looked at a 98 STI today , seemed okay however when I opened the bonnet it wasn't as shall we say as clean as my WRX93 .

The metal belt protectors running at font of car and the power steering reservoir where covered in corrosion/limescale. The pully's where rusty , and the front of the engine bay was a real mess.the engine sounded fine when started and dealer didn't really have an explanation .

The sump was covered in rust as well

Any clues as to what might have caused this , besides driving through every puddle on the road

The corrosion will be from a salt on the road or the engine bay has been cleaned but not rinsed prperly

I have a similar problem with my MY99.

Have never had the engine bay cleaned, so it must be down to salt/atmospheric conditions.

I tried to claim it thgouh my warranty, but Subaru didn't want to know - they recommended that I treated it myself and said it wouldn't cause failure of any components.

Peter