Auto Repair Due to Rust

When it comes to owning a car ten years old or even older, you can expect certain maintenance and repairs that are due to the cars' age. This means fixing things like oil pans, mufflers and other undercarriage areas that are rusted. In fact, the older your car can mean the more you will have to deal with rust.

Rust can do a lot of damage to your car. Older cars can rust easily because of years of road salt, speed bumps, dings, scratches, gravel or other causes. If you can prevent the rust is the best auto repair that you can do. The best thing is prevention especially in the case of rust. Because once it starts it spreads and begins to weaken structures immediately.

If you are still in prevention mode, then you know that you can do a lot to keep off rust by washing your car. Regularly washing your car in a do-it-yourself car wash or a drive through car wash can do a great deal of good. If you don't have a lot of time to wash your car and have to do only one or two washings a year, wash the car during the winter. During winter months, your car can build up a lot of road salt.

Salt can cause a lot of oxidation, which leads to rust. If you live in an environment that has a lot of snow, ice and precipitation, you will naturally get a lot of road salt build up on the underside of your car. Not washing this road salt off will naturally lead to rust that will cause you to spend a lot in up keep for your automobile.

When you are past prevention and already have rust starting, then you can expect to start seeing a few things come up maintenance wise. For example, you may eventually need to spend money on a replacement muffler system. The main muffler may need to be replaced. If your vehicle starts to make more noise than usual when you drive, speed up or idle then you may need to have your muffler worked on.

Set an appointment with a muffler expert for an estimate to price out how much you can expect to pay for the replacement. You may want to take your vehicle to an auto repair expert at the same time to check for other rust damages. Having to replace the muffler may mean that there are other things that need to be replaced due to weakening from rust. Have the auto repair shop check for damages to the oil pan, wheel wells and undercarriage.

Add all these chances for rust to an aged or aging car and you have a potential money pit on your hands. This makes the need for regular auto repair and maintenance even more necessary. Find a quality body shop that you can trust with your aging car.