Rust!

[Ian Lanc]

Well I took the car for it's MOT and it passed again but this time there was an advisory about slight rust on the edge of the rear sill, I know it's a bit rusty and had every intention to get it sorted, but blimey was I in for a shock! Removed the wheel & wheel arch liner only to see even more rust, luckily there's no rot but if left it would turn into rot, our car looks very decent for a 10 plate, don't let a good looking car fool you into thinking everything is mint, spent the day removing all the rust and repainting it, the part hidden by the liner has been caked in grease, whilst the car was jacked up I also noticed bubbling of the paint, so got a chisel and skimmed off the paint, this revealed rust along the entire length of both sills, the rust was on the underside of the sill, so couldn't really spot it.

[Mavroz]

The focus I used to have developed similar rust, especially noticeable blistering all around the top of the wheel arch on both rears. 

[nicam49]

There's a YouTube of an X-Type Jag that looks pretty decent till you see a shot of the underneath. It's fully rotten both lengths of the sills. 

[Ian Lanc]

To behonest I'm shocked to find the rust along the sills, the underside of the sill has a rubbery protective coating, but the rust has started from underneath it, odd this is, so it must be the steel that has been used from the start which has caused this! I can remember Ford buying very cheap steel from one country and this steel contained a lot of salt, so no matter what you did, you'd never stop the rust from rusting inside to the outside, this cheap steel was purchased in the late 1980's early 1990's and many Ford cars suffered with bad rust & rot  early in life, the Escort/Orion/Sierra suffered really badly at the time.

I have seen other newish Fords suffering from rust, even seeing a 09 plated maroon Fiesta which was a mass of rust around the base of the arches on all four wheel arches

Our car hasn't done mega miles, it's a 10 plate and only done 50,000 miles and it's always been kept clean.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

I remember the Lancia Delta of the 70's/80's which would virtually rust before your eyes. Story with that was that Fiat had got a cheap supply of steel, from Russia iirc, which was of very poor qualty.

We had similar rust issues with our old Ka Mk 1 and I heard a similar explanation - that some were built using batches of poor quality steel. Some I see have very little rust, whereas others are in a dreadful state - I have seen one where virtually the whole nsr panel had gone.

[Ian Lanc]

41 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I remember the Lancia Delta of the 70's/80's which would virtually rust before your eyes.

I knew of a guy who owned a pub near Lincoln and he got himself a brand new Lancia Delta Integrale, it was a beast of a machine, but only a couple of years in rust was spotted and no matter what he did, he couldn't stop the rust, then on one MOT test, the car failed because of rot along the chassis rails, he fell out of love & gave up on that car, so stuffed it in the storage section of the pub back yard, over the years as we passed by we could see the Delta gradually getting worse, first indication was seeing the lower plastic sill covers drop off one end, then a few months later the sill cover was on the floor, then one day a back door was dropped down, then a few months later the door was on the floor, eventually it got trailered up and took off to a scrapyard, sad times for many Deltas.

[TomsFocus]

The Delta Integrale is one of my favourite retro cars, there are still a few about at the shows & meets!  Doubt much of the bodywork is still original by now though!

[Ian Lanc]

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

The Delta Integrale is one of my favourite retro cars, there are still a few about at the shows & meets!  Doubt much of the bodywork is still original by now though!

Local to me is a monster of a Delta, it's a yellow 'Giallo Ginestra Special Edition' ...It only comes out his garage no more than 5 times a year....Saddo!!

Not the actual car but exactly the same as this:

 

[nicam49]

I remember an edition of Wheeler Dealers where they managed to find a rust-free Integrale to restore. Nice car! 

[isetta]

Back to the rubbery coating. I have had mAny cars where the rust has got under the rubbery coating. You press on the coating and feel rust crunching under it. Sometimes it’s like it’s worse because the rubber coating is holding damp in. On my 2007 fiesta rust started creeping under the rubbery coating when 5 years old. You need to do your on checks underneath every year to keep it under control. Most people just rely on mot but if it fails mot on rust it’s been left far too late. 

[Ian Lanc]

1 hour ago, isetta said:

 Most people just rely on mot but if it fails mot on rust it’s been left far too late. 

This is what is BUGGING ME..... Since the car started with it's MOT's & servicing they have all been done at a Ford dealership and every time the paint inspection sheet comes back as being virtually rust free, pictures showing what they'd supposedly checked and passed, they did mention about the slight rust at the end of the sills last year, but it's only surface rust, so nothing to worry about, they said!!! ..... 

This year I didn't use Ford for my MOT and this garage spotted the rust at the ends, then i spotted the severe rust along the lower edge of the sills, there's no way in one year that the rust had developed that badly, so I'm thinking Ford NEVER even bothered to check the underside, nor any of the panels, just ticked the sheet and that was the end of it.

[Bolosun]

Get the rust off and paint it. If you are worried about it coming back, treat regulary with ACF50 or XCP's equivalent. 

[Ian Lanc]

2 hours ago, Bolosun said:

Get the rust off and paint it.

Already have matey, inner arches totally sorted out and the hidden seam behind the liner is massed in thick grease, rust on the underside of the sills removed and treated and primed, did a few layers of green paint and then lacquered, but then ran out of green paint about 2 feet long, will fetch some more paint when everything is back to normal.

[Ian Lanc]

I should have taken pics of the sills as they 'was' with the rust on and then 'after' pics without the arch liner fitted & the redone sills.

I've also removed the rust off the trailing arms and repainted them, should look good for a few years now.

Two pics though of one side, a bit happier if i'm honest.

[Eatonm112]

I have a 15 plate Fiesta and found rust under the panel on the boot lid which is where the Ford badge is. It was a great find as I wouldn't normally check something like that on such a new car. In addition to that I found more on the scuttle panel whilst trying to find the source of a water leak so out came a sanding block and hammerite paint.

When I bought my car I actually took all the trim out and wax oiled all the inner seams etc with the hope of never having rust issues so soon.

Thanks to the OP as I will get my car on axle stands and go rust hunting whist this virus thing does the rounds.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Eatonm112
extra info

[Ian Lanc]

15 hours ago, Eatonm112 said:

When I bought my car I actually took all the trim out and wax oiled all the inner seams etc with the hope of never having rust issues so soon.

Thanks to the OP as I will get my car on axle stands and go rust hunting whist this virus thing does the rounds.

When we got our fiesta which was brand new by the way, I got under the car and popped off all those rubber covers [black covers can be seen in the pic] off the sills and blasted everywhere with wax/oil, also blew it through every drain hole on the doors/boot/bonnet until it was flowing out, thought our car wouldn't rust after that treatment, alas I wasted money & time...... Also hearing of horror stories of rust appearing near both top corners of the roof seam sealed joint, near the boot-lid hinges, rust lifts the seam sealant then water starts pouring into the boot....luckily ours is fine.

To behonest you wouldn't expect to see the rust behind the wheel arch liner would you ?, thought this was it's job to keep everything clean & dry, one thing that does annoy me is the lack of paint, just looks to be the usual dip anti-rust coating & grey primer, then the body colour fades in.

Another section of rust I've found is at the end of the chassis rails & the side of the rails, right behind the rear bumper, these areas are tucked up and hard to see because of the bumper shape, so the only way to check is either if it's up on a car lift or jacked up at the rear end and lay on your back and wiggle under the car slightly until you see these sections, i've scraped off all the lose rust and just smothered everything in grease.

Found a net picture and made two paper arrows showing where the rust is located on our car, pretty sure this won't be just our car but thousands of others too.

[isetta]

From the type of material used on some wheel arch liners it seems to me they are more concerned about using them for sound deadening 

[Ian Lanc]

17 minutes ago, isetta said:

From the type of material used on some wheel arch liners it seems to me they are more concerned about using them for sound deadening 

You know I've thought that too as it's kinda like a sound deadening material, one wonders now if water can get through the material, maybe sweat in the upper arch, then run down the gully and then be trapped, thus the rust starts.

[Glenn hastie]

does anyone know how the long the ford corrosion warranty is? just found a bad patch or corrosion on my 2012 fiesta spare wheel well where the backbox heatshild bolts onto.

[isetta]

I thought the corrosion warranty only covered rust going through the metal from one side to the other. Eg sill rusting through from the inside to the outer

[Comares2001]

11 hours ago, Glenn hastie said:

does anyone know how the long the ford corrosion warranty is? just found a bad patch or corrosion on my 2012 fiesta spare wheel well where the backbox heatshild bolts onto.

7 years i think . In any case you will need to have a fully stamped service book  ( preferably Ford)  inc the body check section before you will get anywhere. I had to have some body corrosion repairs  done once under warranty.

[TomsFocus]

Paintwork warranty is 3 years, perforation warranty (rust holes in bodywork) is 12 years.

Only applicable if you have a full paint check record in the service book (it's separate from the service stamps) and only applies to manufacturer defects, not where a stone chip has been left long enough to cause rust for example.

[Bobr]

I had a car many years ago that suffered badly from rust.   I wire brushed it and painted it with 2 coats of Hammerite.   It lasted another 7 years.

[Glenn hastie]

9 hours ago, Comares2001 said:

7 years i think . In any case you will need to have a fully stamped service book  ( preferably Ford)  inc the body check section before you will get anywhere. I had to have some body corrosion repairs  done once under warranty.

Will bra shame cars due to turn 8 years old in June. Not sure if it would also be under it as a majority of the the service history is for how ever the last 3 services have been done by independent garages. 

[isetta]

If the rust is only on one side of the metal then the metal has not perforated so I don’t see it as being covered by the warranty what ever the service history is. Some cars get rust patches underneath. My previous 2007 fiesta did , my wifes 2010 Mazda 2 has, I cleaned it up and painted it 2 years ago. My 2004 vw lupo is fine underneath. It’s disappointing but it happens.