Used 2001 Forester S with Rust under Hood?

I'm looking at a used (37 K Corporate Lease vehicle aquired at Manheim) Forester S. The vehicle seems to check out except for a curious amount of rust on bolt heads in the engine compartment, some rust around the fuel pipe at the gas cap, and some white oxidation around the key ignition in the passanger compartment. These just struck me as odd. Are these red flags? Anything else I should look for in this vehicle?

According to Carfax, the car was registered in NJ, so it was subject to road salt.

Thanks,

Jim

Reply to
n0spam
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Living in Canada, I continue to be amazed at the places where I see evidence of salt in a vehicle. Even the salt you track into the car can get under the dash when the heater blows the melted snow\salt vapour around. In your case, bolts usually have a plating or coating, but these often show signs of rust rather quickly, but this doesn't do any damage. Rust under the hood could be normal, or it could be a repair that was not painted as well as the original. Doesn't mean the car is not worth considering, could have been a small accident with little damage. Since there is also rust on the fuel pipe, sounds like normal consequences of salt. If you buy it, you can sand the spots and apply something like Tremclad on these spots, they aren't readily visible so appearance is not that important.

Ed B.

Reply to
ed

My wife's '99 Forester L is a low mileage car--only 28,000 miles in over 5 years, including one trip from Virginia to Arizona and Utah and back again--but an underhood inspection shows no signs of rust anywhere. We do get snow here in the Washington suburbs. The Subaru is the only car we drive when there's snow on the road (we're retired so have our choice whether or not to go out when it snows) and it's got salt all over it even as I write.

Reply to
John Varela

My 2002 LLBean has rust on a bolt that holds the intake air scoop onto the radiator core support. I thought it was odd that it is only on this bolt, and not on any other that are lower on the car's body.

The aluminum parts underneath the car have the characteristic white coating from contact with road salt.

Reply to
Skweezieweezie

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