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I'm looking at purchasing a 2005 LR3 that has probably lived most of its life in the Chicago area. The vehicle in question seems to be in good shape for being 16 years old but there is a lot of undercarriage rust. The body is fine and does not have any signs of rust. I live in California, so I am not familiar with what is an acceptable amount of rust on the undercarriage. Can somebody who lives in a cold weather state with salted roads chime in? Does this look like the exhaust pipes or fuel tank components need to be replaced? The control arms need to be replaced, and I'm guessing the bolts will be completely seized.
Looks mostly to be surface rust, I think? We use plenty salt here in Finland but the undercarriage on mine isn’t in bad shape, surface rust only. It’s not the worst rust I’ve seen, there are plenty of pictures of ones in worse shape on disco3.co.uk. Some look like Titanic… people have towed a boat trailer and driven down the ramp in the sea. Discos working on a farm collect manure in the weirdest places and that also contributes to rusting. 👀
A word of warning - you might want to check the condition of the rear wheel arches (you need to remove the plastic trim first) since that is a place where rust tends to collect and will result in a welding job. Similarly the plastic sill underneath the doors is another place - people with tree sliders or side steps seem to suffer from this quite a bit.
FWIW, all JLR supplied bolts, washers and screws start to rust in less time than it takes for you to say whoa. When I fix something I tend to change to ones that do not. The aluminum heat shields underneath are fastened with washers that corrode (eat through) the heat shield and then you hear clunking or swishing sounds underneath. The fix is to put bigger washers since the shields cost a lot and washers are pretty much free.
You can use a reciprocating saw to get the arms off if the bolts are stuck. It’s probably faster and will cause you to swear less 😂
Thank you kajtzu and Blackngold77 for the feedback. I feel more at ease knowing this is a probably a reasonable level of rust. I also appreciate the suggestion to check behind the wheel arches and under the doors.
The car is 2000 miles away from me, so I found a local mechanic to do a pre-purchase inspection. The vehicle has some of the usual LR3 issues, such as a cracked dashboard and needing new LCA bushings. The fuel sender is also not working and the coolant level sensor needs to be replaced. On the positive side, the car only has about 100,000 miles, the paint and interior are in decent condition, and it also has a rear locker.
I am most likely not going to purchase it because my wife wants to stick with a black interior like in our current LR3.
I have seen far worse than that. I live 3 hours north of Chicago. On some vehicles the fuel tank cradle is almost gone, that one is intact. It does look like it sat a while, the rear diffs are not normally that rusty. Thats the only thing that stands out, but none of it is concerning. Rear driveshaft looks like it could be new and even a proper OEM variant based on the thin weld. If the shaft is not new, those bolts are.
Drive shaft heat shield. It should be installed to reduce heat damage to the center bearing. Or I will say that if LR wanted to say money, they would have not put one on. But they did.
Drive shaft heat shield. It should be installed to reduce heat damage to the center bearing. Or I will say that if LR wanted to say money, they would have not put one on. But they did.
Well mine just fell off a little over 13 hrs from home in podunk South Dakota. All but one bolt have apparently rusted through. I rigged one end of heat shield with a metal hanger around the exhaust pipe but, it's far from solid.
Currently sleeping in my rig to start fresh in the a.m. but, if I drive with my hanger method and it accidentally fully falls off and/or needed pulled since it ain't getting fixed where I'm at, am I an idiot who's gas tank is gonna explode or...can it survive 800miles over a few days on the highway with temps in the 40s???
Trying to figure out my next move for how to finish the 13hr drive based on how imperative this is to not really totally destroy something or be highly unsafe...
11-16-2021 | 04:11 PM
Undercarriage rust
