Corrosion issues

S

sama156

Member
Location
Warsaw
I recently had a chance to get under our 2007 AWD FX35 - it is my wife's DD. I must admit that I was a little shocked :eek.:

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1) The exhaust

- We alreay lost one heat shield from the cat earlier, the other one was removed while in service as well
- It is most likely leaking, I noticed a faint whistle on larger throtle openings. I do not know yet where it is leaking from though. It probably can stil be fixed, but given the condition, I would not expect it to last very long due to our harsh winters and salt around here.

=> What are my best options for a quiet OEM style exhaust (wife's DD...). HKS seemed to be recommended as a good solution? It seems that for 2007 they are only selling the back part, so I would have to buy the middle part separately - Kakumei AWD Y pipe?
=> What about the cats? Normally (I am driving a E46 M3 and Alpina B10 3.3) I would look into high flow cats etc...but again, this is my wife's DD. Maybe those cats still have some life in them even if the heatshields are falling off and they look pretty horrid.

2) Support

What is this highly corroded support with holes in it? It seems flimsy and perhaps corroded beyond repair.

=> Maybe just buy new OEM part?

3) Sway bar, springs

- I am assuming that the peeling black bar is a sway bar? Again, looks horrible but perhaps it can still be rescued.
- I was not happy with how the spings looked like, but again, I guess it is still a cosmetical issue at this stage


Any thoughts? what would you do?

Sam
 
Wow, that looks pretty bad for an 07. My 03 is no anywhere near yours. Did you park it in a garage? I had and 03 FX35 that was park on the street and and 03 FX45 that garage kept. It s night and day on their bottom side.

I wouldn't worry about the "W" shaped brace just below the gas tank, or the rear sway bar. They're just surface rust. I'm surprise with the rust on the coilover spring. How old are the coilover? Looks like BC brand? My 2 Chicago winters old Kiddo brand coilover spring show no sign of rust yet. The springs are functionally fine.

HKS cat back and Kakumei Y-pipe is a good combo for daily driver. The stock cat is functionally fine. It just look bad from the outside..
 
Most of that is surface rust, other than the cat that has the heat shield w/ holes. I'm not sure how the roads are treated in Poland, but if they have a lot of salt and gravel, this isn't uncommon. HKS exhaust is a good choice or if you can find a Nismo or Fujitsubo, they aren't too loud either. All should be stainless so that will help. Megan Racing makes a Nismo knockoff that is stainless as well. You'll still need the Y-pipe if you want so Kakumei or Megan Racing are your options. Both are stainless.

You should be able to repaint your W brace, it looks like it just got chipped and that's how the rust starts. Same with the springs, that looks like the paint/coating they come with was chipped by road debris and then the rust starts. I would be more concerned about bolts and such. If they're seized or corroded it makes everything much harder to work on. I'm pretty sure your exhaust bolts will be frozen. And I would check the coil over collars to make sure they aren't seized.
 
Awesome, many thanks for the replies! :good:

The car has been garaged, but they use a lot of salt here.

Indeed, the coilovers are BC Racing. They have been a great improvement over stock, but looks like they do not like to be exposed to the elements. What is worse, they are only 2.5 years old. I was considering them also for my M3, but after seeing this, I will need to rethink, maybe stretch the budget to KWs - although as the M is not really driven in winter conditions, perhaps they would be fine.

Good, I have an action plan:

1) Check where the exhaust leak is and see if it is still repairable - if not, HKS & Kakumei will be the likely plan B (though we like the OEM exhaust sound), leave the stock cats in place
2) Take it to a shop that deals with rust issues and get the key components cleaned up. Thankfully labour is still comparatively cheap around here so it should not cost a fortune...
 
Ouch. I had this problem before while I was still in NY but caught it at an earlier stage and corrected them. Like the others suggested, have the major parts with surface rust treated and repainted and replace the badly corroded bolts while you still can. As for the exhaust, go aftermarket stainless steel and call it a day. If you replace it with stock, you will be back to the same issue in less than 2 years unless if you don't have any plans of keeping the car.

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.
 
If you can get KW's for your M3, they are in another league compared to BC. I run BC's on my FX and they are fine, but I run V3's on my 335i and the ride/handling is so much better than BC.

With regards to rust, any spring will do that in the same conditions. Almost all springs use a similar coating.
 
Cruiser said:
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If you replace it with stock, you will be back to the same issue in less than 2 years unless if you don't have any plans of keeping the car.
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Click to expand...

Well, this is the question. Overall the car is in a nice shape. Only around 55k miles, BC Racing coilovers, F50 Akebono brakes + plenum spacer. Drives well, interior nice and tidy. The underbody is the only major concern at the moment. Perhaps the only other drawback during our ownership has been the gas mileage in this local bad stop&go traffic - on longer trips it is ok.

We are tempted by the newer 37S and they also sell here a diesel version in Europe, the 30d. From the gas mileage perspective the diesel would make a lot of sense...but I have bad experience from buying cars that "made a lot of sense". We did test drive the 50S too, but for the main family transport we do not need the performance (nor the worse gas mileage).

I guess that mostly thanks to the better gearbox, the 37S is quite a bit faster than the 35. How about gas mileage, a little better? It would be interesting to hear what people who made the move from 35 to 37 have to say in general.

We really like this car and I would be like to keep it, but now it is a good time to evaluate the options.
 
It was like that under my wife's 07 fx35 as well. The rear exhaust flange broke off before the connector which made the car obliviously super loud and annoying. Infiniti wanted 800 for a new exhaust. I had a local guy just weld it back together for 30$


Via.Mobile
 
^ I think I remembered your thread on this. My muffler back then rusted out from the inside and two rust holes punched through the muffler while the flange was about to separate. I have a thread on it at the org.

Dealer was asking $1k for new exhaust. I decided to go with Invidia instead.



Sent from my iPhone
 
My flange broke off, the mid pipe to muffler part on my 05 g35. Local muffler shop charged me $45 to weld it together.

Now I'm getting 4 brand new doors installed due to rust.
 
I purchased my FX w/ only 12K on it and it was initially a New York car where it spent almost 2 years. Even though mine looks great underneath - no visible rust - I can say that it's time w/ road salt wasn't kind. Every single bolt I've tried to remove down there has been frozen.

- Suspension bolts for GT spec rear lateral brace install. One side came off ok w/ breaker bar. Other side took 3 days of using PB Blaster, breaker bar, and cheater pipe. Broke the first socket head after the cheater pipe, finally came off.

- Exhaust bolts connecting mid pipe to muffler were frozen. One snapped and the other jammed so they cut the pipe off during Invidia install.

- Front passenger stabilizer link was frozen on. Couldn't get it off during coil over install. Took it to shop, none of their impact guns would take it off either and eventually the bolt rounded. Had to replace entire part.

- Rear upper shock bolts. Barely got those off. Took a ton of PB Blaster and time. Didn't want to damage the nut.

- Lower engine bolts for GT spec engine brace install. Rounded a socket, more PB Blaster and cheater pipe. Then it comes off and rusty water starts pouring out from the hole...not encouraging.

So nothing like what some people have experienced, but it appears FX's don't like salt. My BMW was bought from NY as well. Spent 6 years there and zero corrosion.
 
My undercarriage is not nearly as rusted. FX has seen parts of its life outside before I got a garage. One thing I that I don't see on yours is rust coating that dealers charge etc to have done when you buy it fairly new or if it has little to no rust. This is probably why you have so much rust. Also, I always include a undercarriage wash when I'm at the car wash. Usually, takes care of the salt if you wash it frequently.


Sent from my iPhone
 
I always wondered if they actually do wash the undercarriage or people pay extra for it just like with the wax. Sometimes I don't see them push any special button to add extra features to the wash


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Quick update: I have scheduled a corrosion treatment in a couple of weeks. When I visited the shop, they were not overly shocked - seemed like business as usual for them. The rear exhaust will not last very long though, so might need to invest into an aftermarket one next year.
 
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