Tips for maintaining in Salty Winters.
 

So where I live in Massachusetts. Our roads are salty and dirty as hell in the winter time. I am considering buying an FR-S and I'm wondering what tips you guys could give as to preventative rust maintenance. I would really prefer to not keep my Camry as my beater because of insurance reasons.

All tips would be great, thank you in advance!

get a beater car, oh...

;)

Wash it regularly?

Don't drive too close to the vehicle infront. This will save the paint and gives you and your passengers a more relaxed drive..

You can always get rustproofing done.

See if you can find a car wash that offers annual passes and you can wash it as much as you like. Most are no touch now.

https://www.petro-canada.ca/en/perso...rd-season-pass

https://washmycar.ca/brantford/veloc...car-wash-pass/

Fluidfilm XP undercoating every year in the fall. Things will get surface rust inevitably, but after 4 years of Vermont winters my car still looks new underneath.

honestly, insurance for the camry is probably what, like $150 a month? so keeping it is not totally ridiculous. and youd prpbably only get 2 or 3k for a trade in/ private sale so you might as well keep it. i wish i didnt have to drive the 86 year round but i have no space for 2.

dont go joyriding when theres a ton of slush on the road, keep winter miles to a minimum
if its supposed to snow, go get groceries the day before, like everyone else, keep snow driving to minimum.
take it to a bay wash and stick the pressure washer in the wheels and get at all the suspension components etc after the big storms that you have to drive to work in and such

is your old camry a rust bomb? probsbly not, and you never did anything special to maintain it. cars are pretty good these days.

i hear what ur saying tho, i love my car and i want to keep it nice, but i saw a picture of a koenigsegg regera rs driving in the snow and i was like damn wtf, my car costs as much as that cars volume knob. ive seen auri an r8 with a thule on top drifting through boston streets once in a snow storm. if its your dream to have an 86, you can make it happen, its attainable.

be more afraid of crashing because you dont have winter tires on, than rust.

how much $ is that? im showing 50 bucks for a 6-pack of cans on amazon. not bad. is that something you do yourself, of get done at a detail place?

I just pay a shop to do it. Usually about $125 to have someone do it here

My camry isnt a rust bomb at all, theres the occasional spots because it a 2006, but other than that, it only has 85k on it and the clutch still feels brand new

My BRZ is 7.7 years old. Been my only car until recently and drive it all year round. Never wash it in the winter because why bother. No rust. Only caveat is it is garaged. So, nothing to worry about that I'm aware of. As for insurance, I was surprised how cheap a second car is to insure. I'd be shocked if it was even close to $150/mo. I'd guess less than half that. Call the insurance company to inquire. Good luck.

Undercoating yearly.

A good wax like fusso coat should last into winter. A ceramic coating will make it through the entire winter. There are some good DIY products out there.


Mine gets touchless washes regularly. Paint still looks new.

Wash it . Wash it as much as you can. That is all.

Check your control arms, ball joints, sway bar links, suspension bits and all the rest of that assembly a couple times a year, clean and spray with an anti-rust oil coating like ACF-50. When it starts to look bad or corroded, replace it. The oldest FR-S's are near 8 years old and so it makes sense to change out aged parts.

On my 2013, I'll be replacing my control arms, ball joints, and sway bar links soon because of visible corrosion on the arm and also because the ball joints are at 120k miles of wear, easier just to change out the whole assembled part.

Fluid Film NAS or Woolwax.