Corrosion
Corrosion Hello folks....
I just purchased a 02 Camaro from Maryland and noticed that there's quite a bit of corrosion on most all aluminum parts and undercarriage. The person I purchased it from lives near the beach too. I live in California and not used to seeing this. My questions:
1. Is this something I should be concerned about?
2. I know how to handle the steel parts, but what about the aluminum?
3. Is this corrosion normal for these aluminum engines?
The car has less than 4000 miles and I just can't imagine it would get that bad in such a short time. Any help with trying to fix this would be very appreciated. I really like the car and want to protect it as best I can. Even the Auburn rearend cover and bolts are corroded.
Regards,
Al
I just purchased a 02 Camaro from Maryland and noticed that there's quite a bit of corrosion on most all aluminum parts and undercarriage. The person I purchased it from lives near the beach too. I live in California and not used to seeing this. My questions:
1. Is this something I should be concerned about?
2. I know how to handle the steel parts, but what about the aluminum?
3. Is this corrosion normal for these aluminum engines?
The car has less than 4000 miles and I just can't imagine it would get that bad in such a short time. Any help with trying to fix this would be very appreciated. I really like the car and want to protect it as best I can. Even the Auburn rearend cover and bolts are corroded.
Regards,
Al
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 598
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From: Midland, TX
I have heard many things about cars from up north being rusted because of the weather conditions and the salt that is laid down on the road for ice. My car is from up north and I broke every bolt when taking off my cats. I was going to just gut them but since everything just broke and I would have to pay serious $$ to get them drilled out, I just got headers. I would just worry about doing any mods. Other than that its fine.
Thanks for the info BlkCamaro. I don't plan on doing any mods, but I think I'll lift the car up and check the extent of damage. I can pretty much handle the steel stuff, but it's the aluminum that I'm concerned about. Will it continue to corrode if I don't do something fast...? You know stuff like that. Should I wash it real good and compress air dry right away and that's enough? I'm almost affraid of what I'll find once I lift it. I'll hit the steel stuff with a wire wheel and paint. I'm thinking of taking the exhaust manifolds off, cleaning them, and then paint them with cast paint. I may replace those bolts too. I may end up replacing a bunch of bolts. I want to get the damaged bolts off before the rust causes more damage. I was just wondering if others may come across this and what they did to correct the problem.
Thanks!
Thanks!
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 598
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From: Midland, TX
I would recommend checking the extent of the rust. I don't know that much about the aluminum rusting. I would just get a scotch brite pad and scrape as much off as possible then polish it with a polish that will prevent corrosion. You should be able to find that at any auto store. I would also recommend changing out the bolts and painting as you said. You shouldn't have to worry about it too much now that you are in Cali. If you live by the beach, I might check it every once in a while though because of the salt in the air. For some reason that salt causes it to corrode much faster.
Thanks. Don't live near the beach at all. Know what ya mean about how corrosive the salt can be on aluminum. I sure would've thought that the GM folks would've thought about this knowing that "some" of these car would end up near the beach and salt air. I guess it's metal and what can you do against corrosion....?
Thanks.
Thanks.
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TECH Resident
Joined: Jun 2005
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From: Finland
If you dont have time to work on it right away I would put soak the bolts and such in WD40 constantly (keep spraying them), and put a coat of grease onto the bare metals... (I do that when I am working on restoring my Charger and dont want parts to rust up while being worked with...)
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Verdad Gallardo Thanks TA. I thought of hitting the parts I could with a wire brush and as you've mentioned, spraying a little WD40 until I could really get at it. I don't think that'll work for the parts that get hot like the exhaust stuff though. I'll still get a brush to those just to remove what's there.
I was out at lunch a rubbed my fingers across some of the corrosion on one of the accsessories and it seemed to come off. Maybe most of this stuff is just surface corrosion. Once I get all this stuff removed, I'll hit it with WD and see how long that'll last.
I was out at lunch a rubbed my fingers across some of the corrosion on one of the accsessories and it seemed to come off. Maybe most of this stuff is just surface corrosion. Once I get all this stuff removed, I'll hit it with WD and see how long that'll last.
TECH Resident
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 875
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From: Finland
Well good luck with it... on a side note, in karting due to rules we cannot paint or modify the exhaust pipe at all, but due to the heat the factory original paint burns off on every one of them (they are fiberglass mat packed)... So we always spray them with WD40 after each race/practice day... Same with bare metal axles and such.
Thanks a bunch for the ideas. Did these axles come bare metal from the factory? I would've thought they would've painted them. Great suggestion schwindj. I'll take it there this weekend for an inspection. Should be interesting to see how they see it. All good ideas. Thanks for the help!
Al
Al
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 598
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From: Midland, TX
I'm not sure if GM will cover something like that if the warranty is already out. Maybe on the newer vehicles with a 7 year warranty but our cars only came with a 3 year if I can remember right. Maybe it was 5. ??? That means that just about every f-body is out of warranty. Hope you're one of the lucky ones.
I got to thinkin' 'bout this and wondered too if the warranty is only good for the original owner. Maybe be wrong on this, but I'm heading to the dealer and will find out. Maybe they'll show me a few things I'd miss too.
Al
Al
