156 GTA rust epidemic warning?

Too late Im afarid, was in April and I had it done at an independant However if anything needed doing I would argue strongly that the reason I didn't get Alfa to service it was because they shut down my local dealer and as yet have still to replace it. Whether this would get me anywhere is anyones guess

Right gents,
Last year i attended an MSc module that included some corrossion protection material. THis material was delivered in the class by the head of corrossion department in Cologne Ford. His answer to my question what can give the ultimate protection to a car he said only one word. WAX. Following up from that and after some research that i have done i believe that the following package can help preserve our cars: http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.a...Cat=&subCatID=.

Originally Posted by PR

Too late Im afarid, was in April and I had it done at an independant However if anything needed doing I would argue strongly that the reason I didn't get Alfa to service it was because they shut down my local dealer and as yet have still to replace it. Whether this would get me anywhere is anyones guess

I would check as the body inspection is a separate stamp in the book and it says in year 3 so maybe it can still be done?

Originally Posted by newalfisti

Right gents,
Last year i attended an MSc module that included some corrossion protection material. THis material was delivered in the class by the head of corrossion department in Cologne Ford. His answer to my question what can give the ultimate protection to a car he said only one word. WAX. Following up from that and after some research that i have done i believe that the following package can help preserve our cars: http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.a...Cat=&subCatID=.

I was under the impression what once you have rust using wax on top is a bad idea? I would go for a wax treatment if it was a good idea on a car of this age already showing signs of rust.

Thanks for bringing this up gwales - I would not have thought to have the check done, I'll get it done at 3 years old by a dealer. As long as that and the 5 year one is done, I'm not going to faff about trying to stop this from happening, they can give me a new wing if it does!

Mine is a Jan 2005 car and shows no signs of this - I think - I'm about to give the car it's pre-winter wax so will find out.

It's not just Alfa BTW - our 2001 Focus is a complete mess with rust all over the undersides of multiple doors and the boot - all common Ford issues. You would think the manufacturers would sort this out, these days

Completely unrelated to the thread but gwales you have unusually well manicured fingernails

Originally Posted by GhostyDog

Completely unrelated to the thread but gwales you have unusually well manicured fingernails

I had thought the same thing Ghosty

Well taking my car tomorrow to get Medway Alfa to check it out, they did the 3 year service. Now here is where it could get interesting, they clearly did a check but didn't stamp anything. Why didn't they stamp anything??? well this is the other area I could come unstuck, my GTA is an import from Germany. It is UK spec RHD but the service book is in German, they did comment on the service log though about the body work.

I will keep you posted.

Just for the record guys. My dad has a Merc CLK and has rust on three arches and Mercades wont sort it out. The car has a 30 year anti corrosion warranty and unless it has a hole from the inside out they wont cover it

He's just sanded it down now and touched it up

OK, its a '99 but has only done 38k miles and garaged, bought it from new.

Well it is down to alfa now, Medway reckon it should come under the warranty but it isn't them that make the decision. I will get some pictures today, might be of help to others.

Ed.

Originally Posted by EddieGTA

Well it is down to alfa now, Medway reckon it should come under the warranty but it isn't them that make the decision. I will get some pictures today, might be of help to others.

Ed.

Fingernails courtesy of Rachel at Western Edinburgh!

The local alfa rep turned my warranty repair down but the dealer pursued with something called back office which is where they make a consideration of the likes of snapped cambelts on out of warranty cars, etc.

Might be worth checking that your dealer has been in touch with them if you don't get a straight thumbs up. You are also welcome to quote my case. I can PM you details if you need em.

Originally Posted by cul

My dad has a Merc CLK... The car has a 30 year anti corrosion warranty and unless it has a hole from the inside out they wont cover it

That seams to be a very common "get out" clause they sneak into the warranty. It doesn't kick-in until there is a hole...

You can understand it not covering rust that has developed from untouched stone chips etc but when it is bubbling under undamaged paint it is a bit of a pain.

Originally Posted by EddieGTA

Well it is down to alfa now, Medway reckon it should come under the warranty but it isn't them that make the decision. I will get some pictures today, might be of help to others.

Ed.

This is exactly the situation I'm in at the moment. To give an update, I'm delayed by staff holidays, which is a bit of a pain.
Warrantee Jim returned on Monday, but it turns out while he took the pictures, we wasn't communicating with Alfa UK, Mark was, and guess who's just gone on holiday for 2 weeks?

The guy I spoke to on Monday though took all my details and said he'll try to follow it up as best he can rather than waiting for Marks return, and he'll hope to get back to me with some information next week.

Originally Posted by bazza

This is exactly the situation I'm in at the moment. To give an update, I'm delayed by staff holidays, which is a bit of a pain.
Warrantee Jim returned on Monday, but it turns out while he took the pictures, we wasn't communicating with Alfa UK, Mark was, and guess who's just gone on holiday for 2 weeks?

The guy I spoke to on Monday though took all my details and said he'll try to follow it up as best he can rather than waiting for Marks return, and he'll hope to get back to me with some information next week.

Likewise, the guy at Medway said he is off for two weeks so I may have a wait. Didn't get the pics yesterday as I was stuck with plumbing problems (next time I will get a plumber, LOL) feel free to print off my pic when I get it if you need some more persuasion for them, the fact that this has happened to more than one car says it all really.

Originally Posted by jeffporter

nothing on my 147 GTA (53 plate: december 2005)

will check again tonight though.

How quick is this rust spreading!!

Got the GTA back on Friday, looking great now that the side skirts, front bumper and new wing have all been painted up.

However, I was doing a close inspection of the side skirts (which had been removed and re-glued) and where one meets the rear wheel arch I noticed what looked like a small break in the paint a couple of inches above the side skirt inside the wheel arch. MORE RUST!!!

The broken paint is because rust is bubbling away between the paint surface and the metal and appears to be getting in where the rear wing panel is tucked into the wheel arch. This is not an isolated spot either but 3 or 4 areas of visible rust on both rear arches.

Left unchecked this stuff will spread to the visible surface of the panel but it is not perforating rust so I already know Alfa will not accept liability.

Does anyone have a great strategy for stopping this rust? I just don't want it to spread since the rear wings are not bolt on off jobs.

just fixed some rust around the antenna on the rooftop of the GTA SW.

Right, I just got off the phone to Mangoletsi - Alfa Uk have said no dice

Mangos suggested I talk to Alfa customer care myself though, and have given me the phone number. Gary, could you tell me which dealer you used, so I can use you as an example that they DO cover this under the warrantee?
Bit short of time today, so will be ringing them tomorrow.

Originally Posted by bazza

Right, I just got off the phone to Mangoletsi - Alfa Uk have said no dice

Mangos suggested I talk to Alfa customer care myself though, and have given me the phone number. Gary, could you tell me which dealer you used, so I can use you as an example that they DO cover this under the warrantee?
Bit short of time today, so will be ringing them tomorrow.

The picture I took was really crap, I will however post it up. This doesn't wash with me I am afraid, if it was one car fair enough. But 3 or four cars that are only max 4 years old no way!

This is quite possibly the problem, really difficult to take a decent picture (and the guy who took them didn't really know how to work the camera)

As promised...

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...7995709&size=l

That looks a little worse than mine.
I changed the headlight bulb today so had occasion to look into the inner wing, and there's definitely a little surface rust on the inside too. Whether this means it goes all the way through I couldn't say.