by 112263, May 9, 2004
I just bought a Corolla. It is in great condition.
I don't have a parking spot where I live. I will be parking it on the street. The climate where I live (Toronto, Canada) is harsh, especially in the winter, with a lot of snow and ice, and salt.
I understand that washing a car once a month is a necessity. But that doesn't help the underside of the car, which is going to be exposed constantly to the salt.
How do you keep the underside of the car clean? How do you preserve it?
a) wash it once a week
try to hose out what you can. rust proofing on cars these days is quite good. This may be an extreme service condition, and should be maintained as such.
You could clean it right off as the guy above suggested, but in addition to that i'd suggest getting a tub of the rust proofer and giving your car a quick going over.
a quick google revealed the following
http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/Volvo_Books/chAssis1.html <- yes i know it's for volvo's, but its from Canada ;-).
http://autorepair.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-687a.htm < seems to be a bit of a general explenation however.
From what i've been told, generally the wheel wells, floor pans and underside of the boot are prime suspects to the rustmonster to eat into so they would be the area i'd worry about most, however i'd still give the entire underside of my car a going over if i were in your situation.
Thanks. But how do I physically manage to clean the underside of the car. I live in a condo. I don't have access to a hose or a garage. I am not aware of any carwashes that clean the underside of the car.??????You could clean it right off as the guy above suggested, but in addition to that i'd suggest getting a tub of the rust proofer and giving your car a quick going over.a quick google revealed the following
http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/Volvo_Books/chAssis1.html <- yes i know it's for volvo's, but its from Canada ;-).
http://autorepair.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-687a.htm < seems to be a bit of a general explenation however.
From what i've been told, generally the wheel wells, floor pans and underside of the boot are prime suspects to the rustmonster to eat into so they would be the area i'd worry about most, however i'd still give the entire underside of my car a going over if i were in your situation.
Well I don't know if they have the same thing in Toronto.... but around here Esso gaz stations have no-contact car washes that will clean the underside of the car. They're pretty expensive however (7$ when you buy fuel). The best thing would be to find a place where you can wash the car yourself but those car washes seem pretty rare in large cities.
Mr. Ed
That's what I was thinking. There are a couple of "Touchless" carwashes around here. They do spray the underside of the car. The basic wash (without wax) is $5.00. We generally do that when we can during winter. Check around. It might be worth making a trip once a month to one of these. Or, if there are none around, there's you a great business opportunity!
Although I agree that washing the car's underside is a good idea, I wouldn't spend sleepless nights worrying about it. Salt deposits on the open surfaces don't typically do any real damage. The damage occurs in crevices, where high concentrations of chlorine can cause damage. If you look at modern cars that are rusting, you'll notice that the rust is usually adjacent to a seam.
The Corolla uses galvanneal coated steel on all of its exposed and underbody sheet metal components. They are fastened in such as way as not to allow moisture to puddle up. The chAssis receives a phosphate wash, an E-coat, a primer coat, then a base coat. So it takes quite a while for the salt to attack these areas.
A quick rinsing of the underside won't get the crevices, so you may not be doing much good down there. And parking in the street isn't any worse for rust than parking in a garage, unless it is constantly getting sprayed with road salt.
A good, thorough cleaning helps remove the salt. It's important to get the salt off after the temps have warmed up since warm wet salt is far more corrosive than anything else. In fact, dried salt does not corrode. It has to be wet to produce corrosion.
Dai_Shan
Otherwise you can bring your car to a autobody place....often they have a antirust spray Lifetime warrenty poilicy. Where if you come in once a year to get it sprayed if you ever get any rust on underside it is covered 100%.
Friend did that on a truck he had...and liked it a lot. Helps with resale also.
Otherwise you could just get it sprayed every couple yrs.
