Ny road salt attacks..

One thing about Western NY winter's... Cars Rust like crazy around here...

I've been keeping any eye on my aveo and it appears to be nicely resistant to 6 month road salt bath every year. There was one spot on my rocker panel that had bubbled up, but that was due to a chip in the paint that went unnoticed.

Well also going unnoticed is a little spot I found under the hood..

And thats because I don't have to open the hood that much, on my trusty little Aveo.

Haha tRusty... lol.. j/k it's far from that.

Anyhow... I have noticed this rather bad spot, right at the top of the pass side strut tower. I can see how if this went totally unnoticed and the strut mount rusted away, the car might be totally junk. Even though the rest is totally fine and like new. I can see this happening after about 8 to 10 NY winters.
By then the running gear will be aging anyways, and probably time to upgrade to a new decades cars.
I caught it and am going to wire brush and rustproof the area.

I guess this post is just a heads up to any other rustbelters out there, where the use of road salt is heavy.

I'll try to get a pic. It's not a giant area, but its big enough to be a concern. It's a curved shape about an inch and a half long. I peeled an area of good metal back about the size of a nickel. underneath is some bad metal.

Mine's done pretty well so far. I've had mine for coming on 3 years now, and I live right down in Corning so I know how the roads are here. The only rust I've actually noticed has been on my wiper arms.

Attachment 4113Attachment 4112Here's some pics..

doesn't gm have a 10 year corrosion warranty?

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Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

doesn't gm have a 10 year corrosion warranty?

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It's covered for 6 years or 100,000 miles, IIRC.

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Originally Posted by Aveeo

It's covered for 6 years or 100,000 miles, IIRC.

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Hmmm, I'm under both of those... Think this is a case? I thought it had to be rust through.. not just surface rust. This is a few layers deep. Maybe I'll have a dealership take a peek.

Although how would they even fix it? cut and weld? I think I'll probably just fix it myself with a grinder and some POR 15.

they should do what is necessary to fix it, even if it is just grinding it out, and coating it.

(they would also return the paint color to normal)..

surface rust and bubbling on a inside seam on a major structural component of the care are not the same thing to me.

if the dealer/gm refused to fix that, and your strut tower failed and cause an accident, i would think they would be liable.

I would agree that my '04 Aveo has help up surprisingly well. I live in the Syracuse NY area (nicknamed the salt city for good reason) and my car's been on the road almost 6.5 years. My wiper arms are pretty bad. I have some surface rust in typical areas, bottoms of doors. My exhaust is rotting away, but I attribute that more to moving 3 years ago and having a 2.75 mile drive to work. I can see the toll those short drives are having on my car.
One thing that surprised me was the area behind the plastic wheel well on the passenger side behind those 2 rusty screws in the pic. That area was packed with mud and leaves. I'm sure that led to some prolonged exposure to road salt.
Attachment 4140

I'm down here in southern NY about 60 miles north of NYC. The only rust I have so far is the screws holding in the license plate lights. where I live they use a combination low salt/gravel mix because we are near several reservoirs that feed NYC its water supply. I guess that a watershed area. I love hearing the underside of my Aveo being sandblasted every winter.