So the other day when I go to change my left front tire a friend of mine happens to notice a patch of rust at the top of the tower, right where it meets the body. He pokes around at it and it chips off a bit .

In my mind I'm thinking its not so bad, I think I can just sand it down a bit then re-paint it. but my buddy says it might be too late if the rust has penetrated deeply enough and the whole strut has to go

Hopefully its not as bad as my friend put it, but does anyone have experience in this field or has this even happened to anyone?

By the way I have a 95 v6 3.4l

 

Can you take a picture? Rust can be tricky. If the rust started from the underside and you see a small rust area from the top side it can be pretty bad. Also it can be an indicator of a lot of rust on the underside or it could be just a single spot. Even in a structual area like a strut tower patching a small area is in not a hugh deal. 2 hours tops at a body shop if you are not worried about the paint matching. But if the whole area is rusted and then the body man will have trouble welding to the rusty metal he will need to cut away all the rust, as that area gets bigger the repair price goes up very fast.

As an inspection mechanic I have sent a lot of cars to the junk yard due to rusty strut towers but I have not heard of 4th gen being that bad. The epoxy primers the factory used was/is pretty good. If your car was wrecked early in life that would explain a major rust issue now but in most cases you are right, grind it off and seal it with some paint. Checking everything out real close and catching it as early as prossible is the key here to make sure it does not get bad.

Good luck.

 

the strut mount is a common piece to rust if thats what your talkin about. they run about 60 bucks. is this what your talking about? http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=502873 if the body is losing paint and has cancer starting you need to address it right away.

 

That brought back mental flash of taking my suburuban to get tires put on! They wanted something like $800 to replace my shocks because one of them had the paint flaking off!!!

Hopefully he is just talking about the strut rusting and not the body.

 

I was assuming he didn't have anything apart and was just looking at the strut tower. I was a mechainc in the middle of the rust belt (Johnstown, PA) So when someone says rusty strut tower I think, I can see the spring from under the hood You would not believe the patch jobs I have seen on strut towers.

My 96 spent most of its life in a garage and it was rust free except between the strut mount and the bearing plate. I did the whole treatment. Wire brush, Convert the rust to black oxide and use a coat of eastwoods encapulator to be sure it did not come back. I would not be surpised if that car was winter driven and never had and treatment might rust thru.

 

Yeah we didn't take anything off lol just the tire (I'm his friend) I pretty much seen a patch of rust I cldnt tell how much or how big the tire we went to is on the side of a bsy road I was watching my car so it wldnt get clipped(that's nyc for you) but pretty much I was concerned because I know how much of an issue this can be. Craby you pretty much put me at ease bout the 4th gens not rly havin this problem thanks for that but also thanks Gorn I'm gonna go ahead and bring it to a shop and rly check out how bad it is I hope its just a sand nd paint job might aswell change the front coilovers or w.e you guys wana call eem lol I thnk the front suspension is a mix of 3 nd 5th gen wit upper nd lower lcas but also strut shock combo. I don't think I can see my spring fro my underneith my hood..that's crazy.

Will try and post pics soon thanks for the help guys..the cars got 74k on it, its a north eastern dd..were not sure if the car was ever garaged or not (we bought it at 62k..) anybody up in the north east or rust belt that encountered rust issues at this mileage?

 

Yea calling it struts is wrong, but it is what everyone calls it. Heck even the link craby posted called it a strut. It is just standard upper, lower control arm system with a coil over shock.

 

First off, 4th Gens do not have struts, they are shock towers.

If you remove your shocks and mounts, you can sand down/wire brush and repaint with rust-preventor -- I did this on my RS mount area.

 

Ah shock towers..but its also wut gorn referred to it as also right? Shock towers..coil overs were all cammy owners here..at one ppoint