Photo from underneath

[The Goethe]

Hello everyone, I’ve recently purchased a 2013 Seat Leon (2.0 CRTDI) from Germany. The car is in pretty good shape, only one minor paint job issue was found on the left hand side, service book was filled out regularly with oil changes too. Since I don’t have a jack-stand, decided to take a photo of the rear suspension, and especially the exhaust, and I’ve discovered something I cannot identify if it’s a shitload of rust, or just dirt. Should I be *really* concerned? Is this okay?
Thanks in advance.

 

[SRGTD]

It’s not unusual for suspension components to have surface corrosion as they don‘t usually have corrosion protection applied to them in the same way that the car body shell does. They usually just get a thin layer of paint, so are susceptible to surface corrosion.

If you’re worried about it, then you could apply a rust inhibitor / corrosion protection product such as Lanoguard, Ferprime, Waxoyl or Tetroseal (there will be other such products too).

I’ve used Waxoyl before many years ago on a number of cars I owned in the 1980’s when factory corrosion protection that was applied to cars was very minimal or non existent. I used it on the suspension components, the entire underbody and in enclosed sections (e.g. door cavities, inside the sills, chassis members etc.). It was very effective and I never had any corrosion issues. Some of the manufacturers of these products also make a kit to apply the product - e.g. sprayers, flexible tubing with a spray nozzle attachment for enclosed, hard to access sections (e.g. internal cavities).

Waxoyl is a wax based product - I dare say other similar products are too - so it‘s not suitable for use on exhaust systems.

 

[ARH]

For an 11 year old car, that is in very good condition. I would not worry.

 

[RUM4MO]

Yes, as said already no issues really, one thing though, that black maybe satin finish paint that VW Group and maybe other brands use on parts like subframes and rear bean axles, is not really good enough or does not give enough protection for these parts, same for what the shock absorber companies use!

My wife's August 2015 VW Polo's subframe and rear beam axle were not very good looking, so I've tried to remove as much rust as possible and repainted them to try to hold back rusting a bit! I live in Southern Scotland and the roads get covered in salt in winter, which is better than driving on ice, but not good for cars!

Edit:- one thing that I mean/need to do to my wife's 2015 VW Polo, is to drop down the 2 long side under covers and clean up/out the trapped road grit - I did that many years ago on her previous car a 2002 VW Polo, there is a risk that large stones can get trapped under there and move into an area where they get jammed between these under covers and the car floor and so puncture the rust protection and paint work and allow rust to start.