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2019 Laramie oil pan and plug rust at 9000 miles

Jako

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It could be galvanic corrosion from the brass fitting. Oxides attack the steel more vigorously due to electron transfer between the two different metals. Ships and subs have sacrificial metal plates made out of Zinc and other alloys bolted to the hull. Those plates "rust" instead of the rest of the boat
Brings back memories of 1st time home ownership where an iron plug was used on the brass T on the water line. I had the slightest leak that was picked up while painting. No idea how many years it took to corrode to that point.
 

HAL9001

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Drive through salted roads and forget to rinse the undercarriage when you got home...? If not...then wtf. It would definitely be covered under bumper to bumper warranty.
I can tell you don't live in a salt belt, lol. It would be completely impracticable where I live to rinse off the undercarriage every time the truck was driven on a salt-treated road. That would be every single day during the winter.
 

PowerJrod

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I can tell you don't live in a salt belt, lol. It would be completely impracticable where I live to rinse off the undercarriage every time the truck was driven on a salt-treated road. That would be every single day during the winter.
Not impractical at all. Me and most of the people I knew while living in New Hampshire sprayed our undercarriage on our vehicles once per week during the winters and never had rust. That's actually a very normal thing to do in New England. Everyone I've seen there that didn't do it...their vehicles rusted like crazy! It's weird but salt is terrible for vehicles and quick to cause damage.
 

HAL9001

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Not impractical at all. Me and most of the people I knew while living in New Hampshire sprayed our undercarriage on our vehicles once per week during the winters and never had rust. That's actually a very normal thing to do in New England. Everyone I've seen there that didn't do it...their vehicles rusted like crazy! It's weird but salt is terrible for vehicles and quick to cause damage.
I've lived in New England for over 64 years and I know of no one who sprays their undercarriage every week. You can't do it at home, everyone stashes their hose away in November or else it would freeze solid. You would need to go to a car wash weekly. You would have to be very devoted to your car to do this.

I may wash my car once a month in the winter at a manual bay in a car wash, but it's almost useless as it will get completely dirty again within a day or so. Even if you washed the undercarriage every week, it would still get covered again in salt within a day or two, so it's not much use, and all that water will just drive the salt deeper into the chassis components. Better to leave it frozen and stable. I don't thoroughly flush the undercarriage until Spring. To do it right requires a special undercarriage sprayer, a pressure washer, and about an hour's time.

What I do is rustproof all of my vehicles myself when I purchase them. I've owned vehicles for over 15 years and never had chassis rust issues doing this. The rustproofing works exceptionally well if you use the right materials and techniques.
 

PowerJrod

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I've lived in New England for over 64 years and I know of no one who sprays their undercarriage every week. You can't do it at home, everyone stashes their hose away in November or else it would freeze solid. You would need to go to a car wash weekly. You would have to be very devoted to your car to do this.

I may wash my car once a month in the winter at a manual bay in a car wash, but it's almost useless as it will get completely dirty again within a day or so. Even if you washed the undercarriage every week, it would still get covered again in salt within a day or two, so it's not much use, and all that water will just drive the salt deeper into the chassis components. Better to leave it frozen and stable. I don't thoroughly flush the undercarriage until Spring. To do it right requires a special undercarriage sprayer, a pressure washer, and about an hour's time.

What I do is rustproof all of my vehicles myself when I purchase them. I've owned vehicles for over 15 years and never had chassis rust issues doing this. The rustproofing works exceptionally well if you use the right materials and techniques.
Rustproofing is a very good thing. But you wouldn't need a pressure washer to spray the undercarriage, just go to a self carwash place or bring a hose out from the house. But in the case of "pushing the salt further into the parts" not true at all. When you leave salt on a frame...it starts to break-down and that is what causes the rusting. Getting dirty again after a carwash has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. It's about keeping salt off your vehicle before giving it a chance to start rusting the parts/frame. I do know the whole chemical analysis of the salt breaking down to cause rust...I just know it happens and how to prevent it with washing away salt.
 

HAL9001

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Rustproofing is a very good thing. But you wouldn't need a pressure washer to spray the undercarriage, just go to a self carwash place or bring a hose out from the house. But in the case of "pushing the salt further into the parts" not true at all. When you leave salt on a frame...it starts to break-down and that is what causes the rusting. Getting dirty again after a carwash has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. It's about keeping salt off your vehicle before giving it a chance to start rusting the parts/frame. I do know the whole chemical analysis of the salt breaking down to cause rust...I just know it happens and how to prevent it with washing away salt.
Firstly, no one is going to bring a wet sloppy hose in and out of a house in the frozen Northeast winters unless they're a fanatic, and your driveway would become an ice-skating rink afterward. So that leaves a carwash. There is a carwash eight miles from me. Using only the little wand for about five expensive minutes, there's no way I'm going to be able to property and practically reach enough of the undercarriage unless I crawl underneath the truck on the soaking wet ice-cold cement floor, and that's not going to happen. Even if I could clean off the entire undercarriage, with all the salt embedded slop nearly always on the roads here in the winter, it'll just get covered again with salt by the time I get home, so it's entirely moot. It's simply not practical.

And it's simply not a good idea. Salt reacts with water to cause rust. When you soak the undercarriage and then ride on salted roads, you're creating the ideal environment for rust. There's no way to avoid salt in the wintertime in the salt belt. It's better just to leave it inert as dry or frozen whenever possible than to purposely add water, which is the perfect catalyst to create rust. This is also why cars rust more in a heated garage than staying frozen as everyone knows. Unfrozen moisture and salt together cause rust. Salt alone won't. You could leave salt all winter on the metal and, unless there is moisture, it won't cause rust. So, it's just not a good idea to add more moisture. When winter is over, and they finally stop spreading hundreds of tons of salt on the roads, then you thoroughly and properly flush out the undercarriage using a pressure washer and a special undercarriage sprayer for up to an hour to get rid of it all for spring, summer, and fall.

Undercoating is the best and most practical rust preventative for cars in the salt belt. I speak with lifelong experience living here my entire life.
 

Jako

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BMW motorcycles from what I can recall recommend cold water over hot water for salt. No explanation given. Any scientist/science teacher out there?
 

PowerJrod

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Firstly, no one is going to bring a wet sloppy hose in and out of a house in the frozen Northeast winters unless they're a fanatic, and your driveway would become an ice-skating rink afterward. So that leaves a carwash. There is a carwash eight miles from me. Using only the little wand for about five expensive minutes, there's no way I'm going to be able to property and practically reach enough of the undercarriage unless I crawl underneath the truck on the soaking wet ice-cold cement floor, and that's not going to happen. Even if I could clean off the entire undercarriage, with all the salt embedded slop nearly always on the roads here in the winter, it'll just get covered again with salt by the time I get home, so it's entirely moot. It's simply not practical.

And it's simply not a good idea. Salt reacts with water to cause rust. When you soak the undercarriage and then ride on salted roads, you're creating the ideal environment for rust. There's no way to avoid salt in the wintertime in the salt belt. It's better just to leave it inert as dry or frozen whenever possible than to purposely add water, which is the perfect catalyst to create rust. This is also why cars rust more in a heated garage than staying frozen as everyone knows. Unfrozen moisture and salt together cause rust. Salt alone won't. You could leave salt all winter on the metal and, unless there is moisture, it won't cause rust. So, it's just not a good idea to add more moisture. When winter is over, and they finally stop spreading hundreds of tons of salt on the roads, then you thoroughly and properly flush out the undercarriage using a pressure washer and a special undercarriage sprayer for up to an hour to get rid of it all for spring, summer, and fall.

Undercoating is the best and most practical rust preventative for cars in the salt belt. I speak with lifelong experience living here my entire life.
I agree undercoating is the best.
But first off...no one in the right mind would wash their vehicle and then take it for a drive on a snowy/salty road...that would be stupid. But your views don't reflect on what my experience is lol. Don't care if you don't agree ..I pointed out what we did and what worked for us. Kudos. And no...leaving salt on your frame without rinsing it off is what causes the rust. With your mindset washing your truck will cause rust every time which is obviously not the case.
 

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BMW motorcycles from what I can recall recommend cold water over hot water for salt. No explanation given. Any scientist/science teacher out there?
Water desolves salt...without science I can tell you that every time I rinsed my truck off after driving in salt/snow...the water running down the driveway looked soapy. Which was the salt.
 

Jako

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Water desolves salt...without science I can tell you that every time I rinsed my truck off after driving in salt/snow...the water running down the driveway looked soapy. Which was the salt.
The issue is cold water rather than hot water when washing the motorcycle.
 

PowerJrod

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The issue is cold water rather than hot water when washing the motorcycle.
Oh ok. Even cold water will desolve some of the salt...not as well as warm water of course but enough to make a little difference. Just as an example...I took the AWD Ford Edge up to Mount Charleston in 6 inches of snow last winter. Got back 3 days later and could see the salt all over the vehicle. When I hosed it off with cold water that's when it looked like soap water was pouring down the driveway. It was waaay cleaner after. Lol.
 

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BMW motorcycles from what I can recall recommend cold water over hot water for salt. No explanation given. Any scientist/science teacher out there?
I'm going to assume it's so that the salt rinses off with the cold water rather than dissolving into the hot water which would get brine into a bunch of places you don't want it.
 

Jako

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I'm going to assume it's so that the salt rinses off with the cold water rather than dissolving into the hot water which would get brine into a bunch of places you don't want it.
Sounds reasonable - less concentration of the salt in the "solution" and hopefully it all comes off. I kind of think the amount of water applied would be a bigger factor than the temp of the water.
 

iLikeTurtles

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Sounds reasonable - less concentration of the salt in the "solution" and hopefully it all comes off. I kind of think the amount of water applied would be a bigger factor than the temp of the water.

I agree.

A given volume of cold water ‘suspends’ less salt than the same volume of warm water can.

I believe the hydrophobicity for cold water is less than warm water. It, to me, seems to form larger beads rather than many smaller beads, so the weight per area of cold water on paint, (because the cold water will want to form very large beads where the hot water can form many very small beads) would work better to ‘pull’ or ‘carry off’ the excess salt than warm water which will have smaller beads and less weight per area.
What’s different is water with soap in it reduces hydrophobicity which helps clean, but only with agitation, not necessarily helpful if sprayed on without force.

I may be totally backwards but that’s what I think.

Furthermore (pushes up metaphorical glasses to nose bridge)....
I have issues with washing regularly in salty conditions because if salt gets on a surface and starts to corrode the moisture in the saline decreases and eventually solidifies. Then after the electrolyte/water evaporates then no corrosion can continue to occur.
So, when you wash the dried salt off you allow of new moisture/water to allow corrosion to occur if residual salt is left on. OR, you are allowing new saline from the road to begin the corrosion process again.

edit: please read the whole thing before hiding my logic as I think one point of the ten may be valid lol.
 
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Scram1500

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I tried cold water once, but it froze on contact. Then I connected the hose to the hot water heater, it worked great but the steam made it impossible to see what I was doing. Went inside to take a shower to warm up as hypothermia set in and there wasn't any hot water left. Then the driveway froze, freezing my car in place overnight. Fortunately it was a manual and I was able to pop the clutch and break it free. Fun times

The only way this works is in a large heated garage that has a drain in the floor.
 

iLikeTurtles

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I don’t think you need sub freezing water, it’s more of the ambient temperature in the winter making cold water and ambient temperature in the summer making the warm water. Maybe a 20-30 degree F difference
 

Jako

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I tried cold water once, but it froze on contact. Then I connected the hose to the hot water heater, it worked great but the steam made it impossible to see what I was doing. Went inside to take a shower to warm up as hypothermia set in and there wasn't any hot water left. Then the driveway froze, freezing my car in place overnight. Fortunately it was a manual and I was able to pop the clutch and break it free. Fun times

The only way this works is in a large heated garage that has a drain in the floor.
Life lessons, made me laugh as I can identify with my own life lessons. Tried hot water on my dad's windshield (40+ years ago) and it froze, than I tried scraping it off and scraped the windshield. Needless to say dad was not happy but it is half his fault that I was born. Mom loved me no matter what.
 
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Jako

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I agree.

A given volume of cold water ‘suspends’ less salt than the same volume of warm water can.

I believe the hydrophobicity for cold water is less than warm water. It, to me, seems to form larger beads rather than many smaller beads, so the weight per area of cold water on paint, (because the cold water will want to form very large beads where the hot water can form many very small beads) would work better to ‘pull’ or ‘carry off’ the excess salt than warm water which will have smaller beads and less weight per area.
What’s different is water with soap in it reduces hydrophobicity which helps clean, but only with agitation, not necessarily helpful if sprayed on without force.

I may be totally backwards but that’s what I think.

Furthermore (pushes up metaphorical glasses to nose bridge)....
I have issues with washing regularly in salty conditions because of salt gets on a surface and starts to corrode the moisture in the saline decreases and eventually solidifies. If the water is removed and their is no electrolyte then no corrosion occurs.
so when you wash it off you allow of new moisture/water to allow corrosion to occur if excess salt is left on. OR, you are allowing new saline from road to begin corrosion process again.

edit: please read the whole thing before hiding my logic as I think one point of the ten may be valid lol.
Sounds good. Do you hold political office?
 

PowerJrod

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Lol, don't think I've ever done it below 45 degrees, it was always during the day on a weekend. But it definitely helped prevent rust for me. Back then undercoating was expensive to have done correctly.
 

iLikeTurtles

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Sounds good. Do you hold political office?
Ever have those moments where you are like really proud of yourself for saying something clever or smart, and then you remember all the times you say really dumb things?

I have said too many dumb things to ever offset the things I will say that are intellectual haha.

Would love if people had some other facts though whether in line with mine or to prove me wrong. Never grew out of the, "how does that work" phase.

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