Rust in an MX5

[Steve Tinker]

Looking at the US and UK forums, it seems that rust behind the sills of Miatas and MX5's is a big problem - especially in the UK where cars as little as 6 years old are suffering from the salt laden winter roads. I have not seen any rust on the Japanese Eunos Roadsters or Australian delivered cars I looked at over the last couple of years.
Has anybody in Australia suffered any rust, especially you guys down south?

[fig]

nope.......got no salt here

Even when I lived by the beach.....2 x MX5's and no rust! (1 NA & 1 NB)

[sharyl]

I've got a eunos roadster and I don't have any rust problems bar some around the edge of the door but that's only from the previous owner being careless with the paint chips and it sitting at the freakin salty docks for ages before i could go and get it

as for interior rust, as i posted in another topic ... i had a little door-filling-up-with-water problem (which is fixed, thanks guys!) so i'm too scared to find out if that's rusted

[chrislevingston]

The windscreen guy found extensive rust in my A pillars when he went to replace the windscreen (it had been replaced before).

The panel beater who cut it out said that windsceen replacements need to be done well, or this will happen.

The windscreen guy then used different rubber than usual.

[Amanda]

Wasn't there a guy in the MX5 club of Vic that had a rust problem with his NA and ended up getting a full respray done at the cost of Mazda??

[Lucky_Luke]

I too have had no issues with rust..

but have heard of a few minor cases of the front quarter panels rusting down the bottom on really early NAs just behind the front wheel, after/during winter you'll find a huge amount of crud stuck in there between the quarter and the body and I try to make an effort every year to undo the three bolts down the bottom and empty out all the leaves and dirt etc and re fish oil in there.
U'll be surprised how much stuff accumulates in there.

L.

[CT]

There shouldn't be too many rust issues as the bodies are zinc coated prior to painting. Although, I reckon the at risk areas as as lucky luke mentions the lower front guards, the upper rear inner guard (behind the seat belt towers) where the drain holes are, around the battery mount if an unsealed battery were ever used, and maybe bottoms of doors if drain holes are blocked.

Generally, anywhere water can sit is prone to rust hence the poor windscreen jobs can lead to rust. Generally drilling into the sills to rustproof a car exposes the raw uncoated steel and if not touched up, will promote rust rather than prevent it. Tectyl is a good product to use if you are hell bent to rustproof as it's thick enough to provide long term protection whereas fish oil is quite thin and should be re-applied much more frequently.