[hallcp]

I looked under my 2013 Smart ED (451) and was shocked to see heavy rust on the left half-axle, the right looked OK... until I touched it and all the paint fell off in two giant pieces revealing equally bad rust there. Looks like I caught I before it did any damage, but whew it was awful looking. I also see a few other brackets starting to rust back there.

Are there any other places I should check for rust? As near as I can tell from the Evilution website the 450 models had a rust spot behind the front wheel wells, but I see nothing similar on my 451.

Any suggestions? This car lived in Boston up until this year, so no telling what kind of road salt got splattered everywhere! Here in the N.C. life should be a little easier on it.

 

[twcom]

LUBE LUBE LUBE LUBE....... If you could coat all the metal of your Smart with a rust inhibiting spray Lube It would be a smoother better protected car. IMO.

Here is an older post of mine.

Lube. Will turn out to be the most underrated service to preform on Smart Cars.

As fellow Smart drivers engage me and talk about their cars, when I crawl under their cars and and look at all that rust and crud of the chassis pivot points it reconfirms my mind that Lube to exterior parts of the Smart is crucial to a better life for car and driver. As stiff as some of the cars are that I have seen it could easily lead to rattling the car to pieces due to the undue stress and harshness of the frozen suspension. So things will misalign, rattle, crack and come apart prematurely with out lube to soften up the ride. Looking at a blower motor design I can see it may even benefit from a spritz of lube. "paulbob" even reminds that the roof sliders need lube. Yesterday while under my car I could see my Steering knuckle could use some lube (surprisingly thin steering steering system).

(Note. My car was damaged when I got it and the front belly shield was mangled, I removed it and have not replaced it. I feel no ill effects and remember I am doing long distance high speed runs as well as daily city driving. I mention this only because many of the bushings and pivot points that are in need of lube are hidden by that front shield. I have yet to remove the rear belly pan but intend to the next time I have it on a lift to see what I find. Hopefully that wont be until June)

So as part of maintaining our Smarts don't over look Lube.

 

[strelnik]

LUBE LUBE LUBE LUBE....... If you could coat all the metal of your Smart with a rust inhibiting spray Lube It would be a smoother better protected car. IMO.

Here is an older post of mine.

In this vein, I own a 1950 Citroen 11BN Traction Avant that was used as a hotel car until recently.
When I got it, I power washed the bottom, which had no rust and hand-brushed a coat of galvanizing paint treatment on the bottom. This is a tedious process because the paint is very zinc-rich, and needs to be closed and stirred or shaken about every ten minutes.

I did this ten years ago and the vehicle is still very clean-looking on the bottom. No rust that I can see.