Rust Belt experience?

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user 24513

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Now that Leafs have been around for about ten years, are owners who live in the "salt zone" seeing any signs of particular rust problems? for example, like the gas tank in a Subaru or rocker panels on every car made in the last 20 years? I have heard about the top of the struts, but wondrring how early Leafs are holding up with a view to trying to undercoat my newer model pro-actively. Thanks!
 
My '13S purchased new has been in what I'd call the heart of the rust belt, MN and driven daily, still no sign of rust :) truthfully though 10+ years seems to be the magical time from rust to rear it's ugly head, 12 years for our Scion, and 13y for the Prius. While our '12SL Leaf is older it spent it's first 4yrs in sunny So Cal and as it has magnesium for many of it's body panels I'm hoping it lasts even longer, not that we'll still have it as it will be one of the first vehicles to go when we get our Rav4 Prime but still hopefully the next owner won't have to worry about rust for a while.
 
jjeff said:
My '13S purchased new has been in what I'd call the heart of the rust belt, MN and driven daily, still no sign of rust :) truthfully though 10+ years seems to be the magical time from rust to rear it's ugly head, 12 years for our Scion, and 13y for the Prius. While our '12SL Leaf is older it spent it's first 4yrs in sunny So Cal and as it has magnesium for many of it's body panels I'm hoping it lasts even longer, not that we'll still have it as it will be one of the first vehicles to go when we get our Rav4 Prime but still hopefully the next owner won't have to worry about rust for a while.

Curious, Jeff, do the newer Leafs also use magnesium in some body panels? that seems like a quantum leap forward in terms of salt and rust, although that is probably not why it is used.....
 
I've always read that Japanese Leafs have some aluminum body panels, not magnesium. It may be an alloy of the two. Anyway, they stopped using them when North American Leaf production shifted to Tennessee for 2013.
 
dmacarthur said:
Now that Leafs have been around for about ten years, are owners who live in the "salt zone" seeing any signs of particular rust problems? for example, like the gas tank in a Subaru or rocker panels on every car made in the last 20 years? I have heard about the top of the struts, but wondrring how early Leafs are holding up with a view to trying to undercoat my newer model pro-actively. Thanks!
The '14 that I returned at the end of the 3 year lease was relatively clean for 3 Winters of very salty Cleveland driving. The worst I saw was a few unpainted screw heads with light corrosion and some of the suspension bolts had expected amounts of rust for NE Ohio. Overall, most of the underbody slash area is blocked by plastic panels. Crawling around underneath when new, I didn't like a few places that thought would be susceptible to salt corrosion which I spot-sprayed with undercoating. Example...I spot-sprayed the forward corners of the rear wheel wells because there was a crud collector area. On my '19, that area is blocked by a sound deadening felt liner so doubt it would become an issue. For contrast, I had a 2004 Chevy Impala that I traded at 4 years with soft spots in the front wheel splash area, driver's side foot area, and significant rocker panel corrosion hidden by plastic cladding. Appears that Nissan did a much better job than GM with this aspect of body construction.
 
The 2011 and 2012 LEAFs which were manufactured in Japan have many aluminum body/unibody parts so they should do quite well. The 2013 and newer LEAFs manufactured in the USA have high strength steel components instead of aluminum (probably to reduce manufacturing costs) which makes them a little easier to repair after minor crash damage.
 
GerryAZ said:
The 2011 and 2012 LEAFs which were manufactured in Japan have many aluminum body/unibody parts so they should do quite well. The 2013 and newer LEAFs manufactured in the USA have high strength steel components instead of aluminum (probably to reduce manufacturing costs) which makes them a little easier to repair after minor crash damage.
I stand corrected, it took a bit of searching but indeed it supported your claim of aluminum and not magnesium. It is interesting to take a magnet and see exactally what parts are steel and what parts are the non-magnetic aluminum, which as you said ended in '13 when production was moved to the US.
 
A fair amount of rust on the underbody, fasteners and suspension components after only 3 winters. Pics etc. here. I've removed the four fender liners, five underbody panels, tail lights and some hatch panels to access for Noxudol 300/700 application.

https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=32082
 
That seems like a lot or rust for a modern car but it's been decades since I've lived in the rust belt so maybe that's normal.

How do think the Leaf compares to other cars being produced today in terms of rust resistance?
 
Our 2016 Toyota Highlander was not much better. Even the under-hood fasteners were showing rust. One thing that stands out is the fasteners on more recent cars. They are either very cheaply plated, or not plated at all. On the 2018 LEAF, one rear bumper clip/bolt and one of the rear shield bolts nuts (right above the rear axle) were already seized. The high voltage battery case bolts look to be a bit better quality.

Needless to say, repairs on these vehicles (without some serious attention to corrosion control) will be a frustrating exercise in broken and/or seized fasteners down the line if driven outside Arizona..ha. On the other hand, the rather extensive use of plastic clips means those at least can't rust, and in most case the mount holes are decently coated from the factory with paint. If the mount holes rust at all, these clips will just fall out.

I'd say with 100% confidence that corrosion management from the factory has not gotten better, and in most cases, worse. My 84 Scirocco for example still had Waxoyl evident in the chassis rails which they used liberally in many of the hidden areas. I've seen zero on the newer vehicles. If you plan on keeping a newer vehicle in the snow/salt areas, I'd jump on the corrosion management right away. Fluid Film, Rust Check and Krown all wash off very quickly, so I no longer use these products. Noxudol remains the stand out, at least for now in terms of products that don't wash off, don't require yearly applications, have zero solvents/odor (at least the 300 and 700) and actually contain a number of chemicals that actively manage corrosion.
 
Thanks for the info. I live in CO and they don't use salt here. Mostly it's sand, which causes lots of windshield issues but that's nothing compared to the rust I grew up with. I've seen some 'surface rust' on some of the unpainted bits of my 2017 Leaf but there's really none of the body rot or heavy corrosion on bolts, etc here that you see in the rust belt. That said, my parents have a Leaf in Iowa and I may end up with that car someday. I guess I'll have to check it out next time I see them.
 
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