MOT today for my old faithful 2004 JTD. Failed on a worn track-rod end, leaks in the exhaust, and a chafed flexible brake hose which needs replacing. All easy enough - £100 and a day of work at worst.

But it also failed on rust - rear sill, right next the wheel arch. Not necessarily a problem, I have a MIG welder. And so I started jabbing and scraping to gauge the extent of the corrosion, and it doesn't look good at all.



I then started cutting back to find sound steel, and it's a becoming a damned big hole. Not sure if the second photo shows it clearly, but all the way to the oval opening is rotten - I could drive a thin screwdriver through by hand.



So a pretty major corrosion situation, going at least a foot along the sill. The other alarming thing is that there's visible, wet water beneath the underbody sealant, when I scrape it off in this area of the chassis. The heavier steel behind the sill (at the top in these pics) is also corroded, although not penetrated yet.

I know I could do an adequate job of pounding an A4-sized panel of 1mm mild steel into the approximate contours, and welding it in strongly (if not neatly). But with the extent of the corrosion here I'm wondering if it's worth the effort. I had to do a smaller sill repair last year, at the front on the other side, so this isn't an isolated problem.

I'm leaning towards scrapping the old thing. Despite being very fond of my two Stilos (10yrs, 300,000miles), I'm too old to be bothered with patching up structural rust. It's a losing battle. The MOT had advisories for corrosion on the subframe and rear spring mounts, all the tyres are down to 2-3mm, so I'm going to be spending a fair amount of time and money to keep it on the road.

This feels like the end of the Stilo adventure for me, but before I make that final call I'd appreciate any second opinions.

Thanks <sniff...>

PS - Ironically, the first new post I saw when I logged in tonight was - "...the lower rear arches are rusty spreading to the sills, the very rear of the sills feel like I could poke a hole through them.." https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/447591-rusty-stilo.html

?

Hi. Sometimes in life you just have to let go. Really sorry

Yeah but... if you wants a nice new eco-box car in 6-12 moth's time, you could keep the beast alive this MOT so you can take advantage of the potential/proposed Diesel scrappage scheme (or sell the beast to someone else who does.. e.g your missus, kids etc.).

If Mrs May is going to give you £2000 say, and your nearest and dearest, mistress, bloke next door etc. is going to/or fancies to buy a brand new petrol eco-box in the next few months anyway, then an MOT'd old diesel war-horse is suddenly going to be worth the trouble..


Ralf S.

Thanks Ralf, that's an interesting aspect. But if they go ahead with the scrappage scheme there will be loads of eligible old diesels around, selling for £300-500 on Autotrader. There might be a slight lift in their market value because of the trade-in potential, but it won't be big because the take-up rate won't absorb all of them (last time it was capped to 300,000 cars). So I reckon my repaired Stilo would still only be worth £500 or so (I wouldn't want to buy a brand-new car). But to reserve options, I might just park it up and see how that scheme develops.

I suppose so.

If you're going to scrap the beast anyway, the value won't go down .. it'll be fairly flat or even increase slightly.

On the other hand, I'll start writing up a list of pieces I might need..


Ralf S.

U will need to have owned the vehicle for 90days or something like that to take oart of the scrapage scheme

Itll be very similiar to the previous ones....

Ziggy

Looks similar to mine 2004, I thought they where galvanised ?

Pashers said:

Looks similar to mine 2004, I thought they where galvanised ?

Click to expand...

Yes, I think they were. But it's not a 100% guarantee against corrosion. If a tiny dot of rust finds a way under the zinc, it will creep from there. This car has lasted 13yrs, and a large part of that within a mile of the sea. I'm not disappointed, just sad that it's over.

Just wondering. Is this a galvanised area or not? Wonder why it would rot so badly if it was galvanised. Sorry, missed the post on this above!