Example of cost cutting / poor quality control

[xman]

If you thought that those rusty drums on your new Fabia was bad (and it is) then try looking underneath...

 

These photos of my 4 year old (25k miles) Fabia 2, rear silencer hanging bracket.

 

 

I first noticed it was badly rusted at 2 years old, so I cleaned it up as best I could (in situ) and sprayed it with some hammerite, followed later IIRC with some protection wax thinking that would protect it

 

What a waste of time hammerite spray is. I've used it on my other cars and its rust prevention quality is more or less nil.

 

Why an unplated, unprimed mild steel bracket on a modern car? I shoould have complained in warranty, but I expect they will say "they're all like that sir"

[Noggythenog]

Not the point i know, but that part looks pretty easy to take off & get powder coated somewhere.

We shouldnt have to but since you're out of warranty it'll prevent buying the new part in a couple of years, then another 1 a few years after that.

[kaa]

I know its not good but it does to appear to be only surface rust

[Guest]

My own 4 year old 1.6 16v Tiptronic estate is faultless underneath, except the rear silencer bracket is slightly rusty. As with rear drums, it's largely normal and harmless.  It's surface rust only. It cannot lead to anything bad even if you leave it. the contact metal underneath the bracket is covered in Cathodic primer which won't let it rust. My car lived it's first 3 years directly next to the beach on the south coast being covered in salt spray and driving on well salted roads (from the sea) everyday. It lived outside. There isn't one bit of rust anywhere on the car underneath, or anywhere else for that matter, except on that bracket same as yours. I cleaned it and coated it with Waxoyl black underbody wax just for something to do that day when had it over the pit in my garage. I used the thick black stuff. Don't paint it before you wax it and it'll then be fine. It would take decades to rust significantly even if left untreated. If you look under any car that's a couple of years old it will have rusty brackets and even the exhaust system will have some rust somewhere on it. II've even worked on Honda's and Nissans with rust forming on the underbody seams at 18 months old. Sadly, it's normal but not an issue in my honest opinion.

 

Regarding rear drums, I posted pics of mine somewhere (from my 1.4 diesel estate which had drums at the rear) where I cleaned them after a few months from new and painted them with Hammerite Smoothrite Silver. They never rusted ever and looked pretty smart. But you need two good coats of Smoothrite to be sure. Not one thick coat as that doesn't work. Agreed it's annoying to see ANY rust on a car these days though!

Edited 6 August, 2013 by Estate Man

[horkin]

A bit shabby I agree but purely cosmetic.. I wish Skoda had used discs all round but at least, if they are to use drums, make sure they look presentable. The good thing being Skoda are well built rust free cars in every other way.

[Ootohere]

Skoda/VAG Discs must be the worst of the worst for the discs used.

Not having them on the rear to rust is a bit of piece of mind and a money saver.

Start of in the morning after a damp night and no need to listen to the grinding or give it a little hand brake to clear that cosmetic corrosion.

 

Subaru's latest discs and Calipers are getting pretty bad now though.

It is always interesting to look at brand new cars sitting unregistered, just to see how bad they are, or even the Demonstrators.

Only Cosmetic, then not long after, an issue.

 

Look on Forecourts and funnily often the Older cars are the ones with less Cosmetic Corrosion on Discs, Drums etc.

[littleade]

The fuel filter top on my cr octy started to rust too. It must be where it's situated in the engine bay as it collects water from somewhere and then rusts, yet SWMBO seat has the same filter and hasn't rusted in 5 years. I've scraped the rust off and put normal hammerite on which seems to be working at the mo.

[daydotz]

The callipers are prone to rusting on audis :(

Edited 6 August, 2013 by daydotz

[horkin]

My 1.2 Htp was bad after rain. The discs just went red rusty overnight and there was a horrible grinding sound when first braking. My newer 1.2 Tsi has none of this and the discs feel as good as any car I've had,

I wonder if the OEM discs are sourced from different suppliers but even if that were the case, surely the metal should be spec'd the same?.

[Guest]

My front and rear discs on the 1.6 16v rust very quickly in overnight rain or after washing the vehicle. It goes straight away of course but looks unsightly until it does. At least painted rear drums look nice and stay that way. I will say discs alround stop you like hitting a brick wall if you need to. Lovely! I'm almost afraid the airbags will go off!

[xman]

Rust is to be expected on discs after washing - its raw steel.

 

Rust on drums - hmmm - not really but probably inevitable.

 

Rust on an exhaust - inevitable - though mine is remarkably good and the hangers appear to be made out of stainless steel

 

Rust on a bracket (anywhere) because someone saved 0.01 euro on plating, not acceptable, someone should complain

 

Next car, I'm gonna be more fussy.

[Matty]

As above rust on the discs is always going to happen.

 

There are certain things that manufacturers will say rust is normal on, for example exhaust brackets, radiator mount brackets, driveshaft ends behind the centre caps.

 

Aslong as the main bodyshell is galvanised and is rust-free its fine, most manufacturers are on top of the issue of rust now, with many problems stemming from either poor body repair, or stone chips/scratches not being touched up to prevent rusting.

 

It's not just limited to Skoda's, underneath of all cars are the same, even the reputable manufacturers like Honda & Toyota.

 

If you want a car that isn't going to have any component rust you need to be digging deeper into your pocket and splash the cash on something like a BMW, Mercedes etc, but even then I think you will be surprised, all manufacturers if they can make a small saving on each car/unit, can save the company millions in production.

[Ootohere]

Actually there are quite a few manufacturers of cars up to recent years that do not just have rust because they are in the lower price bracket.

 

You can take the likes of Kia & Hyundai who use common parts and cars sitting same age, almost the same car,

The Kia Discs not showing corrosion & the wheels not needing replaced, while the Hyundai is sitting needing Warranty Replacement wheel within Months of going on the road.

 

I replaced discs for the First Time on a Suzuki at 9 years old while some i look at on the Forecourt are bad after a few months.

I have a 7 year old Kia that never has rust on the discs, and does only hundreds of miles a year,

the new model of the same car has discs that has surface corrosion sitting out overnight.

 

Fabia rear Drums are just a ridiculous example of poor vehicle engineering and finish, penny pinching taken to an extreme.

many manufacturers Drums last many years without showing exterior corrosion like them.

 

My example of how VAG think of things is the Expense they must have put into adding rear weights on a vRS hatch,

to make it appear slightly slower than the more expensive Estate, heavier, but without the Poundage of springs on the rear of the 9 3/4" longer Estate.

They could just have used the Weights cost and done better suspension on the Hatch.

 

(More importantly it was done so that it was not in the same Tax Band or having better performance, than the more expensive, VW, Seat, Audi., Also why the Skoda gets a Spare Wheel and Kit as Standard and the other 3 got them as Options.)

Design and Manufacturing of the weights, and they do not Corrode.

& 25kg in the material is not a cheap thing.

 

george.

[Brianpilman]

As above rust on the discs is always going to happen.

There are certain things that manufacturers will say rust is normal on, for example exhaust brackets, radiator mount brackets, driveshaft ends behind the centre caps.

Aslong as the main bodyshell is galvanised and is rust-free its fine, most manufacturers are on top of the issue of rust now, with many problems stemming from either poor body repair, or stone chips/scratches not being touched up to prevent rusting.

It's not just limited to Skoda's, underneath of all cars are the same, even the reputable manufacturers like Honda & Toyota.

If you want a car that isn't going to have any component rust you need to be digging deeper into your pocket and splash the cash on something like a BMW, Mercedes etc, but even then I think you will be surprised, all manufacturers if they can make a small saving on each car/unit, can save the company millions in production.

I wouldn't say BMW for no rust they do not paint the calipers on many models from new. If you do it yourself it invalidates your warranty

[Guest]

Skoda are generally bullet proof regarding corrosion. I've seen zero Fabia's with corrosion of any significance and no Fabia 11's. It's only ever a tiny exhaust bracket of some such thing anyway. Saw an engine mount once with some corrosion on it but that's it. My last Merc had rust on it everywhere underneath at 18 months old and that cost me £77k new (when I used to have some money). That was a long saga and resulted in getting rid early. I won't ever be doing that again!

[horkin]

I've had BMW's and Mercs with rust too, in fact the earlier C class built in South Africa was notorious for rusting wings and sills. So quibbling over a rusty bracket, caliper or disc does seem a bit like nit picking?

[Ootohere]

Its just the point that was made on Penny Pinching, there are Parts available that do not readily corrode.

Including Discs & Calipers.

Same price, or such a small additional price and not suffering the corrosion of the parts VAG specify.

 

The thing is with vehicles that nobody makes ones to Last Forever, and we can hardly expect them to.

Manufacturers now have 'Perforation Warranties' for 12 years and Paint Warranties for 6 years,  7 Year on the Vehicle Mechanicals etc.

 

They need cars to die sometime or become uneconomic to maintain or repair.

Air Bags going out of date etc, other parts made to a price and a limited life span. Or they would not need to keep building cars.

Parts Manufacturers need to stay in Business selling replacement parts.

 

Euro 4, emissions, now Euro 5 & soon to be Euro 6 will see cars going to the scrap yard in the Sky sooner rather than later,

Solid Bodies with no rust, and other parts needing replaced and not economic to do so.

Electrical parts mostly.

 

Manufacturers know that private buyers of new cars change more often then a few decades ago,

and that Business & Mobility bought cars are being changed 3 yearly or so.

 

Its just a shame that buying a new car from this year as a used car in 7 years time might be a no no.

Or the cars being sold new this year & next might be the best to buy to keep for a long time,

not quite sure what Euro 6 will bring  in the way of more complications and lack of cheap simple motoring.

Cars are becoming pretty disposable like Computers and phones and getting punted more often.

(Personally i think there are lots of cars from around 2006/7/8 that were well built and lasting well.)

 

george