Do all Subarus rust in this area?

[jseabolt]

I've seen a few Legacy Outbacks, same generation as my '03 Baja and the Legacy generation before it that, seem to rust in this exact location:

 

 

The weird thing is, it's typically just the driver's side. Not both sides. That 2002 Outback that I questioned about in another post, it's rusted in this same spot. No rust on the passenger side though.

 

When I wash all of my cars, I always flush the wheel wells out with plenty of water, holding the nozzle so the water comes out at a solid stream to remove any dirt that may build up within the wheel wells, especially around the wheel well lips. I'm hoping packed dirt is what causes this and not a water trap design flaw from Subaru. So is this rust spot caused from lack of automotive hygiene or a design flaw?

 

What concerns me is my '03 Baja has the body cladding covering this area and have no idea if it's rusting without prying the panel off. This is not something I really want to do just for peace of mind.

 

I have stuck my finger up into the wheel well where I've seen this rust spot occur and cannot feel any holes or rusted metal from the inside out. So maybe everything is OK.

 

Speaking of design flaws. I have a 1980 Fiat Spider and the quarter panels were rusting from the inside out. As well as some other areas which were not uncommon to rust on cars made back in the 70s and 80s.

 

I had a guy repaint this car 20 years ago. After I got the car back, I decided to remove any undercoating in the wheel wells that had come loose and do some rust repair myself. I discovered where ever there used to be rust on the outside there was loose undercoating on the inside. Water was getting trapped in pockets behind loose undercoating. I removed every bit of undercoating that was coming off but didn't remove what wouldn't come off.

 

I also discovered that the inner wheel well were made of two pieces of metal, crimped then spot welded together. But  they never used any seam sealer from the factory to seal in the gaps. So water was also getting thrown up into this area but had no where to drain out.

 

I used some of that stuff from Eastwood's that you brush over top of rusted metal, fixed any rust holes with fiberglass, then covered up all of these seams with that latex caulk. Reapplied undercoating and painted over that with black gloss Rustoleum.

 

So far it's been 20 years and the rust hasn't come back. I keep this car in the garage when it's not driven, never drive it in the snow (why would I? I own a Subaru!) but I have driven it in the rain many times since then. So I must have done something right.

 

 

 

 

[Mike104]

I would say most of the Subaru's in the rust belt or areas where they use a lot of salt have that rust spot, some on both sides.

[987687]

Yep, they all do that. Third gens also rust out in the door jamb area of the back doors, your baja is based on a third gen so it may have rust starting there.

Here's a pic of the (very advanced) rust of my 2000 outback. This is looking into the open back door. I The surface was bubbly, but that's what happened after I kicked it.. I didn't realize there was a serious problem until the rocker ruster.. errr... plastic trim fell off.

[jseabolt]

That photo is supposedly of a local car. But may have come from up north. I don't know.

 

I do know if you go over into western North Carolina in the mountains, seems like 3 out of 5 cars are Subarus. Due to the amount of snow they get. 

 

Luckily I live in the "vallley" so we don't get as much snow as you guys do you north. I live at the bottom end of the snow belt in NE Tennessee five miles near the Virginia border.  We might get a 6" snowstorm but it's usually melted off within a few days. Snow doesn't really hang around here that long. Our summers start about the first week of May to the first week of November. Between November and May is mostly rain and maybe 6 weeks of bad weather sometime in between.

 

200 miles south in Chattanooga, might get some measurable amount of snow once every 10 years. 100 miles further south in Atlanta, the city doesn't even own any snow removal equipment! They hire construction companies with Caterpillars and bulldozers to scrape their roads.

 

When there is road salt, once it rains and washes the roads off, I get out my high pressure sprayer and hit every nook and cranny on the car and the underside as well.

 

Another thing that seems to contribute to rust is driving on dirt roads. Tennessee doesn't have the best maintained rural county roads. They mat get repaved once every 20 to 25 years but there are not any public dirt roads I can think of. Not around here anyway.

 

My wife likes watching that show "Dr. Pol" on Nat Geo wild and I can't help but notice the condition of his fleet of Jeeps. All the country roads in central Michigan seem to be dirt and all of his Jeeps are rusted all to hell. I guess from the combination of dirt and road salt.

 

If I had to live up there, I'd buy an old Subaru from down south and coat the underside and body with that truck bed coating stuff !

Edited October 3, 2017 by jseabolt

[987687]

You're usually better off using fluid film or similar product to protect cars, I apply it once before it snows and once in the middle of the winter. The fear with undercoating like bed liner, etc is that you get a pinhole in it. Water gets in the pinhole and silently rusts a huge area out without you ever knowing until it's too late.

[Scott in Bellingham]

not here in the northwest