so i had to change my tire recently and i noticed rust here. I am not sure what this part is (axle??) but it did not look or feel right...something i need to do about this??



also, some rust here...anything i can do to protect the parts from wearing out:



it is an 05 tC and has about 55k on it.

 

Yeah it doesn't look nice, but that's actually normal for the tC 5 years later. Not saying it's normal for a Honda or another car, just normal for the tC. And in your case, you have less rust than one of the members from boston. he posted up pics of his underside and it had a LOT more rust than yours! Not much you can do right now. The axle part that's rusting I believe that's a damper for the axle (think balancing), not much to do right now until the thing flies off due to rust. Probably safer to just leave it until you gotta spend money on a new axle. sad but true.

Doesn't seem Toyota intended on these cars lasting that long.

Things you can do to help:

1- in the winter above 32degrees spray water (coin op) in the wheel wells (but NOT the brakes, dont want to warp them!) and under the car to get rid of salt. salt + water = corrosion,rust

2- If you were to ever take apart the suspension to lube up the bolts with anti-seize compound. that will help stop the rust from ever forming. but right now i'd leave it alone, once you take it apart then you'll have to play to get the camber/alignment back to the settings they are now.

 

^Thanks for your detailed response. That really sucks. I was hoping to keep this car for as long as possible....too bad there is not much i can do about it right now.

 

thats just has cars are made its untreated metal so in 5 years its gonna look like the bottom of the titanic. not a hole lot you can do unless you want to replace the parts themselves.
as for in the winter find your self a good car wash that does chassis spraying and frequent the place although it might get expensive it will definitely help the life of the chassis and body from rust do to salt

 

no problem icestorm. yeah, i wish i had better news. I figured within 6 years or so (of first taking delivery of the new car), a lot of us in the salt belt will just have to replace the suspension pieces cuz there isn't going to be anything left of them. Now the body/frame that's different, I see NO rust on that. on either mine or the pics you posted of yours. So at least that's SOME good news. Can replace the components but once the frame rusts out, you're done for.

so yeah a little good news

 

yeah the body looks good. have you already replaced any suspension parts? i am not too familiar with it. what can i expect to replace? front axle? rear axle? cost? i was hoping to keep this car for at least another 5-6 years but not if i have to start replacing everything :--)

 

haven't had to replace anything yet due to rust. just noticed all of the surface rust when i was doing the brakes. an axle, i think was really expensive from the dealer (what isn't expensive from the dealer?) someone got a nice axle from napa, for like $90-100 instead of $450 or some big difference like that.

its odd, it all varies with tC's even in the same areas. like some had rusted tie-rods others were fine. Others had rusted caliper bleeder screws while others were fine, you get the idea. it's strange.

 

When we lived in the rust belt (thank God for Cali.), when there was salt on the roads, every day before leaving the car for the night, my dad would spray down the undercarraige and suspension to get rid of any salt (I would recommend waiting until your brakes cool down a bit before spraying them), he had the only Pontiac in town with no rust after 6 years. Most of the other cars had holes in their quarter panels and fenders. This was in the early 90's.