My Aveos achillies heel....times ticking (bad strut tower rust)

[DailyDriverMark]

Engine runs crisp and strong but the body is also getting a bit crispy in the wrong spots and that will probably be the end of this game. The pics are of a zero dollar band aid fix I did. I got a welding quote of 350 before it got this bad. Not sure if its too far gone at 60000 miles I told my dealership about this and they brushed me off... They got out of it because it wasnt rust through. Anyways heres the pics...

[DailyDriverMark]

Im doing this from my phone. Uploading pics is going bonky

[glen1]

My daily driver Aveo is rusting badly at the bottom both driver side doors. Mine is an 04 with 189000 miles. I understand your concern about putting a bunch of cash into it. Last time I checked kbb I think the trade in value on mine was like $400.00, hard to justify spending more than that to fix it up. I did the bondo fix, but a rusty bottom on a door isn't too much of a safety concern, if it were something more serious a decision would have to be made as to fix or scrap.

[MetroMPG]

Road salt sucks!

What year is the car, DailyDriverMark?

Garage empty: add car

[DailyDriverMark]

Thanks for asking Metro, It's an '06 with 163k miles on it now.

[DailyDriverMark]

Update 1-3-19: 188k miles This is what I did yesterday for more piece of mind. I just need one maybe 2 more years more of use from the car. Or anything above 200k.

I could have paid someone $350 for a more correct welding job, but then still needed new struts. For under $300 I did this + 2 better used struts, and 2 new cordless cutting tools. I'm satisfied this repair is plenty strong to do what it needs to do. and much better than the original repair that I did above. The aluminum pictured broke right away and was replaced with identical sflat steel bars and lasted up to this point, but I didn't like driving it like that.

[DailyDriverMark]

Judging by how many aveo's in the wrecking ards actually had decent strut towers still, and were older...I'd say I was sold one with a substandard frame. No way to prove that though, other than my observations.

I have a hunch...The way my throw out bearing was also defective from new (made a suspect noise) ..sure enough the thing was a rusted mess when I finally had to change it (failed b4 the clutch did). I suspect my car sustained some mild saltwater damage during shipment. Wont know for sure, but the car sure showed some premature rust damage. I did drive it in the snowy northeast so, that was probably it.

[avguy]

IT'S ALIVE


​Maybe you should package this as a kit and sell it on Fleabay. All kidding aside, congrats on a truly innovative DIY job

[old_biker]

wow! $350? YIKES!!!! maybe I am in the wrong business? wish you was closer would offer to weld it up for you. easy job.