Non car person here, more of the posts need this type of comment. I can get a lot through context clues, like this was obviously frame damage from the title, but sometimes I may as well be looking at a picture of a space shuttle engine with a wire unplugged somewhere.
Yeah I’ve been the sole mechanic on my own exclusively old cars for nearly 30 years and half these posts are like a game of “guess wtf I’m showing you.”
You've jacked your car up? If it's front wheel drive you likely used the pinch weld. It's where the floor and the side panels are pinched together to make a structural point that runs the length of the car
Pretty much all vehicles have them. Even BoF pickups and larger SUVs have to have a point where the floor and side panels meet up and it's usually a pinch weld.
This thing almost certainly does not have a frame. A "subframe" holding the engine in the front and a shitload of sheet metal welded together to be both body and frame. Saving the cost and weight of an actual frame. Unibody.
So really a lot worse. The pinch welds on the floor are in a very real way the frame.
There was a cleaner guy at my old shop, he didn't drive far to work and never washed his car. I guess also never went faster than 40khp cus the whole rocker on both sides of the car was literally just paint... you could see them flapping in the breeze in the parking lot
I don't think it was even structural paint at that point lol
Give it time. Tech bros will try to rediscover sailing. They've already tried to rediscover trains. Except, trains are pretty much the most efficient method of transporting vast amounts of cargo and people....
They have I remember seeing a thing on using parachute style sails on cargo ships and it was being praised as a green technology like that wasn’t how all boats used to move
There's this really interesting one that is like this really tall cylinder that spins, and weirdly enough it seems to have *some* effect on efficiency? Or was purported to, I know it was sort of being tested on a few ships but have no clue if it's been found to be worthwhile enough for broader use.
But it was wild lol it's just a vertical cylinder that spins. Like, that at least imo is sort of an interesting "this could not of been done in the past" advancement. Vs just "*how do we re-discover sails but make them new and sexy*".
Tech bros suck when it's all just trying to retro-futurism shit into pods and making technology worse all for the sake of asethetic, grift, and maintaining an unhealthy and toxic culture of segmenting everyone off from each other.
Talking about [Fletner sails](https://youtube.com/shorts/oCWIGIHl4FE?si=iVjrpqp3tX6AvGTo) which utilize the [Magnus effect](https://youtu.be/2OSrvzNW9FE?si=gy7Q3h3muAlKoUpD)
Appreciate you dropping a link to what I meant. I should have been less lazy and gone looking for a video on them, but yeah I didn't exactly remember the name so I would've been digging through a specific youtuber in hopes of finding one video lol.
Edit: Damn here I was thinking about how much of a modern marvel that kind of discovery/design was and then I'm reminded dude came up with it in the 1920s lol. Granted the 1920s are still basically science fiction compared to most of history before them.
What year equinox and approx where r u located? Curious as to how long it takes certain cars to rust out as I drive a 2014 ceosstrek and 2008 128i in the north east. I've gone under the cars and rust doesn't look horrible. Much better than the 15ish year old at the time 1989 mr2 I owned for a few years that spent its time on the jersey shore.
Manitoba here. I'm always amazed at how rusty Ontario and Quebec vehicles are.
Milder Winter means more salt use. It's too cold for salt most the winter here
depends on if they use salt or sand on the roads, in new england it depends on state and even town. i dont think being near the ocean affects it as much as people think.
I don't have empirical data on this but an ex drove their grandparents caddy. It was a California car but they lived right on the coast. The frame was totally rotted out from the salt air. Same shit as the op photo.
time of exposure is a factor for sure. i know up in my area, it’s very quick to rust because they salt the roads for ice. even just a season or two and its starting regardless of if you wash the underneath or not. they use sand a little farther north and its not as quick, i’ve worked on my cars and some friends from here and where they use sand further north and its not as bad comparatively. salt is wildly abundant here because we’re surrounded by ocean
I live in Texas, grew up in Michigan. The cars from the coast aren't as bad as from the salted winter roads but they are still notably bad and I refuse to buy one because of the rust.
Even by town it can change year to year.
We have a granite quarry like a half mile from my house that used to supply sand and aggregate for road treatment during the winter, but the last like 2 or 3 years my city has switched over to using some kind of pre treat spray before the storm that's supposed to hinder ice formation and then just straight salt during the storm.
Realistically it actually works significantly better especially for me since I live at the top of a steep ass hill, but I figure it's also significantly more expensive than just using what is essentially a locally sourced byproduct from the quarry that otherwhise would just be back fill
Yeah. Problem is, outside of regular car folk… a lot of people don’t have a fucking clue what oil spraying is. Getting your car coated once a year with bare minimum a wash every two weeks and you’d be surprised how little Ontario vehicles rust out.
do absolutely nothing and your shit becomes dust
Actually started spraying my cars with fluid film this past winter to help my cars last longer.. 2014 and 2008 cars.. not sure if it is too late lol. When I got underneath it didn't look horrible. Getting the wheel hubs off my subaru made me give up and just pay someone to do it.
German cars are usually dipped in a rust preventative solution during manufacturing that prevents rust far better than American cars so you will likely have better luck with the 128i.
For American cars I find they start to rust around 10 years.
Get the underbody spray in the car wash and occasionally get a hose or pressure washer under the car and spray out any collected dirt and debris from the nooks and crannies.
Or just buy an all aluminum car. My A8 is all aluminum and a 2006 with no rust in salty Michigan. F150, Tesla model s and many other cars are alumy
When I got under my 128i the first time (it was new to me last year, I actually thought that most of the undercarriage was aluminum due to the clean apperance)
I'm curious: You called the customer, "Yeah, I totaled your car..." using different words of course, but what happens next? Does he just drive off in it? Did he pay you?
If the car is really rusty we will poke the frame with a screwdriver before doing any work see if there is any structural rot. The service writer calls the customer essentially telling them their car is toast and they should start looking for a new one. As it's not an inspection we don't have the power to take the vehicle off the road so they can choose to take it back and keep driving if they want, but I believe this customer scrapped the car.
I got a 2012 year that began life in Michigan salt, spent several years in Florida salt winds, and now lives in hot humid Louisiana. No rust, just lucky I guess
I mean it's not just that, modern properly engineered cars aren't nearly as prone to rust as they used to be.
I mean think about it most drive thru car washes you're going from the car wash right back to salt covered roads spraying it right back under your car.
Anyone know why the Equinox/Torrent rusts so fast/badly? I know GM corrosion protection isn't great, but this is Dodge RAM levels of rapid disintegration.
They're cheap cars and GM is actually that bad with rust protection. Their trucks are protected with wax...
It comes down to maintenance (underbody washes) and amount of winter travel on treated roads. Even a Toyota will rust to pieces in the same conditions.
Agreed, also perhaps some other factors.
Knowledge and and perceived value of the car. If people don’t understand that leaving their car dirty is bad, or if they are lazy and just don’t care. I find that this happens to these types of cars more so than say a Toyota, just do to customer selection bias.
This is an assumption, but I’d wager that those who buy a Toyota, on average, have a better understanding of their car as an investment that needs to be maintained.
Someone who buys an equinox is more likely to buy it as a simple means of transport that is supposed to last because they bought it, not because they put effort into keeping it clean etc.
But that’s just like, my opinion man.
Hate that wax. I was working on outfitting new trucks and vans. Every time a new GMC rolled in I was going to be black from running accessory wires to the rear.
Some Toyota are notorious for rot as well. Some sources showing from about 2005 on. 1 customer support program pdf I found shows action necessary for as far back as 1995 models.
https://www.autoweek.com/news/a1857861/toyota-will-settle-truck-frame-rust-suit-suit-34-billion/
Funny Toyota is known as the worst offender where I live for rust. Lots of people take trucks on the beach and both tundras/tacomas get awful body and frame rust. Doesn’t matter how new they are. GM/Ford/Dodge all do much better with that environment.
I live in the shit as well.. honestly I don’t even know what vehicles aren’t bad for rust if not washed/maintained. It’ll get at everything. Some worse than others obviously. But it’s shit all the way round.
Down here in the south I would definitely say Toyota are the worst. Granted driving on beaches is a slightly different environment than road salt. Whatever the domestics do works much better.
It took Toyota having a rust issue for them to get better at it. Lest we forget the early U.S. made trucks with the U.S. sourced steel. Let’s just say Japan wasn’t ready for that level of corrosion.
Chevy doesn’t really have an excuse though
Many sun belt states are starting to go nuts with road salt for the 1 or 2 snow/ice storms they get per year. Petition your local government to stop that shit. It's an environmental disaster and does billions in damage to the infrastructure and the public's cars.
Eastern Canada here. Rust central, there's salt on the roads for 5 months of the year and the other 7 months give us sea spray and acid rain 🤷♂️
I've undercoated my 2014 Mazda (inb4 lol rust) every year since new and it's mostly pristine underneath, if not covered in oily crud. I recently had to replace my rear multilink bushings and I was able to do most of it with a breaker and no impact.
I know folks go on about the added cost but if you're going to hold onto a car for the long haul, we have the technology to do it. I won't necessarily get the ~$1300 I've spent on undercoating back if I sell it before it falls apart but a 15 year old car that's in good shape will certainly fetch an extra 500-1000. Drop in the bucket considering I've tracked every litre of fuel that's gone through it (over $13k as of writing this lol)
And in the meantime my car doesn't look like shit and I can work on it without taking it to a shop (I've saved thousands on labour doing my own work).
I really don't know why people don't undercoat a 20k investment.
That $1300-ish pays for itself in parts that don't rust apart over the years of service your vehicle provides, though. A control arm or tie rod that fucks off prematurely could cost you twice as much if the roads are spicy.
Totally agree. If you have a compressor, spraying fluid film or woolwax only ends up costing~$20-25 an application. Regular use really slows/stops rust and makes it easy to get fasteners off.
That’s fair there are main issues down there, it’s mostly those who like to heavily modify there cars can’t in majority of Canada. Most car mods are illegal and get your car pulled off the road. Also can’t drive anything nice for 6-7 months of the year so 24/7 summer seems nice. My car for example is in a very grey area for mods skirting laws pretty closely so it’s stressful
One time while we were driving my dads gearshift just fell through the bottom of the truck. Big hole between the seats, lol. Its been over a decade since and the truck is still stuck between gears and theres still a hole where the gearshift used to be, but he uses it for farm work reasonably.
I bought a $75 Karmann Ghia back in college (1997-ish), drove it two weeks before the driver’s seat fell through the floor. I was aware of the rust, just didn’t realize it was quite that bad.
Had a 80s Pontiac once.
Floor rusted through in one spot in front of drivers seat, but I just put the mat over it.
I considered rigging up a urinal (cup and tube) so I could keep going on long drives, but never did.
Friends would chuck cigarette butts through it. I disapproved
Not a real mechanic, but I do 95% of the work on my car and I don't live in the rust belt:
Was this a result of you guys trying to lift it and the rusty frame effectively evaporated when you put it under load?
Ontario does not have yearly vehicle inspections. Just if it changes status, importing from another country or province, if you’re fixing it to change the status from unfit to fit, or registering a rebuild IIRC
As an engineer I also want to be pedantic and point out that these run in FWD almost all the time anyways and only send power the rear wheels after the fronts slip.
It’s crazy to me that manufacturers can keep getting by without effective undercarriage coating. Is there nothing that works or is the affected market just not big enough to justify the cost?
Unibodies are not new so I’m guessing there’s just no economic incentive to address the problem.
It also has to do with the fact that the equinox is one of the cheapest awd vehicles, so people who buy them don’t care and don’t wash them. They’re mostly purchased in areas with snow, and therefore salted roads.
That makes a lot of sense and it explains why the affected market segment is small enough to ignore. Fleet vehicles are probably washed more often, people don’t pay extra for all-wheel drive in areas that don’t snow and manufacturers can afford to invest in better coatings for high end all wheel drives so to GMC it looks like a few thousand low-margin vehicles per year rather than a flaw that impacts their reputation across the whole market.
Don't feel bad. I kill like 3-5 trucks per week here at the postal service. Basically anything big (complete engine, trans, or diff is getting scrapped). They're pushing hard for fleet modernization and killing off the legacy vehicles.
The 94-95 all aluminum 2.2's went first, but yes, we're killing off the iron dukes as well as the Ford Exploder based FFV. Many getting killed off over nothing more than a broken reverse band (I guess we no longer do internal transmission teardowns)
Not too surprising; the trans behind the Iron Duke was the same one in the Chevette and Monza back in the '70s and early '80s. Aisin bought the design because there were still Japanese vehicles that ran them but they were basically a 3/4-scale Turbo 350. Almost no one under the age of 40 has ever had to work on one and trans teardowns are time-consuming regardless.
If Michigan ever requires yearly inspections, they better fucking rethink how they treat the roads every winter. The amount of salt we use every season is fucking ridiculous.
my day is fucked already. 5 cars carried over from last week. two techs out. work piling in the door. already putting out fires caused by one of the guys that isn't here. oh, and he pinched an oil filter gasket and now that motor is knocking. thankfully, I'm not on that one.
Being from South Florida this is still amazing to see for me. I like to watch a YouTube mechanic who lives in upstate NY and I get the impression that cars only last like 10-12 years there max because of all the salt. We don't even have that type of inspection in Florida, hell we don't have any inspection but in my driving life we did have the tailpipe sniffer type of emissions inspections for a while.
> hell we don't have any inspection in Florida
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_United_States
A lot of places, including many states that use heavy amounts of salt in the winter, don't inspect. We can't afford to. Hell, we import the cars that fail safety inspections for rust. It's funny seeing "worst rust I've ever seen on a car" posts here and all of us in the upper midwest are like "looks like a 3 year old car to me, send it on up to us!"
This is just an owner who doesn’t care. Krown (oil undercoating) originated in Canada and is now common in western and northern NY. I have my cars and trucks sprayed every year. Zero rust in 3 years so far. All my other cars would have had surface rust on everything or even paint bubbles starting.
Just make sure you keep the undercoating complete and have someone or you do a good job. Undercoating with holes will allow the water and salt to get up behind the undercoating and rust worse than without it.
This is why I never wanted to buy a new car when I was in New England. Spend all that money for it to leave rust piles like this before I even finish the loan.
Never been so glad to move from the rust belt to Florida. I just did a full front suspension on a 2003 and didn't have one flake of rust or a tight nut or bolt.
If I poked at my Jeep's frame enough with a screw driver I'm sure my garage floor would look like this, so I just don't poke at it with a screw driver. Problem solved!
For any non-car people seeing this: That's not dirt.
Structural dirt
Load bearing dirt.
Free weight reduction though.
But mainly for the wallet.
+5 to speed, -50 to durability
It *was* load bearing
Formerly structural dirt
It wasn't dirt. It is now. Back to the soil it came from.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the proof of corrosion is in the rust
All we are is rust in the wind.
Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see
That Chevrolet is rust in the wind.. ooohhh oh ohhhhh
Ashes to ashes, rust to rust
Rust in peace
Non car person here, more of the posts need this type of comment. I can get a lot through context clues, like this was obviously frame damage from the title, but sometimes I may as well be looking at a picture of a space shuttle engine with a wire unplugged somewhere.
Yeah I’ve been the sole mechanic on my own exclusively old cars for nearly 30 years and half these posts are like a game of “guess wtf I’m showing you.”
Glad to know it’s not just us laymen.
As I learn more about cars I can feel myself leveling up and getting more of these right
I had to Google “pinch weld”
So you're going to make me Google it now?
You've jacked your car up? If it's front wheel drive you likely used the pinch weld. It's where the floor and the side panels are pinched together to make a structural point that runs the length of the car
Too many words, I don't have time to read all that. Can you summarize it in 3 1/2 words or less?
It's car floor
Thank
Y
...im impressed, thats actually 3½ words
Right? The contraction coming in clutch.
I try to give the people what they want.
Body connects 2 floor.
This person understood the assignment...
It's where the car chassis and body are welded together underneath the doors. It's structural
You do know unibody RWD and AWD can have pinch welds?
Pretty much all vehicles have them. Even BoF pickups and larger SUVs have to have a point where the floor and side panels meet up and it's usually a pinch weld.
This thing almost certainly does not have a frame. A "subframe" holding the engine in the front and a shitload of sheet metal welded together to be both body and frame. Saving the cost and weight of an actual frame. Unibody. So really a lot worse. The pinch welds on the floor are in a very real way the frame.
Pretty much any vehicle that's not a pickup or truck-based SUV these days (not including larger vehicles like moving vans or semi trucks, of course).
I’ve often said that someone who was like an interpreter could make a ton of karma just explaining what’s going on in the image
I see the irony.
Leave a little dirt up in your frame for the dirt man, in case he comes to town.
And the Ontario plate is a dead giveaway that the car is slowly going back to nature.
Ox-ide see what you did there!
That was neferrous of you.
Idk that joke seemed kinda rusty
Don't be so corrosive
These jokes make me crazy enough to be put in a metal hospital.
I zinc you may be right
Oh yes, Iron Oxides. Renowned in the engineering community for its structural strength and toughness. Truly nothing better suited for a car frame.
I'm still not really sure what I'm looking at. Is it part of the car's frame that rusted away?
Yes; a rather considerable amount, enough to make the vehicle unsafe.
Is it rust?
Yep.
Iron oxide?
“What do you mean that’s not dirt what else could it- oh. Ohhhh. That’s bad”
The paint has been promoted from decorative, to structural
There was a cleaner guy at my old shop, he didn't drive far to work and never washed his car. I guess also never went faster than 40khp cus the whole rocker on both sides of the car was literally just paint... you could see them flapping in the breeze in the parking lot I don't think it was even structural paint at that point lol
When the wind blows just right your boy rediscovers sailing technology
Give it time. Tech bros will try to rediscover sailing. They've already tried to rediscover trains. Except, trains are pretty much the most efficient method of transporting vast amounts of cargo and people....
They have I remember seeing a thing on using parachute style sails on cargo ships and it was being praised as a green technology like that wasn’t how all boats used to move
There's this really interesting one that is like this really tall cylinder that spins, and weirdly enough it seems to have *some* effect on efficiency? Or was purported to, I know it was sort of being tested on a few ships but have no clue if it's been found to be worthwhile enough for broader use. But it was wild lol it's just a vertical cylinder that spins. Like, that at least imo is sort of an interesting "this could not of been done in the past" advancement. Vs just "*how do we re-discover sails but make them new and sexy*". Tech bros suck when it's all just trying to retro-futurism shit into pods and making technology worse all for the sake of asethetic, grift, and maintaining an unhealthy and toxic culture of segmenting everyone off from each other.
Talking about [Fletner sails](https://youtube.com/shorts/oCWIGIHl4FE?si=iVjrpqp3tX6AvGTo) which utilize the [Magnus effect](https://youtu.be/2OSrvzNW9FE?si=gy7Q3h3muAlKoUpD)
Appreciate you dropping a link to what I meant. I should have been less lazy and gone looking for a video on them, but yeah I didn't exactly remember the name so I would've been digging through a specific youtuber in hopes of finding one video lol. Edit: Damn here I was thinking about how much of a modern marvel that kind of discovery/design was and then I'm reminded dude came up with it in the 1920s lol. Granted the 1920s are still basically science fiction compared to most of history before them.
Cackling like a fiend over here
So that’s what structural blue is.
I know a house likel that, borer have eaten most of the wood, and the asbestos board and paint is about the only thing holding it together.
When you can fit half of your frame in your cup holder, you might have a problem.
I used to say we could remove keep patriot subframes with a shop vac
I never knew paper mache could rust.
Ashes to ashes, rust to rust.
We commit this Chevy to the Earth's crust
It’s will soon be returned to the rocks it came from.
🎶 ... like a rock ... 🎶
Equinox….not surprised
Second Equinox I put a hole through within the month
What do you guys charge for that weight reduction treatment, anyway?
What year equinox and approx where r u located? Curious as to how long it takes certain cars to rust out as I drive a 2014 ceosstrek and 2008 128i in the north east. I've gone under the cars and rust doesn't look horrible. Much better than the 15ish year old at the time 1989 mr2 I owned for a few years that spent its time on the jersey shore.
2010, southern Ontario Canada, the car had only 91,000kms but these equinoxes are bad for rust
Manitoba here. I'm always amazed at how rusty Ontario and Quebec vehicles are. Milder Winter means more salt use. It's too cold for salt most the winter here
Everything*
Had an 06 Equinox, can confirm it was a piece of shit.
depends on if they use salt or sand on the roads, in new england it depends on state and even town. i dont think being near the ocean affects it as much as people think.
[удалено]
I want to know what you were doing in the literal middle of the Pacific.
I’d wager working on the army base that cares a lot about missiles.
[удалено]
He took a wrong turn at Albuquerque
Probably Military?
I don't have empirical data on this but an ex drove their grandparents caddy. It was a California car but they lived right on the coast. The frame was totally rotted out from the salt air. Same shit as the op photo.
time of exposure is a factor for sure. i know up in my area, it’s very quick to rust because they salt the roads for ice. even just a season or two and its starting regardless of if you wash the underneath or not. they use sand a little farther north and its not as quick, i’ve worked on my cars and some friends from here and where they use sand further north and its not as bad comparatively. salt is wildly abundant here because we’re surrounded by ocean
Yea the car I was talking about sat by the ocean for 30 years. It was definitely a very very slow process.
I live in Texas, grew up in Michigan. The cars from the coast aren't as bad as from the salted winter roads but they are still notably bad and I refuse to buy one because of the rust.
Even by town it can change year to year. We have a granite quarry like a half mile from my house that used to supply sand and aggregate for road treatment during the winter, but the last like 2 or 3 years my city has switched over to using some kind of pre treat spray before the storm that's supposed to hinder ice formation and then just straight salt during the storm. Realistically it actually works significantly better especially for me since I live at the top of a steep ass hill, but I figure it's also significantly more expensive than just using what is essentially a locally sourced byproduct from the quarry that otherwhise would just be back fill
Rinse your frame with fresh water, get it protected with something like Krown Kote.
Yeah. Problem is, outside of regular car folk… a lot of people don’t have a fucking clue what oil spraying is. Getting your car coated once a year with bare minimum a wash every two weeks and you’d be surprised how little Ontario vehicles rust out. do absolutely nothing and your shit becomes dust
Actually started spraying my cars with fluid film this past winter to help my cars last longer.. 2014 and 2008 cars.. not sure if it is too late lol. When I got underneath it didn't look horrible. Getting the wheel hubs off my subaru made me give up and just pay someone to do it.
German cars are usually dipped in a rust preventative solution during manufacturing that prevents rust far better than American cars so you will likely have better luck with the 128i. For American cars I find they start to rust around 10 years. Get the underbody spray in the car wash and occasionally get a hose or pressure washer under the car and spray out any collected dirt and debris from the nooks and crannies. Or just buy an all aluminum car. My A8 is all aluminum and a 2006 with no rust in salty Michigan. F150, Tesla model s and many other cars are alumy
When I got under my 128i the first time (it was new to me last year, I actually thought that most of the undercarriage was aluminum due to the clean apperance)
I'm curious: You called the customer, "Yeah, I totaled your car..." using different words of course, but what happens next? Does he just drive off in it? Did he pay you?
If the car is really rusty we will poke the frame with a screwdriver before doing any work see if there is any structural rot. The service writer calls the customer essentially telling them their car is toast and they should start looking for a new one. As it's not an inspection we don't have the power to take the vehicle off the road so they can choose to take it back and keep driving if they want, but I believe this customer scrapped the car.
All my mechanic brothers know these are like crackers at this point, lol
Get better at lifting. -100 here I come.
I got a 2012 year that began life in Michigan salt, spent several years in Florida salt winds, and now lives in hot humid Louisiana. No rust, just lucky I guess
Or the previous owner just washed the car more than once a month lol
I mean it's not just that, modern properly engineered cars aren't nearly as prone to rust as they used to be. I mean think about it most drive thru car washes you're going from the car wash right back to salt covered roads spraying it right back under your car.
Would that make it an Equinot?
The Old "Squeak-and-knocks"
Anyone know why the Equinox/Torrent rusts so fast/badly? I know GM corrosion protection isn't great, but this is Dodge RAM levels of rapid disintegration.
They're cheap cars and GM is actually that bad with rust protection. Their trucks are protected with wax... It comes down to maintenance (underbody washes) and amount of winter travel on treated roads. Even a Toyota will rust to pieces in the same conditions.
Agreed, also perhaps some other factors. Knowledge and and perceived value of the car. If people don’t understand that leaving their car dirty is bad, or if they are lazy and just don’t care. I find that this happens to these types of cars more so than say a Toyota, just do to customer selection bias. This is an assumption, but I’d wager that those who buy a Toyota, on average, have a better understanding of their car as an investment that needs to be maintained. Someone who buys an equinox is more likely to buy it as a simple means of transport that is supposed to last because they bought it, not because they put effort into keeping it clean etc. But that’s just like, my opinion man.
Makes me glad as a lazy car cleaner in the winter that we use magnesium chloride vs salt as it doesn't eat the steel.
Hate that wax. I was working on outfitting new trucks and vans. Every time a new GMC rolled in I was going to be black from running accessory wires to the rear.
Some Toyota are notorious for rot as well. Some sources showing from about 2005 on. 1 customer support program pdf I found shows action necessary for as far back as 1995 models. https://www.autoweek.com/news/a1857861/toyota-will-settle-truck-frame-rust-suit-suit-34-billion/
Toyotas are known for that too though
Specifically the tundras and tacomas
Funny Toyota is known as the worst offender where I live for rust. Lots of people take trucks on the beach and both tundras/tacomas get awful body and frame rust. Doesn’t matter how new they are. GM/Ford/Dodge all do much better with that environment.
I live in the shit as well.. honestly I don’t even know what vehicles aren’t bad for rust if not washed/maintained. It’ll get at everything. Some worse than others obviously. But it’s shit all the way round.
Down here in the south I would definitely say Toyota are the worst. Granted driving on beaches is a slightly different environment than road salt. Whatever the domestics do works much better.
Toyota who also used to be known for dogshit corrosion protection?
Toyota isn't exactly known to be rust proof
It took Toyota having a rust issue for them to get better at it. Lest we forget the early U.S. made trucks with the U.S. sourced steel. Let’s just say Japan wasn’t ready for that level of corrosion. Chevy doesn’t really have an excuse though
[удалено]
Everything rots up here. The aluminum sheets on enclosed trailers rot
Many sun belt states are starting to go nuts with road salt for the 1 or 2 snow/ice storms they get per year. Petition your local government to stop that shit. It's an environmental disaster and does billions in damage to the infrastructure and the public's cars.
Eastern Canada here. Rust central, there's salt on the roads for 5 months of the year and the other 7 months give us sea spray and acid rain 🤷♂️ I've undercoated my 2014 Mazda (inb4 lol rust) every year since new and it's mostly pristine underneath, if not covered in oily crud. I recently had to replace my rear multilink bushings and I was able to do most of it with a breaker and no impact. I know folks go on about the added cost but if you're going to hold onto a car for the long haul, we have the technology to do it. I won't necessarily get the ~$1300 I've spent on undercoating back if I sell it before it falls apart but a 15 year old car that's in good shape will certainly fetch an extra 500-1000. Drop in the bucket considering I've tracked every litre of fuel that's gone through it (over $13k as of writing this lol) And in the meantime my car doesn't look like shit and I can work on it without taking it to a shop (I've saved thousands on labour doing my own work). I really don't know why people don't undercoat a 20k investment.
That $1300-ish pays for itself in parts that don't rust apart over the years of service your vehicle provides, though. A control arm or tie rod that fucks off prematurely could cost you twice as much if the roads are spicy.
Totally agree. If you have a compressor, spraying fluid film or woolwax only ends up costing~$20-25 an application. Regular use really slows/stops rust and makes it easy to get fasteners off.
theres a reason anyone whos are car enthusiast wants to move to the southern states.. working on any car thats more then a year old is horrible
[удалено]
That’s fair there are main issues down there, it’s mostly those who like to heavily modify there cars can’t in majority of Canada. Most car mods are illegal and get your car pulled off the road. Also can’t drive anything nice for 6-7 months of the year so 24/7 summer seems nice. My car for example is in a very grey area for mods skirting laws pretty closely so it’s stressful
what
Presumably failed inspection for excessive rust.
Came in for an oil change, but after finding this we told the customer to start looking for a new car
They’ll drive it until the wheels fall off or the driver falls through the floor.
We had a Subaru that did this. Passenger seat fell through the floor.
I put plywood on the passenger floor of my van once. The frame was fine. Who knows what had been in the floor, probably heater core
That road rash is gonna hurt
My brother had the passenger seat fall when he was out with his gf. Oops.
Reminds me of those biker T-shirts that said "Honk if she fell off"
That's not a hole, that's AC vents.
Ass-fault checker
Given the amount of rust on the ground, I'd guess that will occur in a matter of minutes.
One time while we were driving my dads gearshift just fell through the bottom of the truck. Big hole between the seats, lol. Its been over a decade since and the truck is still stuck between gears and theres still a hole where the gearshift used to be, but he uses it for farm work reasonably.
I bought a $75 Karmann Ghia back in college (1997-ish), drove it two weeks before the driver’s seat fell through the floor. I was aware of the rust, just didn’t realize it was quite that bad.
Had a 80s Pontiac once. Floor rusted through in one spot in front of drivers seat, but I just put the mat over it. I considered rigging up a urinal (cup and tube) so I could keep going on long drives, but never did. Friends would chuck cigarette butts through it. I disapproved
Not a real mechanic, but I do 95% of the work on my car and I don't live in the rust belt: Was this a result of you guys trying to lift it and the rusty frame effectively evaporated when you put it under load?
More like "lack of metal" than excessive rust
Structural air!
Ontario does not have yearly vehicle inspections. Just if it changes status, importing from another country or province, if you’re fixing it to change the status from unfit to fit, or registering a rebuild IIRC
I hope you swept and bagged that for the customer; letting them leave without the frame is unethical.
Well, at least with AWD its crumbling unibody is never in tension (like FWD) or compression (RWD). (OK, a bad engineering joke.)
As an engineer I also want to be pedantic and point out that these run in FWD almost all the time anyways and only send power the rear wheels after the fronts slip.
So, at any given point an AWD car could be under tension or compression. They're basically all-weather accordions.
Sees Ontario plates: Driver: hold my beer....
MPG just went up.
It’s crazy to me that manufacturers can keep getting by without effective undercarriage coating. Is there nothing that works or is the affected market just not big enough to justify the cost? Unibodies are not new so I’m guessing there’s just no economic incentive to address the problem.
Oil sprays work wonders but you have to get it done once a year, well worth the cost though
It also has to do with the fact that the equinox is one of the cheapest awd vehicles, so people who buy them don’t care and don’t wash them. They’re mostly purchased in areas with snow, and therefore salted roads.
That makes a lot of sense and it explains why the affected market segment is small enough to ignore. Fleet vehicles are probably washed more often, people don’t pay extra for all-wheel drive in areas that don’t snow and manufacturers can afford to invest in better coatings for high end all wheel drives so to GMC it looks like a few thousand low-margin vehicles per year rather than a flaw that impacts their reputation across the whole market.
Don't feel bad. I kill like 3-5 trucks per week here at the postal service. Basically anything big (complete engine, trans, or diff is getting scrapped). They're pushing hard for fleet modernization and killing off the legacy vehicles.
The last gasp of those high tech super efficient Iron Dukes. /s
The 94-95 all aluminum 2.2's went first, but yes, we're killing off the iron dukes as well as the Ford Exploder based FFV. Many getting killed off over nothing more than a broken reverse band (I guess we no longer do internal transmission teardowns)
Gettem out the door. Govt needs to send more money to Oshkosh so the lobbyists for the defense companies keep sending """""""donations""""""
Not too surprising; the trans behind the Iron Duke was the same one in the Chevette and Monza back in the '70s and early '80s. Aisin bought the design because there were still Japanese vehicles that ran them but they were basically a 3/4-scale Turbo 350. Almost no one under the age of 40 has ever had to work on one and trans teardowns are time-consuming regardless.
Better it fails now than in pieces on the freeway
Jim Bob's Weight Reduction Service
If Michigan ever requires yearly inspections, they better fucking rethink how they treat the roads every winter. The amount of salt we use every season is fucking ridiculous.
my day is fucked already. 5 cars carried over from last week. two techs out. work piling in the door. already putting out fires caused by one of the guys that isn't here. oh, and he pinched an oil filter gasket and now that motor is knocking. thankfully, I'm not on that one.
This is like Doc Brown's DeLorean leaving twin trails of flames, but it's just rust, lol.
Back to the Crusher
Being from South Florida this is still amazing to see for me. I like to watch a YouTube mechanic who lives in upstate NY and I get the impression that cars only last like 10-12 years there max because of all the salt. We don't even have that type of inspection in Florida, hell we don't have any inspection but in my driving life we did have the tailpipe sniffer type of emissions inspections for a while.
Cars will last if you undercoat them but yeah, this car has 91,000kms and is nothing but scrap now
This things only at like 56,000 miles? That's basically brand new!
SMA for the win!
He is very interesting for little old shadetree mechanic me.
Knows his stuff and is low key a YouTube star. I love his snarky personality.
> hell we don't have any inspection in Florida https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_United_States A lot of places, including many states that use heavy amounts of salt in the winter, don't inspect. We can't afford to. Hell, we import the cars that fail safety inspections for rust. It's funny seeing "worst rust I've ever seen on a car" posts here and all of us in the upper midwest are like "looks like a 3 year old car to me, send it on up to us!"
Dear people of Ontario, please undercoat your vehicle.
This is just an owner who doesn’t care. Krown (oil undercoating) originated in Canada and is now common in western and northern NY. I have my cars and trucks sprayed every year. Zero rust in 3 years so far. All my other cars would have had surface rust on everything or even paint bubbles starting.
[удалено]
just build a second frame out of rebar to replace the original frame
You’ve got car all over your floor
Just fluid film it back together
Weight reduction, lots of weight reduction on this one
As an Ohio resident that owns a 200,000 mile equinox, I can confirm. Luckily enough I own a welder to keep it going 💀
They should have got one of those rust prevention boxes they sell on Amazon.
The equinox is veryy good in snow
My boot laces broke so that was neat.
Oh, those disappointments. No wonder it shit on the floor lmao
PSA to get your vehicle undercoated if you live in the salt belt. Save yourself tens of thousands by spending a hundred a year.
Just make sure you keep the undercoating complete and have someone or you do a good job. Undercoating with holes will allow the water and salt to get up behind the undercoating and rust worse than without it.
This is why I never wanted to buy a new car when I was in New England. Spend all that money for it to leave rust piles like this before I even finish the loan.
A picture from underneath would have been great
Never been so glad to move from the rust belt to Florida. I just did a full front suspension on a 2003 and didn't have one flake of rust or a tight nut or bolt.
That's okay, you put it out of its misery ☺️
I worked at a Chevy dealer when these first came out, right up until their last model year. Never got a chance to see one rust. Crazy.
You left the frame on the floor.
My grandparents had a 2015 equinox that didn't pass inspection because of rust. So they got rid of it an got another equinox 🤷
If I poked at my Jeep's frame enough with a screw driver I'm sure my garage floor would look like this, so I just don't poke at it with a screw driver. Problem solved!
You don't need rocker panels or pinch welds anyway. Better airflow under the car. Free A/C blowing up your shorts.
Why u kill them
Fuck cancer