Electronic Rust Control - Legit or BS?

I'm curious as well, just not curious enough to buy one :cool:
 
Pretty sure Myth Busters? had this on one of their shows.... It was proven pretty ineffective.
 
Chasem said:
Pretty sure Myth Busters? had this on one of their shows.... It was proven pretty ineffective.
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Good to know. Did they test it on cars? The discrepancy is that it works on solid objects that are in constant water i.e. ships, pipes. But not on a car which has many different types of metals, materials and is not in constant water. 50% of people on the web say it's snake oil, another 50% say it works. I'm wondering if the latter are paid pumpers as it's sold by a marketing company. Even the Canadian Tire reviews are polar opposites.
 
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Garbadge, my truck has one and I bought it used (2005) but it was installed from new (have the recipt). Undercoating is the best way.
 
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Lol they flash? I thought they would be a good idea when they came out but when I saw it on my truck, and the rust underneath I just laughed at it. My wrx has been undercoated since 02 and it's got rust on the controll arms.....that's it.
 
If it's on an aircraft carrier of supertanker, then it might be real.

If it's on a car or motorcycle, then it's snake oil.
 
carboncat said:
its bs. i do rust warrenty work with them flashing green.
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Thought so. If you read the reviews, the yay side, the stories are too polished...like professional writers. Pretty good scam they have going on as it's blurred in science.

I like Sym-Tech the best as it makes the least mess. Anyone know who undercoats in the GTA using Sym-tech? My cage is a US car, and I'm cringing at the thought of exposing it to a Canadain winter.
 
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It is hard to prove one way or the other. I have never undercoated or used electronic protection on my 9 year old car and there are only a few light rust spots (mostly stone chips on the hood). If I had used one, I could say that it was working, but in fact it was just a decent job from the factory.
 
I bought one 4 years ago. I promise I will try to install it this fall.
 
mjavor said:
I bought one 4 years ago. I promise I will try to install it this fall.
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bahaha nice.

I think they're a sham for cars.
I also highly dislike that oily undercoating that some people get done every year or so, it's counter productive in my opinion because it holds the dirt, salt and other debris from the road.

I tend to put rubberized undercoating on all my cars after I spend a whole day underneath them with a few wire brushes, sandpaper, compressed air to blow all the junk away and primer.
Everytime I've brought a car to a scrap yard, I get comments on how the frame/underneath of the vehicle looks in great shape.
I hate rust.
 
What a timely thread. My coworker just had this installed yesterday on his new Escape that he picked up. He actually wanted to see what it looked like, and the dealer opened the hood and said, hmmm, I don't see it. They forgot to install it......anyway.

I'm not sure if it can prevent all the rust they think it can, but he was somehow sold on this little box to do the trick. My car is 9 years old next month and I've got great undercoating so it's pretty solid underneath. It does have a few rust gremlins here and there on the body but for the most part is holding up rather well, and I don't have an inhibitor.
 
Its legitimate. I had one for 20 years on a Supra and it was rust free when I drove it to the wrecker.

The electrical charge and the sacrificial anode work together and act in place of the electrons that are normally being released from steel that is exposed to moisture/salt and which causes rust.

These devices and large commercial ones have been used for decades in salt water applications (ships) and in bridges which have rebar (rusting metal expands and flakes off the cement ala Gardiner Expressway).

However I don't see a great need for them on cars these days (unless you have an older vehicle or collector item) as rust prevention from manufactures is so good these days. Using them on a bike is useless since its really the road salt that is the major problem in Canada.
 
Rob MacLennan said:
If it's on an aircraft carrier of supertanker, then it might be real.

If it's on a car or motorcycle, then it's snake oil.
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100% true. the ones on huge boats are 1000 times the ones on the car.
 
jeero said:
bahaha nice.

I think they're a sham for cars.
I also highly dislike that oily undercoating that some people get done every year or so, it's counter productive in my opinion because it holds the dirt, salt and other debris from the road.

I tend to put rubberized undercoating on all my cars after I spend a whole day underneath them with a few wire brushes, sandpaper, compressed air to blow all the junk away and primer.
Everytime I've brought a car to a scrap yard, I get comments on how the frame/underneath of the vehicle looks in great shape.
I hate rust.
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the oil spray "soaks" into the metal, wheres the rubberized undercoating looks nice on top, is holding moisture. im sure it helps, and looks awsome, but in the end the oil spray is the best thing you can do for your car. i had a gtp 2003 since new, oil sprayed every year, sold it last year without a speck of rust on it.

jerro, unless you were talking about that yellow dealer "oil spray" cause that **** does nothing but hold dirt. im talking about krown or rustcheck.;)
 
And here we have the one neutral testimonial that the module does in fact work. They go on sale at Canadian Tire for $199 once in a while, so WTF, may as well add to the overall protection of the car.

The argument for Krown and Rustcheck is that both products get into the cracks and crevices as the products are both thin in viscosity, but they're useless on the underbody. Plus, as a former mechanic, nothing would piss me off more than working on one of these sprayed cars. The stuff makes a mess of everything.

I think the best overall protection is Sym-Tech rubberized undercoating, and the Krown or Rustcheck spray in the doors and other accessible areas. Why Krown or Rustcheck hasn't made an undercoating yet it is beyond me. The stuff just rustproofs your driveway, and is gone after a few drives in the snow/slush.

I wish Canada would move away from salt to calcium carbonate or something that doesn't eat cars. I love it when a 75 Nova passes while driving the highways of LA. It's not a rare thing to see.
 
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I've still got undercoating on my car from last year....it definatly makes a mess but I have no rust under (except controll arms and a few exhaust bolts) or on my car and it's got 200,000kms and it's almost 10 years old. I've also never broken a bolt while working on it. Call it bs if you like but I've seen what cars look like that don't get sprayed and they look like crap in under 5 years.
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