With winter finally upon us and the UK roads getting regularly
spread with salt, it's a good time to mention how rust affects our
beloved Land Cruisers and to provide some tips for avoiding
problems.
How are they affected?
Apart from the old 60 series that used to disintegrate at the
merest sniff of moisture, overall most Land Cruisers built after
1990 are pretty well protected as standard from the factory,
although they do struggle a bit with road or sea salt.
Land Cruisers are perfect tow vehicles so they often get used
for launching boats and so regularly get the back end dunked in the
sea water at the same time. The rustiest examples we have
seen in the workshop have come from launching boats - they almost
all have a tide line of rust on them from the front mud flaps to
above the rear bumper.
The salt spread on the roads is also another killer, it gets all
over the underside of the car, particularly under the back of the
car and then as the thaw comes the layer of salt attracts the
moisture and starts to corrode the metal.
Of all the models, the 90 series with the fuel tank under the
boot seems to suffer the worst - the salty water collects around
the rear axle and fuel tank causing severe rusting of the axle
casing, fuel tank and guard as well as the outlet pipes on the fuel
tanks.
The 80 and 100 series are a little higher, which seems to help.
Road salt doesn't seem to affect the rear axle as much, but
does have a habit of collecting around behind the rear mud flaps,
on the fuel filler pipe running to the tank as well as in some
cases the sills in front of the rear wheels.
Something else to mention whilst not specifically a rust issue,
on all the series a common point of failure due to rot are the rear
diff lock actuators - aluminium and steel generally don't play
nicely together, but in a dry environment you should be reasonably
OK. However if you throw some salty water at them the rot
sets in causing the alloy housings on the actuators to start to
dissolve where they touch steel - at nearly £1k a pop this is an
expensive repair.
Underbody Protection
In most cases it is the salt that does the damage so it is
important to keep it off the bare metal.
Traditionally you can use a Waxoyl or Dinitrol product to coat
the underside of the vehicle, keeping the salt water away from the
metal and treating any underlying rust. We have tried both
products, but have settled with the Dinitrol range because they
provide a good range of products for different applications
In most cases this works fine, however areas like the rear axle
get almost sand blasted as you drive along rough roads and tracks
and then you have a bigger problem - the moisture gets underneath
the rust treatment causing more damage than if it was allowed to
just run off.
One cheaper solution that we recommend is to get a garden
sprinkler and periodically run it under the car to give it a good
soaking - this works a lot better than most pressure washers
because it gets in to all the nooks and crannies and has the
benefit of cleaning the underside at the same time (we prefer clean
cars in the workshop J). With models like the 80s, the rust
behind the rear mud flaps is accelerated by the build-up of dirt
there that seems to retain the salt water for a lot longer.
Elsewhere..
The salty water can spray all over the car and in the engine bay
so another trick I have seen is to keep the engine bay area
liberally coated in WD40 - it does make it a little harder to spot
fuel leaks, but does reduce the amount of corrosion on the engine
and ancillaries.
Rust around some of the windows, particularly the upper tailgate
windows on the 80s is a perennial problem - the water builds up
around the seals and sits there doing it's damage. The best
solution is to get a sealant like Arbomast or even a basic silicone
based sealant and squirt that around the seals to stop the moisture
from getting behind there
Please wipe your feet...
Whilst we all love playing in the snow and mud, do be conscious
that every time you get in and out of the car the chances are you
are dumping a load of moisture into the car eventually soaking the
carpets.
The key thing is just to be conscious that you may be doing it
and to check the carpets regularly. Even if you have rubber
mats in the car the water could be flowing under them and
preventing the carpets below from drying properly.
Whilst many people hate it, your aircon does a fantastic job of
drying out a car's interior and keeping the screens clean so if you
can, make sure you keep it running over the winter.
If the carpets get really soaked the only option really is to
pull up the trim around the door ways and then lift the carpet so
that the air can circulate under it. We have a small fan
heater that we use - we hold the carpet up with a strip of wood and
then blow warm air under it. If the carpet is double
thickness with a layer of sound proofing on the bottom, separate
the two layers so speed drying.
Actually the old trick of putting screwed up newspapers down
wellies to dry them could also work, putting the balls of
newspapers between the carpet layers will keep them separated and
the newspapers should draw out the moisture.
Treatments...
If you have existing rust it is essential to treat it to prevent
it spreading. There are many treatments on the market for
rust - ideally aim for a product that will convert the existing
rust in to an inert state and then re-spray the area to keep the
moisture out.
Currently in the workshop we tend to clean off the old loose
rust and then spray with Dinitrol's Converust 900 which provides a
good base for later spraying and then we use Dinitrol's ML spray on
components that we work on to prevent rust starting.
Well that covers most of the bases. There will always be
exceptions to the rule, b ut hopefully this will help get you on
track to keep the rust at bay.
Stay warm.
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