2009 Toyota Highlander - Metal Bubbles Along Top of Front Window

Maintenance/Repairs
1

Rust bubbles along the top of the front window. The roof front along the window line has metal bubbling which includes the paint. To fix this one has to file or grind down the metal bubbles. This has got to be a metal composition defect.

2

frankly I doubt it…the car is 10 years old and we don’t know (given the lack of information you’ve given us) how often you washed and waxed the car, whether you live in the rust belt…

3

or have a ton of highway miles causing rock chips… or ever touched up the paint when it is chipped…

4

Yeah, the technical term for it is called RUST.

1 Like
5

That area and the front surface of the hood get exposed to a lot of wind during freeway driving, and the wind carries with it abrasive dust, which sort of sand-blasts both those areas. The extreme left and right sides of the bumpers tend to get that abrasive wind problem also. So it isn’t overly surprising the strip on the hood immediately above the windshield is the first to show the damaged paint symptoms. If you’ve been waxing that area twice a year, and hosing it off once a week, and you still got paint bubbles that’s something worth complaining about, b/c it shouldn’t be happening unless you frequently drive in sand-storm areas. But if you haven’t been doing the waxing and hosing off, well, that’s just what happens. It starts in other areas on other cars, but it always starts eventually. I’ve got a similar problem on my truck, immediately above the windshield is where rust spots seem to want to try to form. I’ve addressed it over the years with the bi-annual waxing and weekly hosing off method, and living in a mild climate that doesn’t have dust-storms. Needs a little work every year, sanding, touch up paint, etc, but generally the method has worked reasonably well for me so far.

On the truck that area also tends to accumulate debris from stuff dropping from trees, which if left there will soak up rain and keep the area wet. Keeping that are free of the tree debris is just one of the jobs a vintage truck owner. I doubt accumulated tree debris is the cause of your problem though.