Hi guys,

I checked out a S today, not too far from where I work. Its a MY08 CPO with a little less than 40k miles. Based off the carfax, it is a southern california car, and the previous owner may or may not reside around the beaches. The car drove great, and the sales person was as cheesy as ever. When I asked him why there was so much rust on the bolts under the hood, he said well maybe when someone washed it, they spray extra water under the hood. :/ iono sounds kinda stupid to me. Check out the pictures and let me know your thoughts.

PS: The images I've embedded are not showing when "Preview Post" my post. I have embedded pics plus the direct link to the web album.









Link to my Web album - click here

 

Thats pretty weird for rust on those parts, and not normal imo. maybe if it was a beach car, do you know where the car was owned before from the CarFax the dealer gave you?

Any other rust spots? Like on the trunk by the rubber bump stops? Did you get down and look at the exhaust?

 

Salt spray for sure.

I live in the humid east coast (But 150 miles from the ocean) and my 2002 model has ZERO rust under the hood.

Living close to the coast is worse than living where they spread road salt in the winter!

 

I do not have any information on the previous owner besides the CarFax. The workers at the stealership are idiots. lol enough said.

I did look in the back by the exhaust and did not notice any rusting.

I figured it may be sea salt. I just didn't think it could be so corrosive. The car is in great shape though.

 

I don't live near any bodies of water and I had rust on two bolts under the hood. There wasn't any rust anywhere else. I treated them with rust converter and touch-up paint. Problem solved and the rust hasn't returned.

 

Unless Honda changed something after 2005, radiator brackets aren't painted black -

 

Those are CR radiator brackets
Maybe the radiator is not original?

 

Thats so weird! GREAT EYE FOR DETAIL SAKI GT!!! hm! Why would someone need to change the radiator bracket.... This one is definitely a pass!

I just looked a few online pictures of CR and they do have black radiator bracket.

 

Car was never garaged, driven in a humid & salty environment, take a look underneath and report what you see.

worst case scenario, something happened to the car that wasn't reported to carfax or expreian (i.e. flood car), long story short I wouldn't touch it.

 

I've seen beach cars, and while they have aluminum corrosion and maybe some rust, I've never seen anything as severe as what's on the hardware in the engine bay. Its weird that something would rust that thoroughly on such a relatively new "California" car. I'd look for evidence of repair, repaint, and corrosion elsewhere - I think it at least requires closer inspection.