Bought a Chicago car, any rust areas I should look for?

1999 C2 Coupe. Overall it looks pretty good under. There is a lot of white patches and I think old salt maybe from having sat mostly the last two years. Love to find a way to give it a good under carriage spray down...

The quick, easy and lazy way is to find a car wash that offers undercarriage wash and run it through a few times. Oh blasphemy! Don't worry, your 996 with survive, as will the paint. You planned to polish it, right? Worst case is you may find out where it leaks.

Quotes source post: 19778833

AN AUTOMATED CAR WASH?!?!?!?

I think I would be nervous riding as a passenger in this car, much less actually buying it. Seriously though, the general corrosion state would make me keep looking.

Quotes source post: 19778877

Seriously, it looks that bad? I thought it looked okay over all. What am I not seeing?

Yeah, automated touchless carwashes are a dime a dozen at every gas station here in Chicagoland. Bit if you really want to clean it up and see what you have, find yourself a dry ice guy. If it's a Chicago car, and it was out in the snow and lousy weather months, it's got alot of salt caked on. Looks like he'll, but easy to wash off.

Fyi, check your drains, cowell and under the battery. Wet leaves and crap can accumulate. Not to mention, check your rubber and plastic bits. Road salt isn't friendly to their aging process. Hence the attractiveness of a touchless car wash in the dead of winter to remove the salt. No big deal.

Quotes source post: 19778840

Sure, why not. It won't hurt it. If you bought it from a Porsche dealer, like I did mine, they ran it through their car wash when they prepped it for delivery to you. They will not bother to hand wash it. And no, I don't take my 996 through a car wash, I wash it by hand. But if I was travelling, I would. And if it had some exposure to salt, I would run it through a car wash or buy the undercarriage pressure washer attachment. Regarding the comment about too much salt on your 996...I do not see much salt residue on this car. My daily drivers are not Porsches and after a winter driving through Chicago's salt, their undercarriages look white. This undercarriage is very clean and just needs some TLC, such as my suggestion for an undercarriage wash. Keep in mind that Porsche applied copious amount of cosmoline throughout the undercarriage before it left the factory. It'll be OK.

Dry ice blasting, but that isn't cheap. No, that doesn't look good to me. I know I live in Florida, but if I was anywhere near the rust-belt I would not be driving the car on salted roads. Dry ice will tell you the true condition of the car without causing damage. Otherwise, do what you can to clean as much as possible. Then keep an eye out for leaks or bad rubber and plastic.

Quotes source posts: 19778905, 19778899

I was just joking. More of I can imagine the peanut galleries response. Yeh already scooped out decaying leaves from drains. Pulled bumper too and separated rads and vacuumed. I was more curious if any hard to see areas i should check for rust.

Get the car in the air and clean up any crusty with a wire brush . Get yourself 3-4 cans of Fluid Film , it can be purchased at big box stores and hardware stores . Spray any areas of concern , I even sprayed my transmission housing . It is a oily/waxy film that stops corrosion in its tracks . My 996 C4 spent 2 years in Chicago and was a daily driver . When I bought it I cleaned and sprayed with FF and that was 3 years ago . Every oil change I do a visual inspection . If I find a spot I missed I hit it with FF . I always have a can or two sitting in the garage . Looking at the pics you posted the only concern I see is the exhaust . Crusty hardware and muffler seams coming apart . I would spray Kroil/PB Blaster or whatever you like on all the exhaust hardware . I would spray it once a week for about 2 months and drive it . Heat cycles will help get the penetrant into the threads . If/when you decide to fix/repair/replace any exhaust components you have a fighting chance for success . Having said that I would plan on broken hardware . When you put it back together use copper based anti seize or Milk of Magnesia on all threaded hardware . Have fun and good luck .

The mufflers. The seam along the lower edge, drivers' side, image 9? appears to have rotted out. You will need new mufflers. I have a pair if you are interested. The Chicago winters rotted mine. The rest of the car survived fine. It hasn't seen any winters in 4 years and she tells me she doesn't miss them.

The steel brake lines are definitely a good place to start. Also remove the plastic corner pieces at the rear of the rocker panels (just in front of the rear wheels). This place catches dirt, salt & moisture that sits and builds up and rots the steel�

Looks ok to me; I live in New England. The brake pipe that passes over the engine to the right rear wheel seems to be the first one to rust out so might look that over.

Quotes source post: 19779304

Oh! How do you remove that and what is the part number? I need to replace mine.

Quotes source posts: 19778886, 19779304, 19779597

My comment was half in jest. That would be considered a lot of corrosion by Southern California standards though. Yes, this is what was behind mine at about 40,xxxx miles. Just 3 screws. Very easy. I bought these part #s for satin black.

Awesome Socal911t. I never looked to see there are screws. Pictures tell it all. Mine are coming out and going straight in the trash. Theo

The white stuff on the brake pipes isn't salt but zinc oxide (the zinc coating has sacrificed itself). The Zinc plating is the final protection barrier before the steel pipes themselves will start to corrode. The first barrier is a plastic coating. I'd worry mostly about the pace you can't look onto: spot welded flanges of the sills, wheel Wells etc. Check the 996 forums in the UK for restauration threads, there you'll find what will rust unseen until it becomes visible and a lot of work to repair.

Quotes source post: 19780131

Yeah, but that stuff doesn�t really hurt the plastic Make sure you look at what�s behind that plastic piece sitting on the steel - if it�s not all rusted or even gone, you�re lucky! This is what mine looked like� both sides! Mine was a Chicago car also�

Yeah, your plastic fragility comes more so from extreme hot to cold temp changes which arguably influences the durability of coolant and power steering plastic bits resulting in an occasional leak. Easy enough to just replace the parts every so often as a long term owner. For sure, check the rubber in your suspension components which is not helped by road salt. But hey, not every part of the US has CA weather and the 996 survives and thrives in spite of it. I wouldnt loose any sleep over it. What i would do is get the car up in the air on a lift, take off all the plastic parts and go over it with a fine tooth comb to see what you got. I do this a couple times a year at my indy when going thru tech inspections to see what i have. As a number of us mentioned, find a good dry ice guy to clean up the bottom of the car so you can see everything clearly if you want to be sure. Fix/replace what you need too, then build it the way you want over time. Glad to see you have the 996 bug.