wemay
Site Donor 2023
I've never had to deal with rust on any vehicle here except one we bought that already had some (68 Firebird w/vinyl half top). And who knows where that car began its life.
I owned a waterfront place on the Texas coast (saltwater) for 8 years … you did not even think of using steel doors etc … most things were cedar. But this was bombarded 24x365 - not a few days.
In fact, I just got back from the beach … coin wash on the way home … sprinkler under it in the am …
Will never have a coastal rust problem if you clean it well every trip …
Heat and salt waterSo here’s the deal… I live in SE Michigan, lots of road salt and rust. Just the way it is. My Sedona is actually still pretty rust-free despite its age, surprisingly. This past February we drove it to Florida for a couple weeks. I noticed something strange once we got there though… a week or so after we arrived, it developed a rubbing sound from the front brakes; sounded kind of like a chunk or rust broke off and got stuck between the rotor and the dust shield. You know the sound. Almost if something was dragging; you could really hear it at low speeds, and was not there before. For the record, all rotors and pads were less than 2 years old, and the rotors were the Raybestos Element3 coated type. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I had the vehicle in the shop for some unrelated work, and the tech advised me that the front rotors needed replacing NOW because the inner veins had swollen with rust and bulged the rotor. Sure enough, he was right. They were bad. I could even feel the pulsing under braking. But the issue didn’t exist until we arrived in Florida.
Here’s another one… I just did an oil change on the vehicle today. It has the original oil drain plug, which was previously virtually rust-free on the outside. This time, it was covered in rust. I previously changed the oil in December, before we drove to Florida. Maybe the salty air did a number on my van? We stayed very near the gulf for 3 weeks FWIW.
In the rustbelt, your car's exposed undercarriage is bathed in a brine solution from the first snowfall until April or May. Much more destructive than ocean mist deposited on painted surfaces.I have lived in florida all my life and have never had a car rust, ever.
Rust will form on any unpainted steel. The state you're in has nothing to do with that.Now the trunk lid is rusting on the outside Where the paint rubbed away.
If salt air rusted caused serious rust in three weeks, people who live in Florida (or Virginia Beach) would need a new car every couple of months.
The OP first noticed this in Florida but it was happening long before.
You got it. It is raining someplace in the south.... always. When it stops and the sun shines , you get a steam bath you did not plan for.Rust is a slow motion fire. Oxidation. Once it starts it's real hard to put out.
I have heard other anecdotes of Yankees moving south and having their cars even more rapidly disintegrate once down there.
Salt gets behind fender liners, in rocker panels, your rotor vanes. Driving through a hurricane, huge puddles should clear it out. Doesn't it rain daily in the afternoon? Have you driven through some?