XCP Professional Cleaner and Degreaser took the paint off

[Nina's RCZ]

Heads up ...

Just used the above cleaner, diluted 5:1 to detail parts of the engine bay.

To my horror when I dried off the painted bits it took off the paintwork. See attached pics. At first I thought it was previous damage the car is new to us) but on trying a different area the paint came straight off onto the micro fibre cloth.

This seems to happen on the non lacquered parts of the engine bay. Fortunately it didn't get on the exterior paintwork.

Needless to say I washed the rest off with plenty of water.

To say I am annoyed is an understatement - I'll have to touch in the affected areas now! Luckily confined to under the bonnet.

I have emailed the company, thinking they ought to know in case it is a bad batch that requires a recall or something. I tried to be constructive and not Mr Angry lol. I will see if they respond in a positive or negative way. I'll let everyone know.

Attached are some pics of the car, and the damage, and the product. I got it from Halfords.

 

[Verminator]

That's shocking to see

 

[Nina's RCZ]

That's shocking to see

Not great is it! Still awaiting a response to the email, but to be fair, it has only been 24 hours.

If anyone has it, I would suggest not to use it, just in case.

See if we can get to the bottom of it

 

[Nina's RCZ]

Response from XCP. Itis an expected response with absolutely no responsibility taken for their product. To be fair, there is little they can do now, and clearly they did not mean this to happen.

I have responded to say that it really did happen, and I messaged them simply for their info, and to inform them there maybe a problem. I just suggested they may want to take a closer look in case.

I thanked them for their time, and graciously accepted their offer of another product (I chose XCP One - their version of WD40 or GT85.

It's one of those things - but I would not recommend this product in case. However their customer service is good.

Their response in full

-------- Original message --------
From: XCP Professional <[email protected]>
Date: 29/08/2025 16:27

Dear Tony,

Thanks for getting touch. We’re sorry to hear about the issues you experienced.

Truthfully, in all the time we have sold the XCP Cleaner & Degreaser product, we have never had any complaints regarding its compatibility with paints, coatings, rubbers, plastics, etc. The product has also been included in a number of independent group tests, that included paint compatibility, etc., e.g.

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/reviews/products/motorcycle-maintenance-and-servicing/best-motorcycle-cleaner.

We have done our best over the years to test on as many commercially available paint finishes as we could reasonably find. We’re not disputing your account of what happened, but given the comparative performance of XCP Cleaner & Degreaser against similar products in the market, we do feel that XCP Cleaner & Degreaser would not be considered a harmful product on commercially available paint finishes.

We appreciate that this might not be the response you were hoping to receive, and we would like to send you some of our other products as a gesture of goodwill (for example XCP Rust Blocker) if you would like to receive them? Please let us know, and if you do, please send us your address, and we’ll arrange for a pack to be sent to you.

Best regards,

Team XCP

 

[Pedro]

If you buy these products check if they are acid based the same with TFR I always use non acidic on the wheels etc