Hey guys. For about a month now I have been on the search for my perfect TL. Long story short, I have found one- 2009 white Acura TL SH-AWD with black interior with the options to the max. yummm If only it was manual it would truly be perfect. But as most of you may know finding a manual AWD TL with my specific color combo is hard if not impossible. It is not bought, yet, but I am getting everything ready. It is coming from the north and I have heard stories about the problems salty snow causes. I had the dealer take a couple of pics of the undercarriage where surface rust has started to show its face.

Some questions I have are:
- Is the rusting that has started look bad? The dealer says it is just surface rust but IMO rust is rust.
- Does it seem like the rust would be easily removed and
coated to prevent more rust?
- Is it worth the effort?
- lastly, in last the picture( pic 5) I have circled parts that are more rusted. Any comments on these? What are they? Can they be replaced or coated?


Pic 1


Pic 2


Pic 3


Pic 4


Pic 5

I have been reading through these threads since my search started about a month ago and I'm convinced you guys know what your talking about. Please lend me your experiences, expertise and time in this matter.

Thank You

 

where are you located?

does it snow around the area where you got your car from?

where was the last owner located and where was this car driven at?

might need to strip the rust and coat the undercarriage.


and no, its not normal. i have 18k on my car and the only spot that has rust is my rotors and calipers, under the car is perfectly fine.

 

These don't look that bad. It's minor stuff that will happen to any car exposed to the elements on a regular basis. It wouldn't deter me from buying the car. Good luck.

 

pot-you live in southern cali...you don't see salt in winter unless you're driving to it...even then its not enough to create corrosion on your under carriage.

OP-most of it is surface rust. you are buying a 2+ yr old car that has lived in a northern state with snowfall. i would consider that normal. the flanges on the exhaust that you pointed out look a little rough, but not necessarily out of the ordinary. my rear brake rotors around the hub look like this, but i'm not freaking out about it. i hate the way it looks, but nothing i can do about it short of painting it. i may replace them with rotors that are already painted around the hub portion.

where exactly did this car live??

the flanges on my parts of my exhaust have that rust you show. my car has lived outside for most of its life and went through 6 winters. a couple of them are a little brittle, but nothing that warrants anything be replaced. if it does....then upgrade!

i wouldn't be that concerned considering where the car is coming from and it's age.

 

You have a SoCal car so of course it's not normal .... to you. For a car in the great white north (say, Toronto, upstate NY, Chicago, etc.), I'd say it's normal and in this case, trivial.

IOW - if the car was "northern car" (".... It is coming from the north ....") the amount of rust shown is trivial.

BUT, if you're going to mod the car, removing some exposed bolts (like on the exhaust flanges shown), it's probably going to be a PITA with hand tools.


As far as trying to have it removed and/or sealed, complete waste of time and money, imho.

 

Nothing out of the ordinary. You should be fine!

 

TheChartist.....Those pics don't look too bad in my opinion. From what I can see, Pic #3 does not show rust but rather, dirt that sticks to that part of the body.

Too bad you don't want a 2012...My 2012 TL SH-AWD white with black interior, 6k on it and never seen ONE wet road since I had it! It is almost 1 year old now and the rotors are like new, no a spec of rust to be seen, the calipers are super shiny....like I said, the car only drives on dry roads....it has never seen snow or wet melting roads. The person who buys my car at the end of the lease gets almost a showroom car.

You guys would not believe how I pamper my cars, almost needs to be seen to be appreciated how anal I am

 

Thank you everyone that has answered my post so far. The car is in Chicago where it has been it's whole life. But soon it will have a new home in Florida.

Thinking about it, would the humidity and hot weather of Florida make the rust worsen and spread faster?

Bear- Why is applying something like POR15 a waste of time and money? Do products like these just not work? Or is it the nature of rust? It seems that rust is analogous to cancer 

 

no. it's life in FL will be better than driving in the chicago crap. just make sure you protect that paint from the FL sun!!

 

Not sure about POR15, but when I bought my 66 Mustang a applied this to the inner trunk fender wells in order to prvent rust from breaking out/spreading. Applied this 15 years ago and no sign of rust so far.

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CG4Q8wIwAA

 

When's the last time you saw a rusted out Acura in the Southeast?

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I thought so.


Most modern cars have the panels "dipped" or otherwise protected from severe rust. A 45-year old Mustang is one thing. A 3-year old Acura is another.

 

WOW...under body pics...are you buying a Lambo or a daily driver/acura...