Broke a rear spring on my new-to-me R60 and opened a whole can of worms. H&R sport springs, NM rear sway bar, adjustable control arms, torn CV boot up front, torque arm insert aaaaaaand rust. Ive never dug quite this deep on a car's suspension before, but what's a "normal" or "acceptable" amount of rust. The subframe has some spots that look worse that surface rust to me. Nothing seems rotted through, but should I be planning to replace that bastard? To clean/coat it with something? Ignore it altogether? The car has about 82k on it and as far as I know spent it's life in the midwest.

 

The bottom 3 photos don't look too bad to me. That top one looks rowdy, but it's hard to tell if it's replacement worthy from a photo. My 2013 R60 has a fair bit of suspension & sub-frame component rust as well. I'm doing more suspension work this weekend (sway bar end links up front, and sway bar bushings in the rear). I plan to hit some of the rusty spots with a scraper and/or wire brush, then some Rustoleum Rust Reformer to at least slow the corrosion, and if I'm not completely over being under the car, maybe a touch of paint.

 

I know this is a relatively old thread, but I wanted to know if @StJamesG8 tackled all that rust, and if so, how, as I have a similar situation to deal with.
Thanks.

 

Maybe check out the website for Rust Bullet. Little prep and it seems to work; I used it one some pinch welds at the top of the rocker panels on my '03 S several year ago and have had no rust reappear.

 

Thank you. This inhibitor you suggested apparently works wonders as a primer as well.
So basically, you get rid of the flaky stuff (in case you have it), clean it up with a wire brush or some sanding, and then a layer of Rust Bullet before you go for the finish of choice.

 

Yep. Since mine is covered by molding I didn't even put finish paint on it. I thought it would be easier to spot rust returning on a light surface than BRG.