Surface rust on trailing arm mounts

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I was crawling around under my car last night and noticed something that bothered me a little. The mount for the right rear suspension trailing arm has some surface rust on it (the left one may be the same, but it's not as conveniently visible with the car not jacked up). It doesn't look like a big deal -- similar to what you'd see on an unpainted length of drive shaft or something.

I'm talking about a part that bolts to the body and provides a pivot for the trailing arm and its bushing to rotate around. Here are the best pictures I could manage without lifting the car:

0526090836a.jpg
0526090836.jpg


That right image looks more dramatic than it is. There's a darker spot, but there's no missing material.

I've got to assume this is OK since they apparently didn't bother painting these parts. I do not live in a rust-prone area.

Should I be worried?
 
I see you are in California.

You would be mortified if you had a look under the vehicles around here... that drive through winter roads covered with corrosive salt for 5 months of the year.

Relax man... that is nothing.
 
I can only wish that our cars looked that good underneath. How old is the car?

The original calipers on my 19 year old car have rust thick enough to chisel off.
 
If that's something to worry about, every car on the road here is about to fall apart. Cars around here look FAR worse than that in less than a year, I wouldn't know what do to if I came across a car that looked that good.
 
van006.jpg


They engineer in extra thickness on the vital parts to remain safe after a bit of corrosion. Here's the underneath of my 97 olds silhouette van, from salt-land of course!
 
OP's picture looks like a brand new car! Head up to the rust belt if you want to see something to be concerned about.
 
The car is a 2007 Civic.

Being in CA and not having had very many cars I'm not sure what to look for (but that photo of the Olds van is enlightening). I noticed this mainly because most the rear suspension is painted, the body has some kind of undercoating on it, and the rest is plastic. Seeing this solitary unpainted metal part with a rust coating made me wonder.

I'll go look for the next thing to worry about!
 
The undercoating is probably applied by the dealer or manufacturer. It's mainly for sound deadening and is practically worthless as a rust inhibitor. In fact it usually traps corrodants later as it delaminates.
 
Give it a wire brushing and spray it with Rustoleum .
No need to get it clinically clean before painting.
Rustoleum is perfect for this.
 
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