Corrosion under wheel arches in '01 Ford Focus. What sort of cost am I looking at?

JackieChang

Failed the NCT on extensive corrosion, both rear wheel arches. Got a quote of €150 per side from the garage. Is this about the going rate?

The mechanic took out the boot lining and you could see the corrosion from inside. There was a hole a few centimeters wide.

Mycroft H

Probably need pics to estimate the damage.

Toyotafanboi

Honestly I can't see it being a stellar job at €150 a corner.

That said, if you didn't fail on anything else, €300 is very reasonable to get another realistic 12-24 months out of the car.

colm_mcm

It doesn't really need to be a top class finish as its usually completely hidden.
€300 sounds about right.

Wibbs

colm_mcm wrote: »

It doesn't really need to be a top class finish as its usually completely hidden.
€300 sounds about right.

300 quid to cut out all corroded steel, weld in good steel, prime and paint? That's extremely cheap and I doubt the procedure that's going to happen for that price. Cover it up for another year? Sure, but any such repair will be completely cosmetic and given the car has visibly rusted through in one place hardly a repair in the strictest sense of the word. It's one of the quirks of the NCT that irritates me TBH. You can fail for a burnt out brake light, but can pass with a bodged repair to the actual steel fabric of the car.

colm_mcm

They actually go looking for this on focuses. They pull some of the trim back to see. It's not a particularly complicated job from talking to a lad who has done a few. Realistically a 01 focus isn't going to be kept on the road long term, so I'd be of the opinion that you just get it through the test.

Atoms for Peace

Wire brush, fillers and some black paint will see it through the NCT.
<Runs and hides>

enumbers

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Wire brush, fillers and some black paint will see it through the NCT.
<Runs and hides>

fortunately that is not the case any longer all repairs have to be left visible for test or be signed of by a approved engineer

As for the price its pretty impossible to consider it cheap or expensive without detailed pictures of the damage. could be anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days to do a decent structurally sound repair

Alkers

Wibbs wrote:

300 quid to cut out all corroded steel, weld in good steel, prime and paint? That's extremely cheap and I doubt the procedure that's going to happen for that price. Cover it up for another year? Sure, but any such repair will be completely cosmetic and given the car has visibly rusted through in one place hardly a repair in the strictest sense of the word. It's one of the quirks of the NCT that irritates me TBH. You can fail for a burnt out brake light, but can pass with a bodged repair to the actual steel fabric of the car.

If it's painted again the nct won't pass it. We recently had a 01 focus fail on a rusted door seal and the inspector said to leave the repair bare untill they saw it again

human 19

I got my 98D skoda felicia, with rust holes in the tailgate, through the visual retest with Isopon P38 and spray painted over it. He didnt ask for to be left clear, just for it to be "metal" that he couldnt put his finger through.

It passed first time on everything else, but dont know if it will make it through the next one. Its a bummer that an otherwise perfectly fine motor is failing on a bit of rust.

Getting very difficult to get replacement bits for it at this stage.

colm_mcm

human 19 wrote: »

I got my 98D skoda felicia, with rust holes in the tailgate, through the visual retest with Isopon P38 and spray painted over it. He didnt ask for to be left clear, just for it to be "metal" that he couldnt put his finger through.

It passed first time on everything else, but dont know if it will make it through the next one. Its a bummer that an otherwise perfectly fine motor is failing on a bit of rust.

Getting very difficult to get replacement bits for it at this stage.

That's cosmetic rather than part of the cars primary structure though.

human 19

colm_mcm wrote: »

That's cosmetic rather than part of the cars primary structure though.

At this stage, Im just happy to get it from 1 NCT to another

colm_mcm

human 19 wrote: »

At this stage, Im just happy to get it from 1 NCT to another

Oh yeah, but that's why they were ok with filler and paint.

Stoolbend

They rust beside the seat belt anchorage points.

It needs to be strong.