2018 Leon ST - Rust

[LeonST18]

Hi everyone, the OH has a 2018 Leon Xcellence ST and it has a bit of a rust problem. Notably bubbling through the paint on both rear arches, and the paint on the lower sill (driver side) is peeling away.

Recently an independent completed some suspension and brakes work on the car, and described the underside as being one of the worst cars they had ever seen for rust.

I am a bit baffled as based nowhere near the salty sea air, and the car has primarily been in our ownership - and looked after as it should.

Has anyone else had any rusting on this age of Leon? I've contacted Seat UK who have passed me to the dealer for an inspection to see "if they'll cover it", but I think a car that's 6 years old shouldn't really be having such significant issues...

 

['& Son' managed]

Hi everyone, the OH has a 2018 Leon Xcellence ST and it has a bit of a rust problem. Notably bubbling through the paint on both rear arches, and the paint on the lower sill (driver side) is peeling away.

Recently an independent completed some suspension and brakes work on the car, and described the underside as being one of the worst cars they had ever seen for rust.

I am a bit baffled as based nowhere near the salty sea air, and the car has primarily been in our ownership - and looked after as it should.

Has anyone else had any rusting on this age of Leon? I've contacted Seat UK who have passed me to the dealer for an inspection to see "if they'll cover it", but I think a car that's 6 years old shouldn't really be having such significant issues...

I recently had the rear end of my 2019 Golf, (IRS type) sorted with new adjustable dampers, upgraded brake pads and the ARB.
I've had the car from new,( now 41K miles) and it lives over 2 miles inland Whilst working under there, I noticed the body of the
car is still in very good condition, but the subframe assembly is starting to show signs of notable corrosion, nothing approaching
structural yet, but flaking off thin layers in places, mostly under the damper lower mounts. The motorsports guy that fitted the
dampers/set the car up after said that rusting rear subframes were not uncommon on MBQ platform cars, the worst he'd come
across being a 7-year-old Audi TT that had come in for similar upgrade work, but the subframe was so corroded he had to refuse
to work on it until the assembly was replaced.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

I bought my 2015 Cupra ST 2 years ago and I was greeted with this. The subframe itself has some rust, but nothing alarming. The front subframe is in a far better state. Apparently this happens to MQB cars indeed.

In the meantime the rusty control arms have been replaced

 

[SuperV8]

I bought my 2015 Cupra ST 2 years ago and I was greeted with this. The subframe itself has some rust, but nothing alarming. The front subframe is in a far better state. Apparently this happens to MQB cars indeed.

In the meantime the rusty control arms have been replaced

Wow - my 2015 160,000 mile MQB rear is nowhere near as bad as this!

 

[SuperV8]

I've had the car from new,( now 41K miles) and it lives over 2 miles inland Whilst working under there, I noticed the body of the
car is still in very good condition, but the subframe assembly is starting to show signs of notable corrosion, nothing approaching
structural yet, but flaking off thin layers in places, mostly under the damper lower mounts.

Personally I would consider only 2 miles inland is still very much a coastal environment - with all the salty air that brings.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

Wow - my 2015 160,000 mile MQB rear is nowhere near as bad as this!

I know right! At first glance this looked terrible, but luckily the arms are replaceable The subframe is still in (very) good condition.

As you might have seen, I replaced all the fasteners, and the rear arms/suspension have been overhauled as well.

Dutch climate is pretty wet and we have a lot of salt in the winters.

 

['& Son' managed]

Personally I would consider only 2 miles inland is still very much a coastal environment - with all the salty air that brings.

In 1991 I lived about 1.5 miles inland in a town, with many streets/buildings between my place and the
coast road and levels of corrosion for mine and my neighbour's cars were at unremarkable normal levels.

In 1998 I moved to the coast road and the difference was stark, everybody's car there rusted more
quickly, some windy days left salt deposits on the windows and my tools in the garage suffered as well.

Since 2017 I've lived 2.5 miles inland, but with less building density and at higher elevation than in 1991,
with things on the corrosion side have gone back to normal - no more salt deposits and tools/other steel
equipment in the garage staying bright. Main point being that my wife's 2017 Citroen, living in the exact
same conditions since 2018 with higher mileage is in better condition underneath than my 2019 Golf.

 

['& Son' managed]

I bought my 2015 Cupra ST 2 years ago and I was greeted with this. The subframe itself has some rust, but nothing alarming. The front subframe is in a far better state. Apparently this happens to MQB cars indeed.

In the meantime the rusty control arms have been replaced

Ouch, have to say my Golf's control arms look a lot better than this ATM. Glad to read your subframe itself was ok.
My subframe has minor surface corrosion on it's N/S end, but that's it and will be sorted soon enough. Still a bit
annoying that my Missus' 2017 and higher miles Citroen C3 has fared better.

 

[nd-photo.nl]

I also dont understand how the rear control arms are this battered and the front arms look perfectly fine

 

[TheSwede]

More road grit accumulates in the rear.

There are no rust protection on the satin black suspension parts from factory. Control arms subframe and so on need to be protected asap after new car delivery. General nobody cares about this, they say its protected from factory....
But we care !!

 

[Mr Pig]

The paint issues and underbody rust may not be connected.

Arches are prone to rust obviously and VW group cars seem worse than average. Stones chip the paint and unless you notice it and do something very quickly you end up with a mess that can't be fixed without replacing the arch. The peeling paint on the sill sounds like poor repair. Even if you bought the car new you can't rule that out, I've known people who've bought brand new cars that were damaged and repaired before they got them.

How badly the underside of a car rusts can vary hugely and the causes are not always obvious. Anywhere near the sea is bad as the air is salty. Another that catches people out is keeping the car in a garage. You would think that garaging a car is better but not necessarily. If you put the car away when it's wet it will rust much faster than it would sitting outside. With no air circulation the underside of the car does not dry off so rusts for longer. My father in law didn't get this. He always kept his car in the garage and they rusted badly.

There can be other factors but the bottom line is that they all leave the factory equal. How badly they rust is pretty much entirely down to how the car has been treated.

I don't think VW Group cars are worse than others for rust. The bodywork is generally very good with the only real weak points being the arches and where the dirt gets trapped at the front of the sills. The underside is no worse than average and much better than Mazda for instance.

 

[TheSwede]

........I don't think VW Group cars are worse than others for rust. The bodywork is generally very good with the only real weak points being the arches and where the dirt gets trapped at the front of the sills. The underside is no worse than average and much better than Mazda for ininstance.

I agree! If you keep the underbody rather clean during the road salt period it will help you.

Warm garage with close in and out passing causes condensation.... not good. Long time garage storing cold or warm is very good, with some ventilation.

 

[Mr Pig]

I agree! If you keep the underbody rather clean during the road salt period it will help you.

Warm garage with close in and out passing causes condensation.... not good. Long time garage storing cold or warm is very good, with some ventilation.

Yeah, a vented garage is fine but most do not have good air flow.

Years ago VW did a test, I'm talking maybe forty years ago. They gave a group of students free cars to use while they were at uni. The main condition of the loan was that half of them had to leave the car outside every night, the other half had to garage their cars every night. At the end of the test they found that the cars that were garaged had better condition paint but were much worse for corrosion.