Rear subframe corrosion - Vantage 07
Discussion
Hi,
I am currently looking at buying a 07MY Vantage. The car is perfect condition with yearly services at AM main dealers. At the last MOT an advisory was raised in respect of corrosion to the rear subframe. This was treated by AM at the time of service and a waxoyl applied. Should I be concerned by this or is it a common occurrence on this model?
Any advice gratefully received!
Many thanks.
I am currently looking at buying a 07MY Vantage. The car is perfect condition with yearly services at AM main dealers. At the last MOT an advisory was raised in respect of corrosion to the rear subframe. This was treated by AM at the time of service and a waxoyl applied. Should I be concerned by this or is it a common occurrence on this model?
Any advice gratefully received!
Many thanks.
Edited by jaye3uk on Thursday 18th April 22:41
Thanks Ian, that is really useful. Would I be correct in saying that the majority of the cars I would be looking at would have the same issues then? Would it have been better to have refurbed the sub frame rather than apply the waxoyl? To me the waxoyl looks a bit messy.
Edited by jaye3uk on Friday 19th April 08:40
That’s a really good point. I hadn’t considered that in respect of the waxoyl. The car only has 21k miles in its 12 years and I understand has also been garaged so I was surprised to see it on the MOT advisory. If it’s a common thing with these cars then I would feel more comfortable, or is this unusual? I have read the grants guide however nothing is mentioned about subframe corrosion. Thanks!
I would think with a car of that low mileage that it is probably only the surface rust issue that Ian mentioned so don't worry about it.
However, speaking from experience I can say that there's lots of other bits under the rear end that can also suffer from the ingress of corrosion, again these probably aren't an issue on the particular car you're looking at, but worth noting for everyone else who's noticed some rust on their rear undercarriage.
I've had my rear subframe removed, shotblasted and painted. In the process many items have also needed replacing, such as oil cooler pipes for transmission cooler, these were very flaky. Several suspension bolts were completely seized so broke on removal. The inside bore to some of the suspension bushes were also badly corroded due to the galvanic reaction with the bolt. Turns out you can't buy new bushses on their own, so new wishbones were required. Handbrake cable adjusters also completely seized up so a new cable assembly was needed.
There have also been lots of other bolts, fasteners, fittings and sundry items I replaced as precaution and given the fact the rear end was apart it made sense to change them now, e.g. wheel bearings. All in all I've spent a lot of time and effort getting it sorted, but the car is a keeper so worth investing that time now to secure its future.
Job is still in progress, I'll post some before and after pics soon.
Many of the problems I've encountered could have been avoided by better choice of coatings and some consideration to galvanic corrosion when selecting combinations of materials in contact with each other. The aluminium chassis itself is not immune to corrosion under such conditions and this may be a ticking time bomb for all VH platforms in years to come.
However, speaking from experience I can say that there's lots of other bits under the rear end that can also suffer from the ingress of corrosion, again these probably aren't an issue on the particular car you're looking at, but worth noting for everyone else who's noticed some rust on their rear undercarriage.
I've had my rear subframe removed, shotblasted and painted. In the process many items have also needed replacing, such as oil cooler pipes for transmission cooler, these were very flaky. Several suspension bolts were completely seized so broke on removal. The inside bore to some of the suspension bushes were also badly corroded due to the galvanic reaction with the bolt. Turns out you can't buy new bushses on their own, so new wishbones were required. Handbrake cable adjusters also completely seized up so a new cable assembly was needed.
There have also been lots of other bolts, fasteners, fittings and sundry items I replaced as precaution and given the fact the rear end was apart it made sense to change them now, e.g. wheel bearings. All in all I've spent a lot of time and effort getting it sorted, but the car is a keeper so worth investing that time now to secure its future.
Job is still in progress, I'll post some before and after pics soon.
Many of the problems I've encountered could have been avoided by better choice of coatings and some consideration to galvanic corrosion when selecting combinations of materials in contact with each other. The aluminium chassis itself is not immune to corrosion under such conditions and this may be a ticking time bomb for all VH platforms in years to come.
BigMig said:
Job is still in progress, I'll post some before and after pics soon.
Many of the problems I've encountered could have been avoided by better choice of coatings and some consideration to galvanic corrosion when selecting combinations of materials in contact with each other. The aluminium chassis itself is not immune to corrosion under such conditions and this may be a ticking time bomb for all VH platforms in years to come.
Many of the problems I've encountered could have been avoided by better choice of coatings and some consideration to galvanic corrosion when selecting combinations of materials in contact with each other. The aluminium chassis itself is not immune to corrosion under such conditions and this may be a ticking time bomb for all VH platforms in years to come.
Do you know whether the ACF-50 spray is a worthwhile protection for us to use. Supposedly used by the Royal Air Force, but who knows?
Jon39 said:
Do you know whether the ACF-50 spray is a worthwhile protection for us to use. Supposedly used by the Royal Air Force, but who knows?
The UC version is clear so can't really be seen if it's not sprayed on too thickly, but does leave a sticky residue film so not sure what it will be like at attracting dirt to stick to it. I've used it on all the ally suspension components after I got them cleaned up so I'll find out in due course. Probably not one for the concours guys to use though. I also used Bilthamber Dynax S-50 (black stuff) on the subframe, including inside all the cavities.
The issue with the galvanic corrosion is more in hidden areas that you can't see and no form of underseal will get to to be able to protect. e.g. behind the subframe stablizer brackets.
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