Car corrosion protection

[tusko]

I need the collective fandom's technical help here.

I have a new car and I am debating doing a dripless undercoating on it, vs. the Crowne oil treatment where they drill holes into the body.

I only have experience with dripless undercoating which I'm happy with, but since this is a new car I want to go above and beyond.

What are your recommendations and experiences?

A million thank yous for reading and sharing.

[elburrito]

Not sure where you live, but my advice is this. Do not bother spending money on an undercoat. If you are driving through snow and salt, it will not significantly help you avoid corrosion. IMO you are better off just cleaning the underside of the car monthly and spending the undercoat money on transformers!

[tusko]

Thanks for the reply elburrito!

I live in Ontario. So lots of salt and wet winters.

I've had two cars fail by corrosion. They weren't fancy, so I didn't do much beyond wash them regularly but still the Ontario roads ate them.

I am leaning towards the Crowne oil treatment. That makes the most sense to me. Of course I realize it is not a perfect system.

[Sir Prime A Lot]

Victoria and Ontario are 2 different places, undercoating will help you out a lot. I almost got it for my car but I'm in Alberta where it doesn't really snow much and they rarely put salt on the roads here, if ever so I declined it. For Ontario winters I would suggest the undercoating so you don't necessarily have to wash it as often.

[tusko]

Thank you for your thoughts Sir Prime A Lot!

Alberta is a desert and its a very valid point that the Ontario climate is more prone to cause accelerated corrosion issues.

I'm hoping the car will last me 10 years or more. Currently my Ford did 12 years without but its failing by rust. Body, frame, breaklines and exhaust are all getting too rusty to work on.

A lot of people say the Crowne oil method is great for penetration - it is fluid enough to get into corners and crevices - however many conflicting reports say that drilling to apply the stuff is damaging to the car. Since I plan to keep it, I'm not too worried about the corrosion warranty. I realize the oil is messy too.

[Tekkamanraiden]

Pretty sure you can get it Krown undercoated without them drilling holes in the car (just ask). Even if they do drill holes, they fill them with a rubber plug and it's usually in the door jab and rocker panels (so they coat the painted metal from the painted side).

Personally I had them undercoat my car 2x (in 2008 and 2010) and it's taken until this year for the wheel well to start to rust (my car is an 2006 Accord and I do a lot of driving). One positive side effect was when I had to do some repairs the nuts and bolts were nicely oil coated (which made removal a lot easier).

I did have my last car rubber undercoated am that was a total waste of money (everything rusted and the rubber just fell off in spots).

[Akroyer]

Im in NB.. and the last 2 vehicles we had have had electronic rust control. Seems to be working. Haven't had any corrosion issues. But we're only 4 or 5 years into the oldest one at this point.