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W210 Rust issues

Pietre said:
I would reccomend ACF-50, its from the aircraft industry so should be good.
I would have expected that the ship industry or the oil drilling industry may have some suggestions as well ;)
 
Pietre said:
I would reccomend ACF-50, its from the aircraft industry so should be good. It prevents rust,and stops rust that is there already. http://www.worldwideaviation.co.uk/Motorcycles/Motorcycles Main.htm

Yes, this looks the business for the door seals- do Halfords stock it??

I'm thinking of Hammerite smooth for the wheel arches - has any one tried the hammerite silver - is it a close enough match, should I spray or brush??

My wheel arches are still intact to the eye, but something can be felt under the finger tips, so was hoping to strike now and stop the rust breaking through, or at least slow it down by a few years.
 
OK... more rust problems.

Back in August last year I took my car to my not-so-local dealer of choice in Tonbridge for a 'B' service and to let them look at a rust warranty claim - usual stuff, all four door tops and the underside of the bonnet.

They did the assessment, took photos and approached MB for money. Then it all went really quiet so I called them back in October (I know, I should have been more proactive). As the dealer already said MB had agreed to pay for panel replacements, I thought that was fine and wasn't worried how much the existing ones will rust until replaced.

Called them yesterday and got an apologetic call back from the service manager saying mine was one of 'four or five' claims that had found their way into a black hole and that he'd resurrected it.

PROBLEM TIME... apparently MB UK don't replace the panels any more. He said they recognise the problem and will pay for sand blasting and re-painting of the original panels only, not replacements.

I told him I was skeptical of that as an effective remedy and left it there while I sought the collective advice of the forum. For reference, the car is a March 2001 model with 170k miles and full MB dealer history from new. It is definately covered by Mobilo Life.

I'll call back this afternoon and ask them to pursue new panels on my behalf, but has anyone else been told this?

I don't see how they will do more than delay the onset of rust by treating the door tops in this way and doubt that any paintshop will do a sufficiently good job to get rid of all rust that is there now. In my eyes, new metal is the only way to go and I'm very diasppointed that they think t's OK to fob me off with a very cheap bodge repair - I could have done that myself!

Thanks, Ian.
 
IanT said:
OK... more rust problems.
I'll call back this afternoon and ask them to pursue new panels on my behalf, but has anyone else been told this?.

Hi Ian,
I cannot offer to much here, but sandblasting, rubbing down, preparation etc. is awfully labour intensive. Members have commented about £100 per hour labour charges. Well how do these charges relate to the cost of a new skin compared to 'bodging' a rusty item?

Your original car certainly never had any fibre glass filler and I would insist that there 'bodge' job consisted of cutting out the rust areas and welding in new metal. That should scare them! ;)

Personally I would insist on them complying in full with the terms and conditions of the warranty and put NEW parts on.

You have certainly clocked up the miles in your car it's a wonder it had time to get rusty.

Good luck with your claim, and this time be a polite pest. Go for it. Check the terms for hire car etc.

John

Quick plug for WD-40

A bus driver in Asia faced with the problem of a python coiled around the undercarriage of his vehicle may, on the face of it, have little in common with a Bristol nightclub owner trying to deter customers from snorting cocaine in the lavatories. But for both, the solution lay inside the distinctive yellow and blue can of WD-40.
The manufacturer claims that there are more than 2,000 "official" uses of WD-40. These include removing a snake from a bus, buffing up the tyres of a wheelbarrow or preventing trees from being nibbled by beavers. Police have used it to remove a burglar stuck inside an air conditioning duct. But these applications were far from the mind of the father of WD-40, the chemist Norm Larson, when his Rocket Chemical Company was asked by NASA to come up with a way of preventing the Atlas rocket from rusting up on its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. He took 40 attempts to get the formula right for his new water displacement fluid - which is where he got the name WD-40. The exact formula remains one of the most closely guarded secrets in industry.
 
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I am told that a factory finished panel is a much better bet than a brand new panel, the factory panels are from a production line and are sealed better etc. I was advised that it is better to buy a second-hand panel from a scrapyard and have it painted/trimmed to match than have a new panel painted and fitted.

Just something to think about :)
 
Cheers for the replies.

I called back dutifully this afternoon, as always the chap was on another line and no amount of holding would shift him. In the end I gave the receptionist the message that I wasn't going to be happy with a repair along the lines he offered and asked that he (as my agent) would pursue the matter with MBUK. I left a request for him to return my call on Monday when I could speak further and will be - as glojo puts it - a polite pest.

Not entirely sure they will wear it, given the original delay had something to do with MBUK not accepting the cost of te bill, which was apparently quoted at £4000. That figure sounds absolutely preposterous and so I don't blame them! If they come back with a no go decision I'll grudgingly try Malaya, who have a service dealership less than a mile away from where I live and then pursue the claim direct with MB.

Shude - I see your point, but I've yet to find a W210 with original doors that aren't going rusty - they must exist, but almost certainly not in scrap yards. What I want is a nice new panel, that I can make sure is finished to perfection (they'll hate me for that!) and I'll then be happy. Looked at my old C250 the other week (now with another owner) and discovered that it's even worse than my E.

Ian.
 
I had a good exerience with my July 2000 W202 when the tin worm bored it's way through the seam in the tailgate that you can only see when the tailgate is raised and you shield your eyes and / or use a torch. (Visions of many C Class estate owners peering up at their tailgate seams).

They agreed within a week of the claim and gave me an A class to play with while they replaced the metal components, keeping the original glass and badges. The whole car came back beautifully polished with a perfect colour match, though obviously this was down to the contract paintshop that they used.

Bet that little job cost a couple of grand all in ?
 
Rust-eater. Now there is a marketing phrase to laugh at! Making fresh steel out of Iron Oxide is a clever trick requiring a large factory. What all (I think I am pretty safe in saying this) 'rust eater' products do is chemically seal the rust after stabilising them. Usually a two stage process requiring an acid, followed by a latex based sealant. In the dim distant past when I used to restore Mini's and MGs (1960's versions) the metal of these cars were much thicker. As a result corrosion was often surface only and such chemicals worked well - for maybe 3-4 years.

Far better was to shot blast the rust away back to clean un-oxidised steel. Not always an option. Problems with resin fillers occur because the resin can trap moisture on the metal surface. I use an MB independent mechanic who worked for a big dealership for 15 years. He was taken to the MB factory and shown production run. The vehicles are/were hot dipped and agitated in a zinc solution. They also required an electric charge on the bodies as they went through the dip. I can not believe this is still done given the problems with W210s.

So, using a 'rust eater' merely stabilises the rust and covers it with latex to prevent most moisture getting at the surface and triggering further oxidisation. With paint over the top this will probably hold out for about 3-4 years in UK climate depending on how trapped/exposed the metal part is.

If the part is not seen, I used to rub old thick engine oil in the damage! Waxoyl is almost the same but with better gelling/stickability - and smell. Also without bits of shell bearing in too :crazy:

My 1997 E300TD spent most of its life near the south coast and has the sand in the engine bay to prove it. It has had the recall reproofing of the sills (despite being out of VIN range for recall) but it does not have any of the rust I have read about on this forum. In fact it has a W124 trait (which I had two Harvest Gold 300TE estates at the same time once) of rear top wheel arch corrosion. As the paint is only bubbling at this point with no stone chips I could take it to the local MB dealer but I am not fussed. The car is over 7 years old with 115k.

One W210 I looked at had severe corrosion all over the boot and battery compartment floor. It seems that while quality control varied at MB between 1994-1999(?) this means some vehicles had poor paint treatment but some were OK. I seem to be lucky.

So back to rust. If Stealership refuse I would still use so-called 'rust-eaters' but I would try and use a two stage one. I would then put plenty of primer on - at least three coats, then at least two top coats, followed by laquer. Finally I would really wax the final surface if seen, of if hidden cover with a sticky oil like Waxoyl.

I did all this to a seriously modified Mini which I kept for 4-5 years at the same time a friend did his with just filler, a coat of primer, and top coat. Both vehicles had quite a bit of rust on them beforehand.

His Mini had bubbles in paint work around rust points within 18 Months. Not one on mine after over 4 years.

Mind you - the 2000 A170CDI I had for 18 Months was rusting on the roof in 2002! Too many warranty suspension rebuilds and my wife traded it for a 1994 Saab convertible - now that is a car that doesn't rust.

Great to see Forum being used to pressurise MB....
 
Good news, the car will be repaired FOC as a goodwill by Mercedes. The car is booked in for Tuesday next week with Abbey Coachworks in Wembley. :bannana:
 
KLP 92 said:
Good news, the car will be repaired FOC as a goodwill by Mercedes. The car is booked in for Tuesday next week with Abbey Coachworks in Wembley. :bannana:

I just love a story with a happy ending.

Well done,
John
 
KLP 92 said:
Good news, the car will be repaired FOC as a goodwill by Mercedes. The car is booked in for Tuesday next week with Abbey Coachworks in Wembley. :bannana:

Thats great news, this is my story.
just spotted different colour paintwork to the bottom lower wings where it meets the bumper sides seal, at first glance I thought that hey who's done a touch up on me motor, it wasn't there when I bought it from Merc dealers 4 months ago

Got my old friend who's been in the spraying trade many years to have a look, oh its water under the lacquer and spreading fast,he said, and rust appearing, the motors 4 years old. The water under the lacquer has darkened the silver paintwork, both sides, same place. same pattern.

took it straight down the the dealers who most gratefully looked at it straight away, he was no expert but he to thought it had been touched up, it looks like that to most untrained eye. Gotta go back end of week or when the sun is shining to go for photo session

do you think I should now be asking for a full rust check??? or will that be an automatic procedure when I go for photo sessions, I have 8 months Merc warranty left and Mobilo, do you think it will be new wings or will thay just bodge it, sorry, repair it
 
Should be new wings. If you don't the rust comes back within a year. I believe a new bootlid is being fitted on mine.
 

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