The link below shows some pictures from the rear underside of my 2006, 60,000 mile MK3 Sport.
I bought the car in January 09 at 19,000 miles, it has been garaged since then. The car has been used throughout winters but only occasionally, probably an average of once a week or so.
Overall there’s nothing there too concerning, all rust is surface and can be treated, I’ll be looking for someone to give clean and treat quite soon. The main reason for putting the car on the ramps (they’re ace by the way) was to check around the arches, there is surface rust appearing (so far only seems to be surface) which will also be up for treatment.
For 7 years and given the current troubles appearing around the place I’m reasonably happy. Front end another night.
That seems like quite a lot of surface rust. My last car was a Ford Focus 2002 and it looked like new even after 140k miles of daily use with barely a spot of surface rust at all.
Nothing to be concerned about but does highlight the issue
I’m about to embark on a similar job tomorrow on my Mk2. I’ve already treated the front end and just the rear to do. In contrast I’m just removing light surface rust on the wishbones, infact in parts they have still got black paint on them.
Lots have been said about this subject as you say and I have been looking at the Mk3 to replace my Mk2. Shall definately take a closer look at the underneath before taking the plunge into ownership.
I would not be happy with that either, but my Mk2.5 is similar. My 12 year old Ford Puma looks like a new car underneath in comparison. Why, when Ford was heavily involved with Mazda, did they not show them how to rustproof bodies and how to build smooth changing gearboxes ?
Personally I would say just get it undersealed totally wheels off, liners off the lot - cavity injection and main underseal like can be seen. In the long run it helps the car massively although mine is a daily driver…I am taking no chances heck I have even put ventureshield on the exposed parts of the wings that go into the arches that are paint…
I did my Mk2 yesterday, it wasn’t too bad just light surface rust, here it is treated pre underseal. Those ramps look really handy.
I viewed a Mk3 over the weekend a ‘57’ plate it had surface rust I would say worse than my 15yr old Mk2. It was up on one of those display ramps so I could take a good look at the undersides. The diff housing was really heavily crusted with rust, falling off when touched.
Looks very similar to the underside on my 06 Mk3. There is a very small patch of surface rust beginning to show on the leading edge of the offside rear panel, where the panel mates to the wheel arch. Looks like a trip to the bodyshop is in order. I had to use the car as an almost daily driver through the winter though it was regulaly cleaned to get rid of any road salt etc. Like others have indicated the wifes Volvo, of a simular age and double the milage, looks almost new underneath.
