Joepapa1 it's a common prblem. I've replaced 3 here in Michigan so not buying the hot climate thing either.

 

I looked at mine this morning after work and it has water in it somehow. My car is a 2010 and I didn't see any damage to the bow tie until today. It is messed up now with the water behind it, and will only get worse as it freezes off and on this winter.

 

My car has never seen a drop of rain or a snow flake. Yet, the rear chevy emblem had to be replaced last summer on my SS because it was starting to peel....

Nothing is made to last today...

I remember the time when GM was proud of it's emblems, as they were made of steel. (Yah I know.. that was a long time ago).

 

Some guys have said that the washer fluid can cause or at least start this, so using the rear washer could be part of this... Once started any freeze/thaw cycle will make it worse. Of course the main problem is they are just cheap garbage parts.

 

Painted mine gray. Didn´t like it and re-painted it with duplicolor gold paint and clearcoat. Looks better.

 

mine is damaged also i will replace it and take the old one apart and maybe paint it?

 

My Rat Rod friends would say the part has "patina"

I say junk..I design plastic parts for a living, and know this is waht happens when the bean counters will not let you put the money into a bullet proof design.
GREAT idea..take the all the money out of your trade mark emblem, so every Gold Bow Tie either falls off or looks like it has gum disease in a couple of years.

Ooops a little rant pooped out!

 

The folks who traded our HHR in last spring had just put new bowties on both front and rear. One morning a few weeks later both were gone from the car. I thought they had just fallen off so I bought new ones to replace the missing ones, It seems that the shiny gold plastic part is highly collectable around here as they were gone within a week.

I decided to just mask around the spot where the plastic goes and hit it with “safety yellow” paint.

As I said in another posting on this site ‘I’d like to see the little bastages swipe those.’

 

I had no idea this was such a widespread problem. Maybe we're just lucky since ours are fine after almost 6 years. There are two other HHRs in our family and those have good bowties also. That's why I suggested that it might be a quality control problem which sometimes happens if they make the same part at more than one location. This is somewhat similar to the problem of the rear seat headrest stitching problem in the 2004-2006 GTO's. Some rip, some don't no matter how they're cared for, garaged or not. My GTO seats are fine also, btw, so maybe I'm just lucky there too.

 

If I remember correctly, GM says the delamination is caused by car wash soaps that contain some type of specified acid (usually found in the self, auto and total clean car washes). They do the first one free (if under warranty) after that, it's your $$$$.

There is a TSB on it.

I did have mine replaced just before the 3 year warranty. But the rear one has started the process again.