General Rust on boot panel

[Craig137]

Hello,

First of all, let me introduce myself – I’m Craig, a long-time ghost-reader of this forum, as I’ve never had the need to post in the past. I owned a 1.9 Multijet Active for a couple of years, until buying a second hand 1.9 Multijet Sport a couple of months ago. The Bravo is a great car, which is why I got another one, but there are a couple of problems with my new one which I want to look at getting sorted. The first is subject of this thread; I’ll post another thread for the second one to make it easier for people with similar problems to search and find the thread.

Regrettably, when looking around the new car, I completely overlooked a rather large patch of rust on the underside of the boot panel. When I did spot it a few weeks after getting the car, I was very surprised to see such a large patch on a relatively new car (it’s a 57 reg).

I see that the Bravo is covered for 8 years against perforation, but as the metal is not perforated, I'm guessing that this may not apply. I intend to go to my local Fiat dealership later this week if I can – will they be able to/are they likely to help me out with this warranty in mind to cover any costs involved in preventing spread/fixing it? Will this still stand considering I am the second owner of the car and the last service was at the independent garage I brought it from?

Presuming Fiat won't do anything unless it is actually perforated, does anybody have any tips for keeping this patch of rust at bay please?

Thanks for your time,

Craig

 

[jay1464]

My 2008 Active has suffered the same affliction, only to a lesser degree. I took it to the dealer who promptly told me that it was perfectly normal and proceeded to show me other cars with the same problem. Not content with this I contacted Honest John who also happens to own a Fiat 500. He said that unfortunately this is normal and is caused by water sitting in the boot lid when it rains. The inside of all car panels are waxed to prevent the water that naturally runs down the inside of them rusting. However in our case it has not been done very well. If you have better luck with the dealer please let me know so that I can try again.

 

[ascott92]

Doesn't the Bravo have an 8 year paint and bodywork guarantee?

 

[cainy1989]

Doesn't the Bravo have an 8 year paint and bodywork guarantee?

Only if checked yearly by an Approved Fiat Bodyshop/Dealer, and any repairs needed within that time are performed by Fiat

 

[STILO NEWBIE]

My 2008 Active has suffered the same affliction, only to a lesser degree. I took it to the dealer who promptly told me that it was perfectly normal and proceeded to show me other cars with the same problem. Not content with this I contacted Honest John who also happens to own a Fiat 500. He said that unfortunately this is normal and is caused by water sitting in the boot lid when it rains. The inside of all car panels are waxed to prevent the water that naturally runs down the inside of them rusting. However in our case it has not been done very well. If you have better luck with the dealer please let me know so that I can try again.

Hmmm... normal?
Any rust on the bodywork isn't "normal" these day (unless the paint is damaged) and I will argue it is a design fault as water shouldn't sat at boot lid, even they do, the paint should be good enough to cope. What they going to say next? we shouldn't drive our cars in the rain?

 

[hitherematey]

Hmmm... normal?
Any rust on the bodywork isn't "normal" these day (unless the paint is damaged) and I will argue it is a design fault as water shouldn't sat at boot lid, even they do, the paint should be good enough to cope. What they going to say next? we shouldn't drive our cars in the rain?

I totally agree! Id expect a little rust on a 10 year old car but such a large amount on a 3-4 year old car is disgraceful and you should write to Fiat about this.

I've never seen such a large rust patch (or any for that matter) on Grande Puntos which are known for collecting large amounts of water in their tailgates.

 

[GrandeGuy]

Hello,

First of all, let me introduce myself – I’m Craig, a long-time ghost-reader of this forum, as I’ve never had the need to post in the past. I owned a 1.9 Multijet Active for a couple of years, until buying a second hand 1.9 Multijet Sport a couple of months ago. The Bravo is a great car, which is why I got another one, but there are a couple of problems with my new one which I want to look at getting sorted. The first is subject of this thread; I’ll post another thread for the second one to make it easier for people with similar problems to search and find the thread.

Regrettably, when looking around the new car, I completely overlooked a rather large patch of rust on the underside of the boot panel. When I did spot it a few weeks after getting the car, I was very surprised to see such a large patch on a relatively new car (it’s a 57 reg).

I see that the Bravo is covered for 8 years against perforation, but as the metal is not perforated, I'm guessing that this may not apply. I intend to go to my local Fiat dealership later this week if I can – will they be able to/are they likely to help me out with this warranty in mind to cover any costs involved in preventing spread/fixing it? Will this still stand considering I am the second owner of the car and the last service was at the independent garage I brought it from?

Presuming Fiat won't do anything unless it is actually perforated, does anybody have any tips for keeping this patch of rust at bay please?

Thanks for your time,

Craig

This is in fact a paint defect from the factory on that one, if you look at the spray work round it, you can see it's totally poor, like the robot/gun was running out of paint or not been primed.
Or even painted onto rusty metal.

 

[neilshep]

To me, it looks like the paint has been worn away by rubbing on something. The picture isn't totally clear, but I get the impression the panel is slightly distorted.

According to eLearn, most body panels are galvanised so as not to rust. The only ones not galavanised are allegedly small things like brackets under the dash that are not subject to wet.

I would ask myself if the previous owner carried things sticking out the back, or if there has been a rear end shunt poorly repaired?

 

[Tad-bravo]

Presuming Fiat won't do anything unless it is actually perforated, does anybody have any tips for keeping this patch of rust at bay please?

Thanks for your time,

Craig

First of all, this is not normal contrary to what someone said before.

Rust is never normal on a car, it's supposed to be fully coated in a rust proof layer under the paint. The previous owner probably carried something big and metallic in the boot once and scratch that area bad and that let rust in under the protective layer overtime.

you can easily prevent this from spreading by sanding it until the rust is gone and applying a light coat of paint. Since this area is invisible from outside, you might never need to get it sorted by a professional if you do it with a shade of paint close enough to the colour fo your car.


what you need :
- sanding paper (300 medium abrasivness )
- a can of spray paint close to the colour of your car
- adhesive tape
- news paper to protect parts that new paint shouldn't reach.

 

[Craig137]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll let you know how I get on Craig

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

To me, it looks like the paint has been worn away by rubbing on something. The picture isn't totally clear, but I get the impression the panel is slightly distorted.

Ditto.

 

[Craig137]

Right, so Fiat (finally) got back to me and, as suspected, it was a 'no', quoting that it looked like the paintwork has been damaged that had allowed the rust to form, so you lot were right on the money there!

I'm going to get some quotes for this in the coming weeks just to price it up, but I'd imagine I might just give this ago myself using the advice on the thread. I'll update with how I get on.

Thanks for the help,
Craig

 

[Craig010]

Hmm... I would not be impressed if this were my car. The paintwork/bootlid looks damaged in the photo, as has been said, as if the boot has indeed been closed onto something. It makes you think how some people treat their nice cars eh?