How can I prevent bolts in engine compartment from rusting?
toadstool
I have a '93 Tercel on which a few bolts in the engine compartment
have totally rusted out, and then broken off. I can see that many
others are rusted, and look like they would disintegrate if they had
to be loosened. If major engine work must be done, how do mechanics
deal with all these rusted bolts?
I also have a new 2003 Sienna that I would like to keep for as long as
possible -- certainly for at least 10 years, and hopefully for 15 or
more. How can I keep the bolts from rusting on it?
m...@here.com
"toadstool" <touz...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e6f69d61.03030...@posting.google.com...
Move to the Arizona desert. ;-)
Unless they are exhaust bolts, you can replace them fairly easily (?!)
before they rust out completely. Unless they are Grade 8, you can
use stainless steel bolts from a marine supply. Always use same or
better grade, and preferably an exact replacement.
Ray
Rusted fasteners leading to broken fasteners is one of the joys of
working on cars.
If you're a mechanic and it's a customer's car, you just have to
learn how to get 'em out/snap 'em off and always have plenty of
replacement fasteners handy.
If it's your car, you have a few options to reduce/prevent the
corrosion. As suggested, move to Arizona. Don't drive it in
the rain and winter. Replace bolts with marine grade. Coat
with either motor oil, paint, rustoleum or something like that.
The idea is to replace the bolt with something that won't rust
or use something like paint to keep the water and oxygen from
the fastener.
The problem with painting the bolts is it doesn't
usually get the threads, so stuff like shock bolts (why are they
always located in the best places for rust?) still rust all to
heck anyway. IIRC you shouldn't replace them with stainless
fasteners because they're too brittle.
Ray
who lives in the rust belt and parks his nice car for the winter
because rust sucks. You can see through the fenders of my winter
truck...
Mike Romain
are a major pain that can turn an hour long job into 2 days of cursing,
cutting, drilling, tapping and skinned knuckles....
You develop a love for 'vise grips' and have 3 or 4 different shaped
ones because a socket has nothing there to grab onto...
You also really wish you had a cutting torch on far too many occasions.
I did a frame up rebuild on my 86 Jeep CJ7 and only one bolt came off
the body tub and fenders properly. That is, just turned out with a
wrench.
I got lucky and snapped off tons of them but had to cut the heads off
and drill way too many. I love my grinder and dremil tool too....
Took half a day grinding just to get the roll bar off in one piece....
I replaced the body with fiberglass and used all stainless bolts, nuts
and washers for replacements where possible. Any special grade 8 bolts
were replaced with the same. No more rust!!!!
On all the bolts I used Anti-sieze compound or loctite!
The antisieze stuff is great, it seals the threads from moisture and a
thin swipe with the brush coats the bolt heads and nuts to a decent
degree.
Loctite also seals moisture out as does dielectric grease. On
electrical bolts, I use dielectric grease as a coating after they are
tight.
When I did my CJ7 build, I even took off bolts I didn't need to just to
get a coating of anti-sieze on the threads.
Did the same for all the electrical plugs with dielectric grease at the
plug connections
I regularly run my Jeep through mud and water up to 42" deep or bottom
of the headlights with out worrying and drive on heavily salted winter
roads and anything I have needed to remove since has been a breeze.
If I were to buy a new Jeep, I would likely have some Jeep (read
mechanically adept) friends over for a beer and BBQ party ( BYO torque
wrench, I have the beer, <grin>) and go after all the main bolts to back
them out and coat them. The factory service manual and a couple torque
wrenches are needed. For sure I would coat the wiring harness plug
connection joints with dielectric grease too.
It would be well worth it in my mind for any part that has a limited
warranty on it. You know, one year labor and 5 year part or something.
Or anything that I am going to take swimming too... ;-)
Things like fender to body bolts can be a pain on an older vehicle if
you need to change it down the road. Either for your own fix or for the
labor it is going to cost a mechanic to do.
Can be the difference between 1 hour labor or 6 hours of drilling and
tapping ones that snapped or welding new body nuts in for the ones that
spun out.
Antisieze is messy crap, but even coating any exposed threads and the
bolt heads and nuts without taking them apart first will help a lot.
Especially coat the cracks between a nut and the bolt and the nut and
head to the metal plate they are holding.
It comes in a tub with a small brush. You can repeat the job in 5 years
if it weathers away, but my 3 year old ones show no sign of that.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Nathan Nagel
get their hardware. There's a store in Annapolis called "Chesapeake
Marine Fasteners" and they have just about everything that you'd find in
a normal hardware store available in stainless. It's not really that
much more expensive than buying regular Grade 5 stuff. Pretty much any
time I tear into anything on one of my Studes and the bolts or screws
are located somewhere that rusts, I replace them with stainless. (which
reminds me, I just got lots of chrome engine bits, so I need even MORE
stainless now...)
nate
Joel Gallun
> If you have any friends that have saltwater boats ask them where they
> get their hardware.
The problem with that is, in my experience, marine places dont carry
any metric hardware.
Another thing to consider, and I dont know if this is the case with a
'yota or not, is that a lot of fasteners on my cars are class 8.8 or
harder. About the only place you'll find class 8.8 stainless is at one
of Aerospatiale's contractors, as the US aerospace industry has mostly
resisted metrication so far. NASA did one hard metric spacecraft in
the late 80s - early 90s (it was a joint project w/ the Japanese). I
wonder if the "International" space station is metric?
Antisieze or thread lockers, as appropriate, are probably your best
best.
Joel
Nate Nagel
The place here in Annapolis not only carries metric stuff but BS,
Whitworth, etc. Great stuff! I don't know about 8.8 though, that is
a valid concern.
nate
m...@here.com
Grade 8 bolts inside, but as far as I can remember, many
outside and hence rustprone bolts were Grade 5 or less.
And substituting those with stainless stell shouldn't be much
of an issue.
"Nate Nael" <njn...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4b6d2dd6.03030...@posting.google.com...
Joel Gallun
> The place here in Annapolis not only carries metric stuff but BS,
> Whitworth, etc. Great stuff! I don't know about 8.8 though, that is
> a valid concern.
That is really excellent. I looked in Boat US and West Marine once for
some stainless metric and came up empty. Never bothered again
The contact info for then is:
Chesapeake Marine Fasteners, Inc.
P.O. Box 6521
10 Willow St.
Annapolis, MD 21401
(410)266-9332 Fax (410)266-0709
c...@bayserve.net
They do mail/phone order.
Joel