hi there,

I hope this is the right place to post this- I've only had my Mini for four days so I'm still pretty new to all this. My question is about rust proofing. I have been reading about these electronic rust modules that send a charge through your car to prevent the formation of rust, and some testimonials sound positive, but I've also read that they're a hoax and yearly rustproofing is way more effective. I am in the middle of a Canadian winter and the roads are heavily salted already... I'd like to do something soon to protect my new baby! Is there anyone out there who lives where they salt the roads? What did you do and what would you recommend? Please help!

 

eleanor44, I live in the Chicago area where the roads are heavily salted. I would rather do the rust proofing, but honestly I haven't done rust proofing since the late 70's, and have not had any rust issues on any of my cars. I think today's cars are made with better metal alloys that don't rust easily. I think the the best thing to do is keep the car clean, especially in the winter. I had an 87 Volvo that I drove for 15 years and put 250K miles on it. The car ran like new and looked new when I sold it. Not a spec of rust on it. I sold it just because I wanted a new car.

 

I live in canada to and the best way is to put you car at sleep in winter but a few bobby of nive have use oil treatment and it work very good .. were in canada are you locaded..

 

I'm in Ottawa, we got several heavy dumps of snow in December and they salted like crazy, but now it's warm and slushy and getting all over my car... unfortunately I can't sleep her for the winter but I will look into the oil treatment. The rust modules are also quite expensive ($500 or more, I think) so if it's not useful I would rather save the money... for the carwash, as FPM suggests!

 

in montreal i have use metropolitain oil treatment on and honda accord for
9 year and it realy work lest say that for 75$ a year it not expensice to save you MINI..

 

we have a metropolitain here, I will give them a call. Thanks so much!

 

I grew up in New England, near the coast and also a heavily salted area when the weather turned. Rust and rot were always a big problem. A rust proof coating is a good solution, except the down side is rocks and debris will scratch off the coating and leave an area succeptible to rust. In about 1987 my wife bought a car and the only protection the dealer offered was for an electronic rust inhibator. I was not to happy about it at the time, since it was expensive and I didn't have a clue as whether it worked. We had the car for about 10 years and it never had any rust. In fact, when we sold the car, I took it off and put it on her replacement. They work better than coatings since there's nothing to scrape off. Go for the electonic, you'll be happy you did. About ten years ago, I found a much better solution....move to Colorado. Oh well, live and learn.

 

Your MINI comes from the factory with an undercoating. The best thing to do is to WASH the underside of the car with lots of water. One way to do this is just use a garden sprinkler, put it under the car, and have a beer while it rinses the crap off.

For the painted body panels, put a GOOD quality sealant/wax on at least once a year. Wash the car when it is dirty, even if it is only a wand wash, to keep the crud from building up.

When I lived in the Peg(Winnipeg) I washed my MINI at wand washes all winter long.

Rust proofing is not worth doing, much cheaper to just keep the car clean. Ottawa is not that cold

My 03 MINI has 150,000 kms on it, no rust

Mark

 

when temps rise above 30F wash freqently if there is salt on the roads.
if it's in the 20F's you might want to wait and just keep your car frozen
(and dry) outside. the freeze/defrost cycle accelerates the corrosion
when there is salt on the parts.

as others have already mentioned, the metals are treated for corrosion so
it's not going to rust that easily.

 

I live in Minnesota, where the salt is really hard on cars - the module thing they sell you at dealers works - there's a ton of science and articles to back it up, plus it's way more eco-friendly... The brand the dealer sells is called Final Coat, but the same manufacturer also sells it "private label" under the name "GreenStar" - you can get it on ebay much cheaper and install it yourself (it's incredibly easy to install.)

That's the way to go. :-)

Good luck!