I thought I was too vigorous with scraping ice and snow off the car but heat of the sun makes sense too.

 

Have the same issue. Any other solution aside from replacing these panels?

 

At least one forum owner has had the panels vinyl wrapped.

 

Protect it with a sealant. Like Meguairs Ultimate Liquid Wax. Same can be used on headlights to prevent oxidation.

 

Owners Manual cautions against waxing headlights. Not sure why, but there’s that.