I recently bought a Fit (a 2012) to use as a winter beater..... Just 21K miles on it. I'm giving it the whole Surface Shield treatment underneath so we'll see how it goes after several years of Illinois salt. It's almost too nice a car to use as a winter beater!My mom's 2011 Honda Fit has some rust on the metal bits underneath with only 100k miles. My other sister's 2003 Acura 3.2TL is an oily mess underneath with 230k miles, but that mess has kept it from rusting.
Underneath the 245,000 mile Corolla
- Thread starter atikovi
- Start date
Then someone must have fixed all the oil leaks.
The picture in post #7 shows 3 exhaust support straps. They look like thick aluminum.
What do y'all think?
What do y'all think?
I was remarking how dry things were under my Focus, after I replaced the valve cover gasket, its only a couple of minor minor weeps that only go a couple inches. TBH it really needed more engine area leaks in the past as rust has gotten bad at the base of the firewall...
I saw those on mine too and not sure what they are. Either to retard cat stealing thieves, or somehow help tie up the chassis for less flex. Not sure, my guess is to stiffen the chassis somehow.
I'd guess some NVH tuning and some bandaid chassis reinforcement to improve the side impact test score?
I wouldn't think 3 one foot pieces of anything would have enough substance or purchase to afford any structural support.
I was thinking homemade, replacement supports which were originally sheet metal,
There's one such 'spanner' on my Volvo. It seems superfluous.
I was thinking homemade, replacement supports which were originally sheet metal,
There's one such 'spanner' on my Volvo. It seems superfluous.
You wouldn’t think it, but as a thought experiment (or otherwise), take a sheet of paper. It’s pretty flimsy, eh? Now take the sheet of paper and make a paper ball. The more dense it gets, the harder it seems to crumple it. Now that paper ball is still very much largely air, so it’s not really that “dense”, certainly not like steel. Yet it somehow gains strength—much like corrugated cardboard. A thin piece of metal can have quite a bit of strength (in the right direction!) over a short span, more than you’d think.
Will say, for an economy car like a Corolla, you can pretty safely bet that the metal there isn’t because someone “thought” it might do something good. Had to be proven to do something! only question is, what. Chassis rigidity (on a Corolla? who tracks those?), crash safety or cat thieves? Beats me. [I’m just hoping I never have to touch the ones I have. Implies I have an exhaust leak if I did.]
I had to remove the single one in the Volvos to lower (pivot down) the exhaust system to install a trailer hitch.
The rearmost bolt holes holding the exhaust were shared by the bolts used for the hitch.
I reinstalled the spanning piece.
The rearmost bolt holes holding the exhaust were shared by the bolts used for the hitch.
I reinstalled the spanning piece.
- Joined
- May 9, 2023
- Messages
- 279
Son-in-law had a 1994 Honda Accord. 324,000 miles when he sold it looked about the same.
