2005 Caravan - Rust - Spring Shackles

I purchased my new 2005 Caravan two months ago. The following link
contains pictures of rust developing on both rear spring shackles
(these pictures were taken earlier today 01 Jan).

http://www3.sympatico.ca/lancer94

Was at the dealer a couple of week ago. Got the "we can't do anything"
response!

Question. Should these have been treated during assembly? Wouldn't
Chrysler's rust warranty cover treatment and or replacement?? Or is
this 'rust' typical with all their vehicles and I am SOL.

Guidance & suggestions appreciated.

Happy New Year!

SW

 

That's just surface rust. I wouldn't worry about it myself. If it really
worries you you can remove them, clean them up with a wire wheel and have
them powdercoated or painted. What I see is typical of any vehicle, not
just a Chrysler. I know that might not be what you're hoping to hear but
don hope it helps.

Happy New Year to you too!

Tom

 

This is normal and nothing to worry about. Look under a few vehicles
next time you visit a car dealer. You will see this on almost any car
that is more than a month old.

Matt

 

I spray parts that may need to come apart later in the car's life with 3M's
anti-rust spray. It works. You can pick up a can at any body part supply
store.

Richard.

 

That is surface rust right now, but it is quite a lot of rust for only 2
months. You
would never see this in the Pacific Northwest. You probably live in a rust
belt
state where they salt the roads. These parts should have been painted, in
my
opinion. Quite obviously the springs that are connected to them were, it is
just
probably some kind of cost-saving issue.

As far as the warranty goes I don't think you have a chance, because with
the
thickness of the steel, by the time these rust to the point that they are
structurally
weak, the car will be out of warranty - although likely you will still be
driving it.

The thing is this. To design a car to be impervious to salt water is going
to really
increase it's cost. Why should I and all the people who live in California,
Arizona,
the SouthWest, the South, and so on, have to pay extra money so that the
people
who live in states where they salt the hell out of the roads don't have
their cars
rust out in 15 years? If you don't like it complain to your municipality.

People that live in states that salt the roads 6 months out of the year, and
who
buy new cars that they want to last, in my personal opinion, need to spend
the
extra money to get good rustproofing added in addition to what the
manufacturer
puts on. To be done right, this is yearly cost that is just one of the
extra maintainence
costs that need to be done on vehicles in these states. (since the
treatment needs
to be redone every year) You need to take responsibility to do this, or to
move
to a different state without so much snow. Several
good rustproofing treatments as well as a lot of bad ones that worsen the
problem
have been discussed here over the years, use the Google archives to dig them
out and read them.

Ted

 

Paint wouldn't last one winter in PA. Powder coating won't last three.
I have a receiver hitch that came powder coated and was rusting in
less than three years. Now, after nearly 10 years, it has a pretty much
uniform coating of rust. It'll still outlast the truck so why worry?

Actually, the car will probably have lots of other problems by the time
this rusts enough to be a structural problem. Engineers factor in the
rust of such parts during the design. They typically design parts with
substantial excess strength partly for this sort of deteriorization.

Matt

 

Well, notwithstanding the "iz", ....with slower vehicle sales there has
been an awful lot of
"field" storage of excess inventory around the Windsor DC plant in recent
weeks.

That usually leads to earlier onset of rusting of unprotected chassis parts.

An increase in disc brake roughness complaints usually follows, too, as
rotors pick up more
than a little rust and the pads "print" their outline.

 

Yes, I thought that didn't look right when I typed it...

Yes, that is the biggest problem I have with my brakes living in PA and
driving in both PA and NY, the latter uses even more road salt than PA!
My rotors rust and pit and then the pads wear out very quickly. I
used to try to not use my brakes too much to save wear on them, but then
a mechanic told me my pads and rotors would last longer if I used them more!

Matt

 

An increase in disc brake roughness complaints usually follows, too, as

I'm not sure it's all salt related. Newer rotors always seemed to be the
most affected by pad printing
even when the corrosion was caused only by a few weeks in an inventory bank
(read farm field).
....a fresher, more active machined surface, maybe?

Frequent, but gentle, brake application does seem to be the key.

 

I'm not sure it's all salt related. Newer rotors always seemed to be the

From what I've read on Brake discussion groups, etc., is that it is not
warping of the rotors, etc that is the problem, but not properly breaking in
the new pads.

It is noted by brake experts that pad material must be evenly distributed on
the rotor. If the pad material is not evenly distributed it may feel like a
warped rotor. One does this by taking several good stops from speed, but
being very careful not to leave the pads in contact with the rotors until
the rotors cool down a bit. This means you should leave your foot off the
pedal for a while the rotors cool down a bit.

You can try redistributing the pad material by trying this on a vehicle with
what may seem to be rotor warp and see if it helps. I have followed this
procedure for a few pad and rotor changes now and it does seem to work with
now pads and rotors.

Richard.

 

, but gentle, brake application does seem to be the key.

That's fine, but it's unrelated to the first order roughness caused by rusty
rotors and pad "printing".

 

That's fine, but it's unrelated to the first order roughness caused by
rusty rotors and pad "printing".How sure are you that they are unrelated. I live in snow country and I do
not suffer from rusty rotors and pad printing. Perhaps because enough pad
material has been properly distributed onto and into the rotors.

Richard.

 

I'm quite sure and you make my point. Pad printing (my expression) is
associated with corroded rotors on new vehicles that haven't been shipped to
the dealer yet. It's common with sales bank vehicles that have been stored
paticularly in less than ideal locations, such as a wet farm field. The OP
was concerned about what he considered to be excessive rust on unprotected
chassis components on a vehicle of which he had taken delivery only two
months previously.

You're driving your car and keeping the rotors wiped reasonably free of
corrosion.

 

pad printing is something that happens when the vehicle is not driven say a
week or so