Undercarriage Rust

[MagnumForceGB]

I have kind of a weird problem. I live in Oklahoma, not much of a winter here. The solution to ice here is dirt. During the blizzard here, I drove my wifes cobalt since her school was canceled. I need to check her car when she gets back, but I don't believe it has rust like this and I drove her car during the worst of it.

My car I drove one day when the roads were clear, but they were getting ready for the second blizzard. After the blizzard, I washed the car and rinsed off the undercarriage. I jacked the car up to do some mods to it, and noticed spots that looked like rust. I took some pictures after the mods were done to see what I should do.

I mostly have water spots on the undercarriage, I haven't jacked all 4 wheels up to do a proper cleaning yet. May do that tomorrow so I can document all of the rust spots.

This is right under the front bumper looking aft.


From the front bumper looking at the passenger wheel. You can see the bottom of the sway bar.


From the front bumper looking at the driver wheel. This one has me worried, look at the bottom of the sway bar.


Passenger side looking at the rear cradle from the front (I'm below the front bolt). The weld joint has rust.


Passenger side looking at the rear craddle from the back.


The car was only driven once through the snow and it was a few days after the blizzard. The car is kept in a garage and its my daily driver. The date was Feb 10th, 2011 (I have a picture of the radio display, it was reading -5 degrees in Oklahoma).

Should I take it in to the dealership? I'm mostly concerned about the front sway bar. It just seems weird to me that I have this many rust spots after 1 time of snow driving, while my old truck went through worse with no rust.

[DarkneSS]

On a new car driven on salted winter roads it will generally take about ten years for rust problems to become really serious.

Not much you can really do. Maybe sand down the problem areas and spray them over with high heat paint? =/

[bigted83]

Or get roll car and uncarrige paint I think it's called, advance auto sales it. Basically sand primer and spray this stuff, takes like 7 days to cure or something

[khalsa013]

easiest thing to do, take it in to dealership theyll fix it. ive done this more than 10x lol they dont care (told me that they get paid by gm so keep bringing it back) lol

[Rock-It Man]

How did the front cross member get bent and scraped?

[MagnumForceGB]

Thanks, I'll talk to the dealership and see what they will do. My wifes cobalt had no rust on it, and it was driven when salt was on the road and I did the same wash underneath. If the dealership can't do anything, I'll try to sand and prime it.

The scrapes I have no clue how they got there, probably trash being kicked up by the roads here, they are pretty bad. The bend, I didn't use a peice of 2x4 to spread the load for the jack on. The blue mark is from the jack itself. You can't really feel it. Its probalby more pronounced on the pictures since I wiped it clean to see if it was bent.

[Mr. Wyndham]

It looks like you scraped the bottom of your car pretty good...even the sways look (from these pictures) like they've been rubbed...yikes.

Any steep-driveway gas stations lately?

Everything else (random spots, bolts, etc) seems pretty normal to me.

It can't hurt to have the dealer take a look at it...but I know mine would turn me right back home after seeing the scrapes...

[MagnumForceGB]

I can't think of any steep-driveways. I'll jack the car up tomorrow, try to clean the undercarriage real good and take better pictures. At least this gives me an excuss to crawl around under the car, and maybe even buy new sway bars.

[dmginc]

sure does look like you scraped the bottom on something...curb when parking it at a store?

[MagnumForceGB]

I jacked the car up today and looked under it, I think I know how all the scrapes got there now. After the blizzard when I drove, there was ice packs all over the roads, chunks of the road were missing due to the snow plows, and salt. Probably hit a few potholes also that caused the sway bar to be hit also. Definitely can not lower this car until they improve the roads around here.

I'm going to see if the dealership will replace the front sway bar at least, since that looks the worst. If not, how would I go about removing the rust and covering the spots? What grit sandpaper and paint?

Thanks for all the help.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by MagnumForceGB

I'm going to see if the dealership will replace the front sway bar at least, since that looks the worst. If not, how would I go about removing the rust and covering the spots? What grit sandpaper and paint?

Thanks for all the help.

Why ask the dealer to replace them if it's not a factory defect?

[khalsa013]

i had a lot of things replaced and they werent factory defects. new tire goo system. new camaro door sills, new bcim, new seat, new carpets.....etc lol

they honestly dont care just try it

[Gronk]

I live where there is a lot of winter.

From the photos, that is what we here in the Canadian west call surface rust. It's common on anti roll bars, truck frames, control arms etc. It will litterally take years for surface rust to spread enough to cause any real damage, although it still looks like what it is, rust.

Surface rust can usually be fixed easily with some sandpaper and paint. It is simply a result of unpainted, or lightly painted parts having the paint wear, and the bare metal getting wet.

The other kind of rust is what we call rust through. Rust through is rust that will eat THROUGH the metal, and continue to eat the car.

These are not by any means engineering terms, just what we in the great white north coined the types of rust that are common occurances here.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by khalsa013

i had a lot of things replaced and they werent factory defects. new tire goo system. new camaro door sills, new bcim, new seat, new carpets.....etc lol

they honestly dont care just try it

I'll try not to.