SportKa MOT advisories question - oil leak

AliceBanned

Ok thanks yes I'm trying to do it too tidily!

AliceBanned

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n24kk5l3vgosbnu/2015-04-07%2017.33.11.jpg?dl=0

AliceBanned

I really think it needs a power tool.


Part of the problem is the location. It is hard to get enough leverage.

AdrianC

You need to enlarge the area. You want bright, clean, non-grotty, smooth steel all around. Right now, you have none at all.

AliceBanned

AdrianC wrote: »

You need to enlarge the area. You want bright, clean, non-grotty, smooth steel all around. Right now, you have none at all.

There is definitely some at the bottom.

Joe_Horner

That's not looking too bad at all! Keep at it and, as Adrian says, don't be afraid to hurt it - if it goes through then it was going to anyway.

With the edges, course wet & dry paper will remove paint quicker (and with less effort) than a wire brush, or scrape it away with a screwdriver (or chisel if you have one)

Give that pin-hole a bit of a dig, if it stays firm around its edges then open it up to a couple of millimetres diameter and, when you start using the Kurust, make sure you get plenty worked into it to help protect the inside. Alternatively, open it out neatly (preferably with a drill) to about 6mm and use it as an access hole to spray wax inside the sill, then fit a plastic plug

Again, as Adrian says, sooner or later it'll need cutting out but with a bit of work now it could easily see out this MOT and the next one without a problem, which gives plenty of time to decide what its future is. It also helps to keep future welding to a minimum if you can slow down the spread now!

AliceBanned

Joe_Horner wrote: »

That's not looking too bad at all! Keep at it and, as Adrian says, don't be afraid to hurt it - if it goes through then it was going to anyway.

With the edges, course wet & dry paper will remove paint quicker (and with less effort) than a wire brush, or scrape it away with a screwdriver (or chisel if you have one)

Give that pin-hole a bit of a dig, if it stays firm around its edges then open it up to a couple of millimetres diameter and, when you start using the Kurust, make sure you get plenty worked into it to help protect the inside. Alternatively, open it out neatly (preferably with a drill) to about 6mm and use it as an access hole to spray wax inside the sill, then fit a plastic plug

Again, as Adrian says, sooner or later it'll need cutting out but with a bit of work now it could easily see out this MOT and the next one without a problem, which gives plenty of time to decide what its future is. It also helps to keep future welding to a minimum if you can slow down the spread now!

OK thanks. I gave up for today. I was getting a bit demoralised but I'll try again tomorrow. I've never used wet and dry paper. Is there any particular method? It doesn't seem to be scraping away at all with a screwdriver - the edger seem more sealed at the top whereas the bottom bits flicked off quite easily and I soon saw shiny bits.


If the pinhole seems firm enough can I just open it up a bit and add Kurust? I don't want to trap rust inside and have it rotting further though. Also I don't want it to be too weak and affect the functioning of my seatbelt. The rust is towards the centre of the sill.



What do I do about the paint afterwards? Do Halfords match the colours?

salubrious

It needs welding - The fact there are pinholes appearing randomly (i see two now) is telling you all you need to know.

You're struggling to get back to good metal within the corroded part, because there isn't much, if any good metal left to actually get back to.

AliceBanned

salubrious wrote: »

It needs welding - The fact there are pinholes appearing randomly (i see two now) is telling you all you need to know.

You're struggling to get back to good metal within the corroded part, because there isn't much, if any good metal left to actually get back to.

OK. Think I will need to try the Kurust to know whether there is good metal left? I am not certain they are both pinholes? It is so hard to see it because of the angle.

Joe_Horner

Using wet & dry is easy - just use it as sandpaper. If you have a bowl of water with a little washing up liquid in it and keep it wet while you're using it then you'll find it cuts a bit quicker and doesn't clog as badly.

Concentrate your efforts with it round the edges to try and get a ring of shiny metal around the rust patch. That way, when you treat it, you'll know that there isn't any lurking under the edge of the paint where the Kurust cant get to it.

And don't worry too much about the people saying it needs welding - as said before, it will in the future but this will keep it good enough for long enough to decide to have that done when it suits you rather than in a panic "now". It'll also reduce the amount that might need doing in future by slowing the spread.

In terms of strength, the outer sill doesn't add much (if anything) to the actual strength of the belt mount because there's lots of other metal in the area. But the MOT views everything within a 30cm "ball" centred on the mount as being art of its support.

It's a playing-safe "one size fits all" approach that ignores the vehicle's actual structure because you can't expect testers to know the structural details of every car out there, from a 1910 Packhard to a 2015 Ferrari. That's why the dreaded rust round the fuel filler on the Ka is a fail - not because it actually matters but because it's within that area - even though what's between it and the relevant mount is basically fresh air with zero strength anyway!

But, go 1 cm outside that ball and suddenly it isn't considered structural any more and you can have as many holes as you like as long as they don't have sharp edges!