Life in the rust belt.

[ctechbob]

I always cringe a little when I watch South Main Auto or Watch Wes Work do something to say a 2015 somethingorother and comment along the lines of 'this is the last fix for this old girl, next stop, the crusher'.

And then I think about my 2003 and 2008's sitting outside and how every single bolt will come out of them and the only rust on the 03 Accord is the roof where every bit of paint is gone.

Pains me thinking about crushing a car that still has drivetrain life left.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Sux ! Destroys the paint. Eats away ANY metal that is not painted or rust proofed. Makes it 10X harder to take things apart. CONSTANTLY have to maintain rust proofing or painting ANYTHING underneath the car, every single year. Pieces of salt just nick away at the hood of your car's paint. Always touching that up. Seizes brake calipers, pins, eats rotors and drums, fuel lines, brake lines, EVAP lines. Destroys struts and shocks. Destroys axles and bearings. Park the car for the winter and use a rental.( if you can afford it ) It will even eat a stainless steel exhaust system.

 

[D1dad]

I bought a 1986 f250 diesel with a bad engine from Texas. I never knew an engine swap could be done without a heat wrench. Of course being a ford, it was a rusted pile of crap in after 5 years being in Ohio.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Yep, Ohio..RUST BELT. My parents bought a Toyota back in 2000. It was built in Canada, but sold in USA for whatever reason....This thing had SO MUCH rust proofing on it,,,,it was insane !!!! Must have added hundreds of pounds to the weight of the car!!!! BUT, it never rusted. They lived in New York,,,and were happy as a pig in sh-t !!!!!!!! They never knew it came from Canada until I read the manual. It was half in French language.

 

[ATex7239]

This is a good nugget for the Supertech in everything thread. The vehicle will be rust out before the engine dies, might as well save the money where you can.

 

[JoelB]

Correct, due to location and the lakes the moisture level in the air here during fall and spring is on the same level as an exited pitbull breathing 1 inch away from your face you feel like you have to peel the air off you.

I think we actually benefit from the cold here in MN. The mix of super salty roads and comparatively mild temps in winter there really wreak havoc on metal.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

Those poor Hyundai's don't stand a chance. My mother gave her 2017 CRV to her grandaugter in 2024 with 20k on the ODO. I maintained it. It was garaged and barely saw any snow. What little salt it got, already started eating away at it. I was astonished as to how fast that stuff just got in there and starting eating like termites. She even took it to the car wash after every snow with an undercarriage bath as an add on feature. Then my BIL's Mazda CX5 rear springs snapped in half ( He lives a few miles away, but he's an idiot ). " Why did my springs snap ??? " he asks me. I said ROAD SALT YOU MORON.. You take it to work on the highway in the snow right ?? " Yeah I do"....IDIOT..... I blame the car manufacturer's. Like I said in my earlier post. That 2000 Toyota had tons on rust proofing on it. It was built in Canada. There was even a thin layer of plastic covering every brake line,fuel line, EVAP line right back into the engine bay.

 

[road_rascal]

I think we actually benefit from the cold here in MN. The mix of super salty roads and comparatively mild temps in winter there really wreak havoc on metal.

I really love when it snows 1/10th an inch, MNDOT dumps a billion tons of salt on the roads then it's -15F the next day and stays that way for a week or so. No car washes open when it's that cold.

 

[KrisZ]

The rust proofing on that Corolla from Canada is not applied by the manufacturer. Whoever owned it likely took it to Krown or Rust Check to get it rust proofed.

 

[supton]

Lived in Detroit for 8 years. I loathed winters up there. So I left and started life in the South. That’s how I won the war on rust… and miserable temperatures… and grey gloomy skies 5 months a year… and terrible roads…

No shame in fleeing I guess. Much happier since I left.

The older I get the more I think about that. My problem is, I'm fair skinned and so I'd still be indoors most of the day. And divorced as the wife's idea of "nice weather" gives polar bears and penguins the shivers.

 

[Pablo]

People say west coast is easy. My car years ago was parked facing the beach........................wow. Did not fare well in that salt spray test. I was kind of idiot then too, nothing protected, nothing washed. 1971 Datsun 510 rusts anyway, but on the ocean it was terrible.

 

[B6_Dolphin]

Grew up in Lancaster, a suburb of Buffalo, so I can relate OP.

My 1st car when I was 16 was a blue '74 Monte Carlo, with cancer of the left rear qtr panel, and the floorboards were replaced with sheet metal paneling when I got it for $600. At least the 350 in it was a solid runner, and it almost passed NYS Inspection, except for the one option it had on it - tilt steering, which needing a bushing replaced before it was OK'd for road use.

Replaced the "blue bomb" after a year for a 108k mile green w/white Landau half-top '79 Buick Regal. It was a Buick dealer owner's wife's car since new, and had been Ziebart'd. Very little rust as a result. That 301 (or was it a 307?) V8 was another solid engine - drove that Regal from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains to look at colleges w/Dad in the summer of '87. It made it there and back without any mechanical issues, although we survived a brutal hail storm in Illinois on the way there (body sheet metal was thicker back then). Sold it before I left for college. Speaking of potholes, my HS gf would hassle me to let her drive the Regal. I remember getting annoyed with her driving technique, where she would use the hood ornament (remember those?) as a guide to line it up with the white boundry line on the road, to know she was "in the lane". Uh, yeah, but that typically put the right side tires in prime pothole territory. After a few hits to the suspension and the alignment settings, I broke her of that habit.

Although I moved-out of the area for college, I did return for a few years in my early career as an engineer to WNY. I adopted the "summer car" strategy used by many auto enthusiasts in the Rust Belt. I bought a new '93 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP and then stored it away for the winter, while using an '89 S10 Blazer (4WD) - had the 4.3L V6<!> - as the "winter car, er, truck". Fun times, especially driving through the "snow belt" south of Buffalo.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Here’s a pretty typical rusted rotor. Between rotor wear and a rust build up it’s pretty typical to have noisy brakes resulting in replacing the rotors and pads. This is off a 2005 Ford Taurus.

 

[PF52]

I really love when it snows 1/10th an inch, MNDOT dumps a billion tons of salt on the roads...

That's the Chicago method also. Especially these past couple years where we had very little snow.... But what little snow we did get was followed up by tons of salt.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

In the early 2000's , NYS DOT changed their " brand" of road salt. Now they use 2 different types. All depends on temperature. The worst is a corrosive liquid brine used to " pre-treat" roads before it snows. Followed up with plow trucks with tanks of the same brine and salt in the bed. It's like liquid heat for the roads. It stays on roadways for weeks as a white color to keep de-icing anything that re-freezes. It sticks to you're car like paint !!!! The other type is regular chunks of rock salt on the plow trucks that chips away you're paint on you're hood before it melts down, more spring touch up work

 

[4wd]

Here’s a pretty typical rusted rotor. Between rotor wear and a rust build up it’s pretty typical to have noisy brakes resulting in replacing the rotors and pads. This is off a 2005 Ford Taurus.

View attachment 295145

Whilst changing front shocks on the JLU - noticed the rotors were rusted - pads might have just 10k left (46k on them) …
Anyone have product ideas or methods for removing some rust and preventing it? Was hoping to just do a pad slap & bleed.

 

[50yr Street Mech]

^ This ^. I'm in the Rust Belt ( New York). Once the rotors rust out, their good for trash .....I have had good luck with Geomet coated, UV cured coating, or E-coated rotors. On plain rotors, once the vanes rust out, their finished.,,,like the ones in Snagglefoot's rotor pic.

 

[Just a civilian pilot]

Rust sucks.

I can’t find any rust on my 15, 14, 11 year old Honda’s thanks to rustproofing.

 

[Donald]

Recycled water...
As in the water that the previous car washer used is recycled? So it's known to be full of salt?

The car washes filter some of the water and reuse it. Unsure what the filter process is and if it removes salt.

The final rinse in a car wash is always new water, not recycled.

 

[Donald]

But didn't you mention that you don't wash your car during the winter?

If your car is sprayed rust proofing then some brands say not to do undercarriage car wash. At least NH Coatings states that.