Hi all,

I've just had some work done on my 2017 Sportline 280 4x4 - waterpump, thermostat, aux belts, do88 intercooler, new horns. I was gutted and worried when I saw the state of my crashbar, you could literally peel the rust off in places

Has anyone else had theirs as rusty?

Cheers

That looks pretty bad. Is the underside of car the same or is it just the bar. If its bolt on I would be inclined to get it shotblasted and paint with galvafroid or similar and a good few top coats or just replace it. Seen a few on ebay that are in better condition and not that expensive.

Alasdair

I replaced it with a vgc used one. The way the rust was peeling off, it couldn't have had it's original rigidity in it, quite scary.

Rest of car is absolutely fine.

Did you take the opportunity to have this bit cut open to aid induction airflow?

On topic - yeah that did look rusty - how old is the car and are you coastal? Or was the previous owner coastal do you know?

Not coastal, West Midlands actually. Previous owner was Peterborough. I've had it 5 years now.

I did a bit more than that RH opening. Forgive the one photo, I did tidy it properly afterwards!

Let me see if I can post them, I'm hitting some sort of forum limit

Aargh, got 5 more images , I cant upload them.

Basically, I cut out the aperture in the RH side so it matched the LH side, the airbox was already modded - R600 pikey mod.

I bought these vent guide things which are meant for the Golf GTI, and mounted them the other way up to guide air into the airbox

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by DrAvalanche

Glad you replaced it and rest of car is sound. Have had random bits on my octavia that seem to rust more than the rest of car. Wonder if its been a bad paint job at factory. Had one sill really bad but other good and a large patch on lower drivers door where as rest were ok. Once it starts you can hold it back for a while but it always comes back usually with a vengeance. Why they just dont galvanize these parts???

Alasdair

Cost, no doubt.

When I was looking for a replacement, there was only 1 on ebay in the UK and that was half as rusty as mine! With the lack of them, could this be a bigger issue, or am I just unlucky?