Rust all along the door and Subaru won't fix it

I just noticed after washing my car that both my front and rear passenger side doors have a serious amount of rust at the weld points on the door. I called my local Subaru dealership and they basically said that they can't help me. I have an extended warranty through Subaru to 80,000 miles but they said that this isn't covered. I left a voice mail with the service manager so I can plead my case and hopefully have this repaired. I am sorry but NO car that is barely 4 years old should look like this.

 

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_11nmlZsi3Vw/S7oNVl_Z3JI/AAAAAAAAAAU/dS4A50zJzpw/s400/2010-04-05%2012.01.06.jpg

 

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_11nmlZsi3Vw/S7oNgHz5mUI/AAAAAAAAAA4/3n_eD6v4LCM/s400/2010-04-05%2011.59.43.jpg

 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_11nmlZsi3Vw/S7oNpURloWI/AAAAAAAAABA/HSQO1dpBdPo/s400/2010-04-05%2012.00.52.jpg

 

 

:mad::mad::mad:

Wow, that's not so good. Where are you located??

Ouch, that's pretty bad looking. Good luck with that.

Looks to me like the car has been in an accident and repaired. As the car comes from the factory, it has a strip of seam sealant in this area, and it appears from your pics that there is no seam sealant. It is applied before the door is painted, so it is body color. Go look at the bottom of the other two doors. Actually, the sealant is applied all around the perimiter of the door where the outer skin is welded to the inner "frame".

 

Most Japanese cars have been built with this sealant for many years. From my inspections at the auto show the past few years, domestic manufacturers have done away with this sealant, with a few exceptions. Go look at a relatively new domestic. Ford can't even get the outer skin folded over completely thus leaving a little channel at the bottom of the door to collect, water, sand and salt. I will not buy a car that does not have these seams sealed.

Yeah my oppionion as well that those doors have been in-properly repaired at one time.

some cars do get dammage in transport/shipping to the dealership and that sort of gives me the idea that they might have put 2 door skins on the door frames. would be currious if you took the inside door pannels off if you could see and other signs of body work done. welds or bondo?

Hmmm...both doors were replaced in an accident so I am wondering if that might be the problem.

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

 

90% of the time your car will not be returned to as-new condition when having body work done. If the whole door was replaced with OEM parts, I am not sure if even then they have the sealer on them. If they had new outer skins put on them in the body shop I doubt sealer is standard practice. I know there are at least a couple auto body guys on here that might be able to verify this.

 

You might try the shop that did the work if it was done while you owned the car and see what they say. I suspect they will just say you didn't care for it properly after it was fixed. Once rust gets into that seam, you will never eradicate it completely.

 

Good luck.

Those doors were likely skinned improperly, as I highly doubt there are Chinese aftermarket doors for our cars, and OEM doors would have come ready to paint. Most body shops warranty stuff like that for life. They should definitely take care of you.