Technical Rear axle rust

[Baglady1990]

Nothing like a nice hard skin covering to trap moisture, and provide a nice rust incubator.

I just spray thinned out engine oil over everything underside.

• The thinners evaporates, and the oil and dries out slightly.
• After 3 to 6 months the first coat has collected a layer of fine dust from the road.
• I then do it again, over the dust, this soaks into the dust, and provides a layer that any bigger stones bounce off.
• The saturated oily dust is the perfect rust inhibitor.
• Every year, I do it again.
• If you have to do any work on it, all the bolts are easy to undo.
• Been doing it for over 30 years.

Can you use old engine oil? I’ve been lazy and still have my last few oil changes to take to the recycling place! How much thinner would you use?

 

[GettinBetter]

Old engine oil is perfect. I use 60% oil-40% white spirit, and use an airline with a shultz type gun. Takes minutes to do the whole car. I do it whenever doing a bit of maintenace, so if I have to take the wheel off for instance, the last thing I do is finish with a coat all over the area. Staying clear of brake discs for obvious reasons.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Can you use old engine oil? I’ve been lazy and still have my last few oil changes to take to the recycling place! How much thinner would you use?

That's an old one. We used to do that many years ago. It's quite messy, probably not very "environmentaly friendly", and needs frequent redoing but, especially if you can easily get under the car and have a ready supply of old oil, it's a cheap and quite effective thing to do. Obviously, being a mineral oil, you don't want to spray it on anything it might degrade, so anything rubbery - brake hoses and tyres, even suspension arm bushes for instances and obviously not on the exhaust either! and especially not anywhere near brake discs. Probably best applied with a brush as more controllable? I think, unless you're happy to be doing this frequently, you're probably better off with something more viscous, like a wax.

 

[Ralf S.]

On my X I've used Lanoguard (made from sheep **** by the smell of it) and it's kept the underside looking quite clean.. although it's a bit sticky and picks up debris. I suppose it's the equivalent of smearing grease on your car very thinly.

On the Younger Mrs S's Rasputin I've painted the axle with oil. The best oil is old gearbox oil.. so give your beasts some new gear oil (what's not to like?) and use the old stuff to cover the chassis.


Ralf S.