Steam cleaning the underbody to prevent rust

[STREET-SPEC]

I read in the manual or warranty that the underbody should be steam cleaned once a year. I would figure when winter's over. But, I doubt most do it.
Could this be the reason we rust soo bad? I know it's the water and salt, and the rubber stuff on the fenders holding it all in, but if it was steam cleaned after winter each year there would be no problem, right?

[cloudasc]

I read in the manual or warranty that the underbody should be steam cleaned once a year. I would figure when winter's over. But, I doubt most do it.
Could this be the reason we rust soo bad? I know it's the water and salt, and the rubber stuff on the fenders holding it all in, but if it was steam cleaned after winter each year there would be no problem, right?

With the way the quarterpanels are designed, even if you steamed them each winter, you would probably still rust, its about water getting trapped, and the panels getting eaten from the inside out. Even if a car is parked, and in a place with high humidity rust can still form.

Also in places where its always below freezing during the winter, and they use salt, its better for you to leave your car outside, with everything frozen on it (if required use a block heater), than to pull it into the garage to warm up, have all that snow/ice melt off, which creates the perfect environment for the rust to form.

Going to a car wash with an undercarraige cleaner several times a year is more practical, especially the closer you live to saltwater, or if you ever drive on the beach.

On another note I took the Honda word badge off my trunk 5 years ago, and found some surface rust around one of the holes (some of the paint came up with it), I just waxed over it, and it hasn't gotten any worse. So water repellents for problematic areas might also be something beneficial to look at. Then there are some electronic anti-rust systems (my car came with a 'Rust Evader' that a previous owner installed when I bought it at 116k, i'm pretty sure its helped [slowed down the formation of rust], but it hasn't stopped it from forming completely).

[GeoffM]

Then there are some electronic anti-rust systems (my car came with a 'Rust Evader' that a previous owner installed when I bought it at 116k, i'm pretty sure its helped [slowed down the formation of rust], but it hasn't stopped it from forming completely).

I've never heard of this, but it sounds almost like a hydrolysis system for your car.
If that's the case, make sure you find the sacrificial anodes.


Anyways, I go to the car wash specifically for underbody wash.
I do most of it myself, and wax most of the time.

I particularly like "Nu finish".
They aren't joking about it lasting a year. But I also do other waxes on top of it.

[cloudasc]

The rust evader was preinstalled I'm guess by the original owner, and it has two anodes on the shock tower areas on my car.

[RyanD]

The rust evader was preinstalled I'm guess by the original owner, and it has two anodes on the shock tower areas on my car.

CCan you explain how such a thing works?

[accordztech]

Ships use that technology to attract corrosion to the anodes so it doesn't go to anywhere else on the ships.

I personally never knew they put it in the car.

But what is rust? I'm from California.....hahah