Accident damage, but worse... My Swift is rusting away!

[yzfrj]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

rusting to the tailgate hinge (replaced for the same last year)

Hmm... you are not alone there.
My dad's car got the same thing and there was a hint of rust (apparently a manufacturing defect) this was painted for "free" under warranty

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I
To be honest, I do not wash it very often <Blush>. I sometimes pressure wash, sometimes just hose down. I never clean inside the engine compartment. Even pressure washing is not really going to do much that a major monsoon downpour would not.

Chennai is not kind to metal. Too much washing can be a bad thing. Maybe too little does the same.

I've seen this kind of rust damage is a Wagon-R and in a Esteem. Both were involved in accident and was repaired (Horrifying as it seems by some MASS). This kind of rust cropped up after a year or so and became worse with time.

[neutralgrey]

Whoa!! That looks scary! Do you live by the beach by any chance? If yes, it could be the salt in the air + the location on the car. But I guess this much damage is strange for a car this young. Hope its not something serious.

PS: I live by the beach and I am always worried about something like this.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Interesting to hear about your dad's hinge, yzfrj.

There was some muttering about being near the sea: I said that the whole of Chennai was near the sea, so was the whole of Mumbai, and so were numerous other places in the world! My parents lived just across the road from the sea; there was no rust on her ancient Micra when I sold it after her death --- and garaging does not make a big difference, sea air gets in anyway.

I've had my car from new, so, until now there has been no accident repair.

[yzfrj]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Interesting to hear about your dad's hinge, yzfrj.

I've had my car from new, so, until now there has been no accident repair.

Its dad's car's hinge. Thank you.

PS : Let me see if I can find the pics I took and post it.

Yes no accident damage, that what makes this a mystery.

I do have a theory.
There are holes for letting the water escape (the flows down the windscreen) if somehow this gets blocked water will "stand" and leads to rust. The wagon-r I told this was the thing that "accelerated" the rusting.

[nirmaljusdoit]

Thad - Just went into the basement & took some pics of my Swift E/G bay, the black metal plate in Pic no.1 is the one directly under the drainage for the windshield. It looks like its bolted on to some bracket, and no sign of any rust anywhere.

I don't think its welded on, (looks like a shield of some kind) cause if it was, then it would be a body colored part, as the entire body shell gets painted after welding in the factory.

I guess you just need to replace only that part (As ported head had pointed out)

[SinghBHP]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I've had my car from new, so, until now there has been no accident repair.

Though it's rare but there is a possibility that it had some rust in that area when it was delivered, which increased later on and caused such huge damage.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks, Nirmal... without the car here to orient myself and check out, I just cannot tell <Blush>.

I've just been browsing, hoping to find a picture or diagram of the body parts, but I could not

Originally Posted by yzfrj

Its dad's car's hinge. Thank you.

Thanks for cheering me up!

I do have a theory.
There are holes for letting the water escape (the flows down the windscreen) if somehow this gets blocked water will "stand" and leads to rust. The wagon-r I told this was the thing that "accelerated" the rusting.

Sounds very possible, although this looked like steel that has been sitting in salt water for twenty years (or acid for five).

[clevermax]

Ouch!! Is that pictures of a 2007 car? This shouldn't happen!!
I haven't seen this much rust even in those Lineas-rusting-away threads.

Don't worry, the incredible M.S.S. will be able to get your car back to its previous glory...

I don't remember seeing any rust on our at-the-time-of-selling 11 year old Maruti Zen.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I haven't seen rust like this since the 1950s.

Something is badly wrong!

[nirmaljusdoit]

Thad - Regarding your search for the diagrams, heres what i pulled out of the Workshop repair manual I'm attaching a screen shot as the manual is 25 MB. The link for downloading the entire manual is below :

http://rapidshare.com/files/50881034...nual_RS415.zip

[Thad E Ginathom]

Brilliant! Thank you

Looks like that "cowl top panel" then, which, as you say, is not that big a piece of steel.

I'm downloading that manual, too: bound to be useful. Thanks!

[shuvc]

@nikunj_cal also discovered some rust in his Swift, here in Calcutta. His LDi is around the same vintage. 3yrs with warranty just over. He showed me traces of rust along the edges of the window beading/rear windscreen beading. Quite alarming for a 3 yr old car.

[xingamazon]

Thad That rust give me creeps in mind.
As mentioned by many first thing i am gonna do when I go home is check for the same rust in my car.
On hindisight, I did not understand the reason you connected that the accident, are you mentioning that the rust was because of some previous accident?

[theMAG]

TEG,

This is serious rusting - the last such rusting I remember having seen on the Premier Padminis - which were built to rust irrespective of which climate the car was in. If Maruti is unable to propose a cost-effective solution, I would suggest you sell this car.

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

PS : I have a 2006 model & its run 43 K, am going to check it out properly tonight !!

Unless your car spends a significant amount of time on a coast, you neednt have to worry too much.

[Jaggu]

That's some serious amount of rust. I think the drain got clogged and water clogging has caused this! MUL metal is indeed cheap, but so much of damage!! Man am now scared!