I bought my 2013 Fit this past January, and spent the rest of the winter washing it often to keep salt down.. but now that we're nearing winter #2 I'm looking for ways to keep my Fit in prime condition for as long as possible.

Anyone have rust issues with their Fit? If so how long did it take? Any must haves for winter maintenance? Looking to install some splash guards in the next couple of weeks.

 

Bought a 2010 Fit in Sept 2010. NYC area. Never garaged. They salt my town like crazy when it snows.

No rust when I sold it two weeks ago.

 

I live in Massachusetts and bought my Sport in 2009. Not so much as even a speckle of rust.

 

Im from BC interior. You know that TV show "Highway Through Hell"? Im a few hours east of that. We get more snow and slightly colder temperatures heh. Fully winter drive my car, no garage. Yup, get to clean snow off, and scrape my windshield every day. I live on a mountain

First off I have an electronic anti-rust module, and full underbody coating, and detailing cars is my hobby. So I wash, clay, wax my car all by hand 99% of the time. I usually go through all winter with 1 or 2 washes if Im lucky to be somewhere with a heated touchless car wash.


My brakes rusted to pieces after nearly 3 years of the car . Partly my fault, more my dealership's fault. Mostly not great materials on OEM rotors and drums. Still on original pads. Long story

Millions of rock chips and door dings though > But even with them, no rust on the body. I filled in a few with my touch up pen, but my goodness there's a lot.

So Im quite happy with how its turning out.

 

just keep the wheel wells clean and you shouldn't have issues.

 

All the little brackets and welds on mine are rusting underneith. It is a 2011. We get a lot of salt here and hover just around freezing, so it warms up to above freezing during the day, and below at night.

 

My 09 looked about dat after 7 yrs barely washed. I didn't care bought a 16


If u put some oil on the brackets and spray black engine enamel on the black pieces u can prolong for a while. My 12 had barely any rust when sold this yr.

 

What you can also do is buy a can of undercoating from your local store, clean the underneath thoroughly and spray it on under the car and wells. I did mine last year in hopes of cutting back on potential rust.

 

I live in southern Ontario where they use lots of salt. My previous car was a Toyota and was 10 years old with no rust. All you have to do is have it rust proofed each fall and it will stand up to the salt. I did my own rust proofing for all those years and I SOAK it down with Rust Check and also I do the entire undercarriage, suspension, springs etc with Corrosion Free. Between these two products there is no rust. For me it is a one hour job per vehicle. I have three so it is a mornings work to do all three.

 

I'm in VT and My 09 has a tiny bit of rust on the one wheel well. That siad, I haven't looked under the car In a while and will likely be moving to a Civic HB in the spring. (Plus I'm driving the Ridgeline for much of the winter - it too has rust in the wheel well. here they use the Brine solution on many roads which is worse for cars than Salt. A local place does undercoating with a 10 year warranty - its's $400 but a lot cheaper than doing a winter undercoat every year for 10 years.

~SB

 

modern cars are corrosion protected from da factory. i think the normal life expectancy of a car is 10yrs for a car manufacturer by design..as dey stop supporting service parts (unless cross supplied with another vehicle) after 10yrs. dey want u to buy new by den.

considering the 7yr old GE i sold was still functionally sound despite the ugly rust, i think it couldve easily gone another 3 yrs no problem.

 

i guess da question is how important is it for u to have a clean undercarriage when ure working on da car from underneath.

most folks dont look so dey dont know or care to know.

ive owned several hobby cars dat look almost brand new even after 10yrs of ownership (top and bottom). while i enjoy working on a clean car, market value continues to drop and so unless u can find a private buyer who cares about dese things, u will never recoup da time and money spent on keeping the chassis clean. not dat im saying it's not worth it, im just saying wat reality is.

so i wouldnt get too anal about rust proofing and just enjoy ur car.

 

I just bought a 2008, I bought it because it was so clean and rust free. The car had been oiled and the underside was spotless other than being all black from the oil.

However I missed one spot in the right wheel wheel on the inner lip which I will get at this spring.

I put license plate covers on and when I took the rear one off, wham! big cruelties around the bolt holes for the plate.

Engine bay looks like new.

I would highly recommend the oiling, I just got rid of my 1992 Honda Prelude that I drove during the winter, The under side was spotless. The only bad spots were around the front and rear glass. Poor workman ship at the glass shop where they chipped the paint.

 

I live in Southern Ontario and couldn't agree with more. I used that sprayable undercoat on my underside for protection, and always get my car oil sprayed by Krown rustproofing each fall. This is the ONLY thing that will prevent rust build up. Don't buy into the electric solution, though it may work for bridges, it will not work as well for your car.

Get your car oil sprayed and never worry again.

 

My only rust issues have been from small rock chips on the hood. Over time, they developed into rust spots. Now that the car is 8 years old and has 175K miles, there's not much I want to do about it.

 

2010 Sport, 85K miles, not garaged. I wash it when I can. Had it rustproofed when new, partly to make it quieter. No rust to speak of except for the odd paint chip. Lotsa salt in Cleveland-we have a salt mine under Lake Erie!
Luckily for us, much of the lower body is plastic.

 

I have 2 fits and the first place to look for rust is at the front base of the rear wheel wells. there is a funky shaped plastic piece that covers the seem of where the rear quarter, rocker panel and undercarriage meet. The plastic part is a crud and moisture collector. I think it's purpose is to protect from road debris, but if you don't clean that area well, you will have rust there. take it off and look. that whole area is likely the first place for rust to start. I've also noticed rust on the battery bracket/tray on more than one fit. I think if you keep the vulnerable areas clean, rust shouldn't be an issue.

Also. Every fit I have seen has a rusty rear bumper beam. easy to spot from on the ground looking up under the bumper cover

 

Did that make the car quieter?

 

Drove off the lot in 2011 with no extras. Five winters in Salt Lake City (tons of salt on the road). No visible rust -- even where the hood has been chipped from rocks on the freeway.

I do regularly wash my car, which may help. To be fair, I have not crawled under the car to see.

 

2009 from Midwest checking in. Undercarriage rust is very similar to the white Fit posted earlier. The bumper beam is rusty. Welds around undercarriage brackets have surface rust. The underbody area in front of the rear wheels has a surprising amount of surface rust. Nothing structural at this point and the body panels are pristine.

The areas with the factory undercoating look great. Frame rails are excellent. There is a surprising amount of underbody plastic to protect things too.

I plan to remove the rear bumper cover and paint all rusted undercarriage areas with rust encapsulating paint. I'll be seasonally spraying everything down with fluid film. I don't want the rust situation to go much further. In another 10 years things could be bad if left untreated.