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Did some mid-winter preventive maintenance on the underside


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Was time to rotate the wife's tires, so I figured I would do some preventive maintenance to see about holding off rust. The car is a 2016 MY with about 16.5K miles on it. I really wanted to try out this Liquid Wrench Rust Inhibitor:

 

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x208/TOO40GAWLF/IMG_0667.jpg

 

Got the car up on stands on all 4 corners and pulled the wheels:

 

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x208/TOO40GAWLF/IMG_0669.jpg?t=1485023127

 

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x208/TOO40GAWLF/IMG_0670.jpg

 

Things looked pretty good underneath - I mean really pristine (knock on wood) but I liberally sprayed down every piece of exposed metal and fastener I could get to. The only issue I say was some very light rust developing on the exhaust pipes. Suspension components got some spraying down too:

 

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x208/TOO40GAWLF/IMG_0672.jpg

 

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x208/TOO40GAWLF/IMG_0671.jpg

 

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x208/TOO40GAWLF/IMG_0673.jpg

 

Im going to try to do this every 6 months or so as I intend to keep the car for a good while and hopefully this keeps the rust at bay.

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You might want to do the weep holes & channels in the trunk lid. My 14 started to rust around the holes. There are numerous posts in multiple questions in the 5th Gen forum on this topic. I'm thinking of spraying WD40 in the weep holes on my 17.
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Might want to avoid FF on exhaust system sections that get very hot? Several of the products have temp limits for use, and since it is lanolin based, there is probably a breakdown limit on all versions. Anyone sent a query to Eureka on that? I note in their usage descriptions they don't list hi-temp applications, and show a bulk temp limit of 405 degrees. Anyone have experience on this?
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Also FF states it should be only applied to bare metal, it apparently will eat through some undercoating paint. This is from their website.

"Fluid Film may soften some vehicle undercoatings. This includes undercoating type paints. Check with dealer/manufacturer for compatibility."

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Lets also not forget that a can of Liquid Wrench costs ~$4 and it only take a few minutes to spray the car down from front to back. 2 cans if you want to make a liberal application.

 

I think the cost and effort of applying Liquid Wrench 2 x a year beats is pretty cheap & easy compared to fluid film.

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  • 6 months later...

Just poked my head underneath to take a peek today. Been 6-7 months and one moderate Virginia winter since the original post. The car is due for an oil change in a couple of weeks, and I will take some more pictures if I have time and apply some more Liquid Wrench as Fall rolls in.

 

IMG_1180 by emanookian, on Flickr[/img]

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I have not heard of rust being an issue with Subaru. My son's '02 Forester was sold in '16 and had very minor rust issues although it lived its whole life in VT/NH/ME. In addition, the paint (dark green) remained its original color with only minor fading throughout his ownership. The summer before he sold it, we used a pen style touch up on a few scratches and the colors were very close.
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  • 5 months later...

So its been a year since I started this thread. As of now, the car has been through two full Virginia winters and and half of a Missouri winter. Its got just over 30K miles and thankfully, the underside has been holding up really well:

 

IMG_1513 by emanookian, on Flickr[/img]

 

IMG_1518 by emanookian, on Flickr[/img]

 

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4765/26061057578_29227ffc0d_b.jpg' alt='26061057578_29227ffc0d_b.jpg'>IMG_1517 by emanookian, on Flickr[/img]

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Thanks for the follow up on this. So did you just end up using just a can of the stuff in the first post? Any washing maintenance underneath that you did as well?

 

Yes, I started off with Liquid Wrench Rust Inhibitor and on the recommendation of some folks here switched to Fluid Film. The only washing I do is an occasional drive through the automatic car wash. If I had a heated pressure washer, I would certainly use that.

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Also look at what Tectyl http://www.tectylproducts.com/ and Dinitrol https://www.dinitroldirect.com/ offers. They may not be present in the US, but it works fine.

 

And remember - don't just put it on the outside - the serious rust comes from inside hollow compartments in the car where the humidity never escapes.

 

The protection shall be performed when the weather is dry and relatively warm so it's not sealing in moisture inside the body of the car speeding up the rust process.

453747.png
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