I decided it was time I gave my MY00 Classic a good wash today to get rid of all the nasty salty ****e. It wasn’t until I lifted the boot to wipe around the inner sills I noticed rust around the rubber grommets on the boot lid. I was really quite shocked to find a fairly substantial area of rust around the offside one. I have since put some rust treatment fluid on it (used last time on a Mini!!) and I’m going to paint on some Hammerite next week.



Has anyone else experienced this?

 

worrying!

 

Went to wash that very same 'salty ****e' off mine today, but my usual immaculate timing was again scuppered by rain.

 

The moment I finished it started it started to rain. Still looks much better, especially with Silver as opposed to black wheels!!

 

Sub 69,
I have owned 3 Classic Imprezas, and on each one where the rubber pad on the forward edge of the boot lid contacts the rain chanel, the paint rubs away.
Near the bottom of the rear screen at each side.
One my first one it had started to rust quite badly, and was the steel was pitted.
On my next 2 cars, and on my MY02 which I now own, I have placed insulation tape at the offending areas to stop the rubber pad rubbing the paint away.

Cheers
MTR

 

good tip, cheers.

 

Another place to look for rust is where the rear bumper screws onto the rear wing, the paint rubs off the wing at the anchor point on most cars but isnt noticable untill its too late, only noticed it in time on my last car (98 ITR) cos it was white . Have checked my wife's car (53 micra) and my dads cars (03 primera) and both were already showing signs that the paint was being rubbed away. just loosen the bolt/screw and pull the bumper away from the rear wing and have a look, then insert small pieces of double sided self adhesive foam (the stuff u stick number plates on with) in the gap, this seem to stop the rubbing, some cars do already have this but it does degrade over time.

 

I was thinking of buying an EVO last year and downloaded the FAQ, its a problem on them as well, they recomend putting tape/celotape on it.

 

Looking up under the bumper on the rear valance i noticed some too but wont do anything about it until it stops pisin down, probably july

 

my my97 and p1 where the same, had no probs on my 02 sti and evo 6
mark

 

yep, got it aswell. i think mine set in when i had a leaky boot caused by a leak in a spoiler. cleaned it back and treated it but it's come back a little bit

lost all the paint under the 4 rubber stoppers aswell (boot gets opened half a dozen times every day) good tip about the tape

 

Mines simular but not that bad(same year)only surface rust though not worrying me, fine wet and dry and touch up pen will do me,its only where theres movement in the boot lid or shell flex its bound to rust eventually.Still think subaru bodywork is loads better now than it was years ago,they used to be shocking.

 

Ill tell you what does rust bad though,the number plate lights bracket and screws oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!,soon after i had mine had a bulb blow,no probs i thought 2 minute job ha ha yer !! ended up drilling old screws out coz the heads had rusted up and just spun when i tried the screwdriver-must just be crap metal they use coz theyre pretty out of the way of all the crap,the bracket itself is quite weak aswell.

 

Check your rear arches too - the underseal started to come off last summer on mine whilst pressure washing exposing the silver paint. I pressure washed as much of the original under seal in the rear arches off as possible - let it dry out and got some waxoil brush on underseal (cost about a fiver) and gave it a few coats over a week. On my n/s boot lid corner where the boot sits near the screen there is a plastic end trim (on the end of the trim that runs over the roof above the doors) this was rubbing and causing a small rust patch so I removed the end trim and trimmed it back with a scalple knife, that problem is now cured.
Also have a check in front of the seal that runs around the boot (base of rear screen) I found 3 or 4 small areas of surface rust there. I just used a small wire brush on a dremmel to remove the rust and then treated with Krust then a bit of touch up on top to finish it off

 

MMM, seems to be a common one this, I too have the same problem (MY00 classic),not too bad at the mo so gonna treat the area with some touch-up paint and the get some clear type film, like that book covering stuff, cut some nice round pieces and stick them on. Think its the sub in my boot causing the vibration on the buffers to wear away the paint, why don't Subaru do what Honda do, they put a clear film in areas that paint can wear.

Agree with the number plate brackets, there bloody awful things and the screws that hold the number plate lights,say no more,same as above, ended up drilling the screws out of mine and replacing them with some stainless steel hex head bolts. Covered the brackets in waxoil spary on, thats done the trick. 2 minute job turned into a 2 hour one

 

[QUOTE=BigRed]MMM, seems to be a common one this, I too have the same problem (MY00 classic),not too bad at the mo so gonna treat the area with some touch-up paint and the get some clear type film, like that book covering stuff, cut some nice round pieces and stick them on. Think its the sub in my boot causing the vibration on the buffers to wear away the paint, why don't Subaru do what Honda do, they put a clear film in areas that paint can wear.[QUOTE]

They do mate its just that they fall off after a while, I just used some clear parts off some stickers I had the replaced one of the missing ones with a dab of superglue to make sure it doesnt come off.

 

What about wagons then?

They are superior in handling and speed - are they also superior at withstanding rust?

Pete

 

Not rust on the boot-lid but bare patches of metal where the boot um.... rubber standoff doofers bounce off the back off the car due to the weight of the spoiler. I intend to rust treat it and fit some form of rubber or polyU disks to stop it happening again.

J.