Seeking refuge

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snips_ajc said:
My hippo is definitely not a rust bucket
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Have you had a look at the fuel tank cradle? Ever tried removing the front bumper? Have you examined the wishbones, brake lines, maybe behind the plastic liners of the rear wheel arches? If you're brave enough, give the sills a good prod all the way along, especially at the back.

All the pics I've seen of the underneath of British Freelanders have a nice coating of rust - its almost impossible not to with the salt thrown down on the roads.

Granted, not as bad as the separate chassis Land Rovers but there a few threads on here of some pretty major rust repairs to Freelanders and I'm sure if MOT stations were allowed to remove plastic trim to have a look underneath, there'd be quite a few more!
 
GrumpyGel said:
Have you had a look at the fuel tank cradle? Ever tried removing the front bumper? Have you examined the wishbones, brake lines, maybe behind the plastic liners of the rear wheel arches? If you're brave enough, give the sills a good prod all the way along, especially at the back.

All the pics I've seen of the underneath of British Freelanders have a nice coating of rust - its almost impossible not to with the salt thrown down on the roads.

Granted, not as bad as the separate chassis Land Rovers but there a few threads on here of some pretty major rust repairs to Freelanders and I'm sure if MOT stations were allowed to remove plastic trim to have a look underneath, there'd be quite a few more!
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It's only surface rust. Peeps blame salt but they don't use it that much. Countries with a lot of rain who don't use salt have the same problems as the uk which has a lot of rain. Mud and muck is worser than salt as it holds moisture against what it's stuck too.
 
Nothing beats a well running Webasto, that turns on the ATC full blast after it has been running for 5 mins. Like someone has taken it for a 15 min run to warm up for ya.
 
Hippo said:
Peeps blame salt but they don't use it that much.
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If only that were true down this way. The council put salt on the roads 4 nights last week alone, and the temperature only just nudged freezing point on 1 of those nights. Down here, the application of salt is relentless throughout the winter months. It's no wonder that cars rot away from the inside out. The salt laden spray finds its way into all the nooks and crannies, rotting the structure unseen.
 
Nodge68 said:
If only that were true down this way. The council put salt on the roads 4 nights last week alone, and the temperature only just nudged freezing point on 1 of those nights. Down here, the application of salt is relentless throughout the winter months. It's no wonder that cars rot away from the inside out. The salt laden spray finds its way into all the nooks and crannies, rotting the structure unseen.
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It's a case of protecting it underneath if yer int locations where salt is used more. Compressor and dinitrol. Yer can buy spray rubber for the high impact areas hit by water. ;)

High pressure water attacks pick ups and transits where they don't have plastic protection or it's missing. I guess we're luckier we have plastic in the wheel arches.
 
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GrumpyGel said:
For salt and mud to get stuck behind and eat into the chassis.
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ah see the big Freelander owner licked yer post.

We int got chassis's ;)

It's not a big problem to pull it all oft once every year to clean behind if yer gone mad oft road. If yer don't go mad yer be ok. Or keep driving back and forth across the local ford like I does. :)
 
Nodge68 said:
There's more than enough power from the Freelander alternator (around 110 Amps), so the heated front screen is well worth using. Besides it takes just a minute to clear the screen, so doesn't affect the battery one bit. Mine has failed in a patch right in front of the driver, so I'm hoping that a large stone will hit it soon.
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:)I know that Nodge! I'm just a bit paranoid.

Edit: The amount of rust UK cars have horrifies me. We have lots of rain here too, and they use salt and brine on the roads in the winter but it's rare to see post 1990 cars with rust perforation.
My old Hippo has none.
 
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Peeps make it sound worser than it is. It's not like me dad's ole 1L metro built int 1986. Back in them days the sills, front vendor and door bottoms would be bubbling rust not many years after production. Front vendor going first with it being metal and stone chips. Today's vehicles* int comparison are far more betterer protected than that. If yer put protected metal int salt water it won't rust. Chip the layer of protection (on modern vehicles that's not the paint/primer) and it'll rust. There's loads of 20 year ole Freelanders out there. Unfortunately not the case for metro's when they were 20 years ole.



*not counting tratters which rust the same and also have the same top speed and 0-60mph eggscelleration
 
You're spot on there @Hippo
20+ years ago when I was buying my first car (which was always going to be an old banger) it was "don't buy an Astra, the wheel arches rust out", "don't buy an Escort, the sills rust out", "don't buy a Rover 200", "don't buy a Peugeot", "don't buy this or that" etc etc. Nowadays a ten year old car does not look like a ten year old car back then. It's now all about wear and electrics suffering with age. Corrosion is obviously still an issue but not in the same way as it used to be. How many cars fail the mot these days needing the sills welded? it's more about bushes, ball joints, leaks, etc etc, except for tratters of course, they'll fail on the traditional stuff time and time again ;)

Shame the FL fuel tank cradle seems to have been manufactured by 80's/90's manufacturers though.
 
kernowsvenski said:
You're spot on there @Hippo
20+ years ago when I was buying my first car (which was always going to be an old banger) it was "don't buy an Astra, the wheel arches rust out", "don't buy an Escort, the sills rust out", "don't buy a Rover 200", "don't buy a Peugeot", "don't buy this or that" etc etc. Nowadays a ten year old car does not look like a ten year old car back then. It's now all about wear and electrics suffering with age. Corrosion is obviously still an issue but not in the same way as it used to be. How many cars fail the mot these days needing the sills welded? it's more about bushes, ball joints, leaks, etc etc, except for tratters of course, they'll fail on the traditional stuff time and time again ;)

Shame the FL fuel tank cradle seems to have been manufactured by 80's/90's manufacturers though.
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The cradle sits low so it will be open to damage attack oft road etc. Once scratched it will lose it's protection. Even galvanise is no good after scratching. I wax olyed mine a number of times to keep it going.
 
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