GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

took a week because the replacement kit took 60 clips instead of the stated 25 clips (according to service reps)...besides the car being very dirty and smelling like adhesive on the inside (that raises a question in my mind...what did they do, glue this stuff on!) i am not overwhelmed with the extended lower moulding (i think its because i kept thinking it would be similar to the one in the sport package)....yes i can see how it works to prevent rocks flying around and such ... if this will prevent my car from suffering hundreds of dollars in damage then so be it....i think in a year or two i will buy the original lower mouldings from the mono package/base model (2003) in case i want to turn the car back to its original design....my appreciation and thanks go out to jeff strassler (sic) for all his effort to correct this issue and the others...he and his group are doing a good job and the fact that someone from the "company" is trying to fix things and improve a product is rare and shows that there are people who care about what they produce and sell...hats off to you and your crew sir

do they only replace the moldings under warrenty for the two-tone vibes?

yes at this time they do!

my two tone mouldings are scratched to shat at 10k miles, where did you get the help?

your dealer has a tsb out on the mouldings...they term them " discolored due to road debris"...look under the warranty section of the forum, there is currently listed a new updated tsb that you can print out and take to any pontiac dealer.....be warned ,though, the new extended pieces DO NOT match the color of the original mouldings, they are a little lighter, the color of primer which is what they are painted with. but pontiac is not paying to paint them to match the rest of the mouldings at this time!

so, the solution for the discolored molding appears discolored? great solution pontiac

Ha...thought so. Thanks for the tidbit about the non-matching. Guess I won't be going to get mine replaced since they're not that bad...

Well now that just looks ghetto. I had a feeling that would be how it was...I would have been very surprised if it was an exact color match.

Got mine replaced FINALLY! Took a little over a week to get in the parts then only about 3 hours for the install... not bad at all. I know that people are complaining about the unmatched color of the new rockers, but at least the rear wheel wells won't be all shreded now. I kind of like the look of it! I'm going to put on a few coats of B2B on all the cladding and see if the color matches any better (whenever it stops raining around here). I'll let you know what it looks like after that.

wat kind of damage are u getting that requires replacement of the rockers.... any pics?

From the thread titled (though resized in consideration of our friends on dial up):Sand blasting effect on cladding....

Attached files

WOW. Yeah my cladding is definitly fine...LOL

quote:they are a little lighter, the color of primer which is what they are painted with. but pontiac is not paying to paint them to match the rest of the mouldings at this time!Plastic cladding is not painted. The color is manufactured into the plastic. Not sure, though, why the color changed over the year...

I have mentioned to members before that the very slight color difference in the lower rocker extension could be due to many variables. First off, you will want to see if the color will fade to better match over time after exposure to the sun and weather elements.Also, and I am going to confirm this, but theories could include that this lower rocker extension may be manufactured somewhere different than the rest of the molding. Or they had to manufacturer the new lower rocker extension after the fact and they still have cladding from when they made the slew of it for the vehicles before it was redesigned. Or the color change could be due to different processes used when making the extension to help make it more durable, etc..Just my theories, but personally out of all the cladding replacements and 2004 models I have inspected in person, I do not think the color is that far off. Must give it time to 'weather' - it may blend in perfectly over time.I'll see if I can get some info from Jeff on this as to the true reasonings.

I think he means the original cladding will get lighter over time...

About the coloring - it's a wait and see type of thing - this new design has only been around for a few months so there has not been enough time to see what the color actually does until then. We'll need to check on the vehicles with the new cladding after a few more months to get a true idea of the differences.As I said before, this may work itself out if the reason is due to using leftover cladding with the new rocker extension. I'll check to see if this has been noticed and post back.

I'm starting to think that, since they used an array of contrasting colors on the car (i.e. the rubber "seal" behidn the wheel well cladding is a different gray than the cladding itself), this may have been intentional, as yet, another contrast. but as nick said, lets wait and see.

I know now that my rear bumper is lighter in color than the new wheel well cladding... only because they are right next to each other. The new rockers seems to be closer to the color of my faded bumper than the rest of the cladding. Maybe that is good, maybe it's not... we will just have to wait a few months or so and see what it looks like then.

Had mine changed on Wednesday. There is a slight color variation (new is a bit lighter). It also is more/less noticeable depending on your viewing angle. One thing's for sure, it's certainly much better than the old beat up, sandblasted look on the old ones!

quote:One thing's for sure, it's certainly much better than the old beat up, sandblasted look on the old ones! I took my beat up ones in today but they told me thats just wear and tear so they refused to do anything about it! on my service writeup it said the TSB i mentioned was called "Grime"????? not sure what that means....oh well...i have the mud flaps so that should help future wear and ill just have to live w/ it!pontiac =

quote:I took my beat up ones in today but they told me thats just wear and tear so they refused to do anything about it! on my service writeup it said the TSB i mentioned was called "Grime"????? Grime my a*$!! My original ones had gouges in them. They looked sandblasted. My vehicle has just under 12K miles (and over a year old) and the Dealer replaced them without a hassle. My advice if yours are bad and you're not satisfied.... Find a copy of the TSB (one maybe posted somewhere in this Forum) and bring it to the Dealer. Insist they replace them. Go up "the food chain" there and call the Pontiac Customer Service number in your owners manual if you can't get it resolved by talking with the Dealer's management.

quote:I took my beat up ones in today but they told me thats just wear and tear so they refused to do anything about it! on my service writeup it said the TSB i mentioned was called "Grime"????? Grime my a*$!! My original ones had gouges in them. They looked sandblasted. My vehicle has just under 12K miles (and over a year old) and the Dealer replaced them without a hassle. My advice if yours are bad and you're not satisfied.... Find a copy of the TSB (one maybe posted somewhere in this Forum) and bring it to the Dealer. Insist they replace them. Go up "the food chain" there and call the Pontiac Customer Service number in your owners manual if you can't get it resolved by talking with the Dealer's management.I could pursue....do we have a link somewhere to a copy of the TSB??Im just kinda laid back about it though.....i do a lot of miles ...im at 27000 now....and i can accept it as wear if need be. if it was painted and the paint was being sandblasted off then yes i would be very pushy about it but i also really want to keep my splash guards on and they dont make them for the '04 moulding so im torn really...???