[kannan666]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Unfortunately, for basement ceiling drip-marks, the spots are permanent - being carbonic acid from the moist limestone. No amount of rubbing/compounds/polishing will make it vanish. Only a repaint of the area will do.

I too have found this out the hard way ! My Esteem too suffered from this around three years ago when it was parked at a friends basement for around a month. So, in my case, detection was late too. While polishing does help, the polish sheen wears off pretty soon especially when the car is out parked in the sun and rain, and it is back to square one ! Will try and post a few pics of the roof shortly.

[theMAG]

It works! Both the drip marks vanished - after I "lime-juiced" them today morning. And what a relief - those months-old drip marks were sticking out like sore thumbs on an otherwise spot-free car.

Maibaa - thanks for sharing your tip!

[bj96]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Both the drip marks vanished - after I "lime-juiced" them today morning.
...
Maibaa - thanks for sharing your tip!

It cleared the marks on my WagonR too.

[kannan666]

Lucky guys ! It did'nt work for me but like I already mentioned in my previous post, I had parked the car for close to a month, so I discovered the droppings quite late by which time I guess the damage has already been done !

@ Vinay, did this work for you ?

[vinay.pillai]

I am travelling and hence couldn't try the tips given. I will try it first thing once I get back to Bangalore

[Maibaa]

Originally Posted by theMAG

It works!

Originally Posted by bj96

It cleared the marks on my WagonR too.

Awesome!

Happy to know you guys got rid of those ugly drip marks.

Even I was amazed with the results! Felt like magic

[vinay.pillai]

Sorry friends for the delayed update. I tried the lime juice on all the spots on my car. All except one (the major one - first pic in this thread) has gone. So this major one is not gng at all. Not sure what to do for that. May be will trying rubbing compound on it

[StarVegabond]

I had similar spots on the bonnet and front grill of my ANHC. but during the first service it was removed by the service center at no extra cost.
pl refer it to your service center.

[FlairBoy]

Hi Guys

I had the same issue on my car not once but Twice. Our office basement has this dripping and if you are not careful while parking you might get into trouble. You learn this by experience, you always look at the ceiling if there are any signs of dropping and also floor if any wet patch is there!!.

If its a small patch, it would go off in due course of time (you need to wait for two or three months). If its a bigger patch and i would look ugly, better way to get rid of it is buy going to polish which would cost Rs. 1500-2000. If you are in doubts ask the polishing guy wheather the patch will go off or not before giving the job.

[puneetakhouri]

Replying in 2016. Parked my new Baleno in my residential basement parking for a week while it was not in use. Came back to find the water seepage from the ceiling put plenty of white marks on the rooftop.
Tried the lemon solution mentioned by Maibaa, and voila it worked. 95% of it gone, rest will be doing tomorrow.
Luckily had a Teflon coat on my car so I guess the damage should not be much. Will check the shine in sunlight when I take the car out.

[drive2eternity]

I usually take the office transport to office which means my Verna stays put in the basement parking for 5 days a week. Every evening, while returning from office, I walk through the basement, just to have a look at the car before going home. On Monday, when I returned, I was stunned at what I saw. A drainage pipe on the ceiling had developed a small leak and it was dripping water (and some pollutants) on the the driver side window. This had resulted in a big white spot on the window glass and a flow line on the door all the way till the base.
Immediately, I approached the security personal there and asked him to get the pipe checked ASAP. Next, I went home, got the keys, colin, car shampoo and a wide array of microfiber cloths. Took the car and parked it in the visitor parking and began the cleaning operations. Soon, my heart broke when I saw there was no impact of the shampoo and colin on the spots. A big, bad white mark had scared my beloved car. Dejected, I went home. All night, thoughts of getting the window glass changed and the door re-painted kept haunting me. Needless to say, I had very disturbed sleep. Next day, I frantically searched through TBhp and came across this thread. It mentioned that lemons were the magic wand I needed. So, on my way home, bought 4 big and juicy lemons.
Rubbed a lemon on the glass and wiped it. Nothing happened. Rubbed the lemon again and waited for a while and wiped it. Voila, the white stain came off like chalk being rubbed off from a blackboard. I felt my life returning. Soon, the glass was shining like never before. Not a spot of stain left. Then I moved to the door. As I was unsure of the effect of lemon juice on the paint, I went the bottom corner of the door, which is rarely visible and a rubbed the lemon there. Waited for a couple minutes and wiped it. The stain disappeared. Then I waited for 10 minutes, to see if there was any unforeseen chemical reaction on the paint. Nothing happened. My confidence in the lemon grew. I sincerely covered the flow line on the door with lemon juice and then wiped it off. All the stains were removed.
Gave the car a nice shampoo bath and then went home. The grin on my face ensured my wife understood the stains had been cleaned.

Maibaa - you are a true savior.

[nimishlalwani]

Hi all,
I just want to call out what a beautiful community Team-bhp is! I faced the same issue during the rains in Mumbai.

I came back after a month long trip and found these ugly marks on my Avventura Abarth due to the dripping water in the underground car park. I tried water, shampoo, and even WD-40 but to no avail. I was about to go to 3M today.

However, I called them up and they said the earliest they can attend me is tomorrow morning. Through sheer serendipity (and my impatience) I thought of looking at team bhp and I found this thread.

I went down to the car with the lemon with high hopes and nothing happened. I was dejected and just started rubbing the lemon in anger. Slowly, I could see the white spots fade away. 3 lemons and 1 hour later, my car is back to its old form (99%). I guess some polish will bring it back to 100%.

Thanks for sharing this with everyone folks! This was a life saver.

[Punatic]

Originally Posted by Maibaa

Try squeezing a fresh lime on the marks. Leave it for a couple of minutes and wipe it with a soft cloth.

Behold, the scars disappeared like they were never there in the first place :-)

This was pure magic @Maibaa! Thank you so much!!

[skyrider1]

The same thing happened to my 4 month old Brezza which is of Silver color. There are 10+ spots on the windshield and some on the bonnet too.
It has been a few weeks, and I have tried cleaning it with Colin, and also took it to a Bosch car care center, but even they could not help. They tried with a few solutions they use for cleaning, and none of them worked.

Then I found this thread and tried the lime juice as soon as I could. I squeezed enough lime juice on the windshield spots and left it for a few minutes, but even after rubbing with a cloth, I did not see any noticeable impact. I tried a couple times just to be sure.

The spots look similar to those in the photos posted by nimishlalwani above. I wonder if the spots have a different chemical composition, or if they have just settled too much.

I will also try a Vinegar solution as some have suggested, in case that helps.

Please share if there is any other way. Otherwise, I would need to take it to the service center, as the windshield spots also impact visibility to some extent.