Dogshine

on my silver cls55, the paint protection on the back doors and fender in front of the rear wheel seems to be 'yellowing'. Anyone else experience this? I thought i remember someone talking about it and saying they have a tsb out on it to replace the film.... but I couldn't find it in the search engine.

thanks.

Kevin M.

Just rip it off, its worthless, your not going to get rock chips back there.

islandm3

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...ghlight=yellow

Bipasha493

same here, looks worst on my car because its white

BlackCard

Having my replaced this Thurs by dealer. My CLS is always in garage so I'll see how that lasts.

Dogshine

how do you take them off?

Kevin M.

Just peel it off like a sticker on glass.

mbbodytech

Don't mess with it - there is a service information about it with new part numbers for the improved part. Have the dealer do it under warranty.

I wouldn't recommend removing them unless you want stone chips where they were. After all, how much of the front tire is exposed at the bottom of the fender? You know it's throwing stones right at the quarter panel....

Kevin M.

So if I understand you correctly, leave on the film that is 6 feet behind the front wheels, yet there is nothing to protect the front of the car where all rock chips usually happen? And why is there no protection behind the rear wheels? This 3M piece is useless in my opinion.

CLS_AMG

Maybe it's meant to protect the paint on reverse burnouts?

Dogshine

i have had mud shoot up on that segment. if you look at the car, its fatter there, and therefore the protection.

the testing must have yielded some chips to warrant the paint protection.....

mbbodytech

The difference is that stone chips to the front of the car aren't self inflicted.

I didn't engineer it, so back off. They put it there for a reason. If you don't want it on your car pull it off then.

Dogshine

does the 63 have it?

Kevin M.

Did you have your coffee yet?
How far back should I go?

CynCarvin32

Automakers put these films on the sections of cars that angle outwards infront of the rear wheel in order to protect the paint. Cars like the W211 dont need it because there really is no outward angled section. The cls has more of an angle around the rear door so they have the film there to protect the paint.

A car like a 996 Turbo or any wide body porsche really needs the protection because that pannel is subjected to some serious rock spray.

If you look a the paint on the lower rockers right behind the wheel, you can see a pattern that matches the tire tread becasue the tread throws rocks rewards. If the rocks are hitting the pannel directly behind the wheel its a safe assumption to say that the rocks could fly rewards and hit any outward jutting body pannel.

I know it looks like junk and they always yellow. If I had a CLS I think I would take the factory film off and put on a layer of 3M rock protection instead. The 3M is far thinnner and it is hard to notice.

I do see both sides to the debate though...

Dogshine

I have the xpel on the headlights and I had it on a bmw before this. I had it on the bmw for several years and it never changed color. I'm thinking that may be the way to go. xpel sells replacement pieces for in front of the rear wheels and also strips of xpel that go down the whole lower strip below the doors.

http://www.xpel.com/products/configu...=26&model=1164