Old Age And.....rust!

[seatkid]

:( Like me, the old girl is showing inevitable signs of old age. She'll soon be 13 years old and, from a distance, the VW salesman said "it looks in exceptional condition" and so I also thought,that is, until I started the "big service/inpection/repair anything dodgy before we go on the grand trans european tour" that somehow I found myself agreeing to (long story - wont bore you but how exactly will I get 7 people and their luggage in and be comfortable?)

 

It started with checking the spare tyre winch.. :( what a mess.... again. This time stripped off all that useless plastic coating on the tyre holder bit , cleaned it as best I could including the main winch housing - loads of rust on the trailing arms and that bit that goes in the middle - wire brushes galore!! Then a few coats of hammerite smooth (spray) and where appropriate (body) some spray on underseal

 

Plastic coated steel is such a naff idea - it just cracks with age, allows water in and rusts 10 times as fast! Same story with both front and rear anti roll bars.

 

Off with the rear plastic wheel arch protectors to reveal yet more rust - not too much - but wish I'd done this several years ago, just a touch of sealer on those welded joints and all would have been well forever and a day. Those mounting plates for the rear suspension are very handy for your dealer/kwikfit to jack up your car - but the price you end up paying is "loads of rust", yes they are quite thick but oh, how I wished I just sprayed these every 3 or 4 years....

 

The worst is yet to come however - I already knew that the front suspension is typically volkswagen naff - highly thin on paint/protection. I'd already made one or two attempts at tidying it up, but once again, after removing the wheel arch liners for the first time - horror of horrors - deep seated rust for the last 3 or 4 inches of wing and its mating bodywork panel.

 

The reason is clear...bad design and poor protection. Those drain holes up in the scuttle area, let all sorts of stuff through and a mere 3mm pebble is all it takes to block up the tiny improvised drain down below, allowing a build up of muck and silt to build up and eat its way through the galvanising. Impossible to clean up where the panels join up - I just have to have some faith in the rust defeating properties of hammerite....

 

Yes, make sure you stick a large screwdriver up those bottom holes everytime you clean and flush your drains (and do it at least 4 times a year) - if only I had done this....

 

And finally, the grand finale......we all probably know that underseal is a bad idea - when it cracks it allows water in and there it sits and festers....

 

But we would have thought that the manufacturers had superior technology? Errrm......no. :)

 

Whats that thin line of rust on the front crossmember? The bit where some plate is welded on? The bit your garage and kwikfit use to jack up the car (when they dont feel inclined to bend your sills). :unsure:

 

Hmmm, just ease back the body underseal......What???....bit more.....WHAT???....more and more.....WELL BLOODY HELL :angry: ..ALMOST HALF THE CROSS MEMBERS IS RUST (the underside bit )....not yet structurally critical (they are quite thick)...but what a bloody disappointment.

 

And what an effort to tidy it up, knowing full well its all in vain....for once rust has got hold at this level, its just a matter of time. All I can do is slow it down a bit. :ph34r:

 

Sorry if I've bored you ( wait until you hear me going on about the new Sharan and how at first sight it looks no better that a Mk 1 (and probably no better built)

 

MORAL OF THIS STORY? No matter how fastidious you are, VW group cars are designed to start falling to pieces after 10 years. Bad plastics and poor bodywork design and protection or is it a deliberate ploy to get you buy a new one?

[Mirez]

That'll teach you not to read my posts :angry:

 

Forum Link

 

But seriously that is poor design, and its not nice when you find a rusty patch anywhere - After the last Mk2 which had it creeping in on a few places, one of the first things I did was fully waxoil this one including nearly all the bits you've found rust on yours, coincedently I've just had to replace my winch as it was also knackerd :unsure:

 

Is it that far advanced that you can't grind it back and reseal it?

[seatkid]

Yup.....that one passed me by! :unsure:

 

The rust on the drivers outer wing - basically draw a horizontal line from just below the liner fastener. Everything below that was rust,and on the inner section rust came back to the edge you can see in your bottom photo. All I could do is use screwdrivers to remove the flaky bits and a swiss file to remove some of the looser surface stuff. The passenger side was a lot less of a mess (but still rusty at the bottom), the difference probably down to the 3mm pebble wedged in the drain hole on the drivers side.

 

As for the cross member, I'm afraid it was wire brushing and a bit of hand filing. Lots of welds and weld splashes in that area. If I had a grinder (which I dont), quite fraknly I'd be a bit frightened to do more harm than good.

 

The rust was remarkably difficult to shift and there was still obviously something sound beneath it (I hope), I wonder is this due to the galvanising?

 

Anyway hammerite "apply direct to rust" is about as far as I prepared to go at the moment.

 

I only did the drivers side crossmember - the other side I just sealed the splits and cracks and will look further after my hols, hopefully that side will be less of a shock.

Edited May 11, 2011 by seatkid

[tim-spam]

Trouble is that, due to the agreement with Ford, the Sharan / Alhambra were the only VAG Group cars not to be fully galvanised, and the only ones to have a 6 year body warranty - the rest have 12 years, and if my 1999 Golf is anything to go by, they probably never have any claims against this. This car is completely rust free and looks like staying that way for many years to come. In fact, the whole thing seems to be very durable with the only real issues having been the engine speed sensor, a suspension spring and the left hand transmission mounting. My 2002 Alhambra is still very sound and should last a few more years yet, but is clearly not as well protected as the Golf - when the paint is chipped it will rust, unlike the Golf, which does not.

 

I would imagine that the new Sharan / Alhambra carries the ususal VAG 12 year body warranty and has a fully galvanised body - I'll have to check....