Rust

[Deepsea]

For some years now I have hankered after an S2 avant, since I purchased my Ur quattro back in 1998 in fact, there was one at the garage and if funds would have stretched to it I would have bought both

Recently I have been looking to realise this, despite some concerns with the age, mileage and spares availability.

Last week I went to view a local car and was concerned at the amount of rust under the car on the floor pan, structural members, attachment points and brackets etc. Having not viewed any others yet is this typical of the cars ? I would appreciate members opinions and if possible photos of the underside of their cars so I have a comparison of what I should be expecting.

[Greg_S]

Im planning on doing a bit of an overhaul on mine pretty soon, the subframe is looking a bit worse after the last winter and just started to read into POR-15 that a few other members have used to treat the rust on theirs

[Fat Audi 80]

The main body is galvanised and should be fairly solid unless it has accident damage. The suspension components will be needing refreshing, painting or even replacing (subframes) depending on where the car has lived and how it has been stored.

HTH

Cheers,

Steve

[Deepsea]

Many thanks for the replies.

To clarify, the rust evident was all over the body shell underside and not just on the suspension components, as this was not localised I would say it is unlikely to have been as a result of poor accident repair. The anti stone chip underseal coating was starting to break down and flake especially around structural members, attachment points and brackets and whilst I did not find any holes there was quite heavy surface rust.

I know the bodyshell is galvanised, and Audi gave a 10 year anti corrosion warranty from rusting through at the time, but perhaps a rust free car of 18 years old is to much to expect and this is to be expected ??

[andy10v]

That sounds scabby, I would not say they are normally that rough from your description, however it can vary massively, one of my dads 100 s4s spent a lot of time in aberdeen/inverness before he got it, everything was rusted solid on the underneath. Have had others near perfect.

[Fat Audi 80]

If it is not in good shape, I would walk away. There are still a lot of solid cars out there...

[Deepsea]

Hello again,

A quick request to all you S2 owners .. any chance of taking some photos of the under sides of your cars, preferably towards the rear and possibly near the exhaust so I can gauge any future car I have a look at ?

Thank in advance.

[Sonic]

Hello again,

A quick request to all you S2 owners .. any chance of taking some photos of the under sides of your cars, preferably towards the rear and possibly near the exhaust so I can gauge any future car I have a look at ?

Thank in advance.

The thought of doing so scares me!

These cars are suffering a little by now if they've not had some maintenance.

I've done my struts, cupro nickel fuel lines, doing subframes, have SS exhaust, and the wishbones look good so next on the list is the bodywork rust.

I know there are some areas that are becoming very bad, primarily under the arches and on the wings. I also think one area in particular has had some previous work done judging by the condition.

And another problem i recently found - the sunroof

[Fat Audi 80]

Eeeek!

I guess the good news is, its a nuts and bolts job to replace...

[s2driveruk]

i know mine has rust around the rear underside around the ehaust hanger points and a patch on the drivers side rear (sort of below the removable storage bin) which isn't looking good but is on the outside only. I think the one thing i notice is the use of the aluminium heat shields have helped to accelerate some of the surface rusting as those in combination with the fasteners have nicely reacted with each other.