Does anyone have any photos of replacement of MN150943 or a photo of this specific part to see what it includes? The factory service manual does not give a clear picture of the replacement of this specific welded body component.

 

JohnH's pictures look almost identical to what I unfortunately found this past weekend replacing rear wheel bearings on my '06 daily-driven, never-raced, lightly mod'd SE. (See pics following this.) Car has always been garaged, drives NY-NJ @ 550 mi / wk, 172k, and original clutch (no joke).

This rear chassis rust is absolutely appalling and screams for a recall. This is completely a fabrication problem; likely with the steel / material preparation prior to painting or the painting itself. There has to be a lawyer somewhere on the board here that could make a name for themselves with a class-action suit on this. I will testify as an engineering and structural steel expert.

So here’s what I did since I only had an afternoon to do the wheel bearings when I found this…
1) Gently chisel-clean off rust with a flathead and hammer to greatest extent possible.
2) Steel wire brush on cordless drill all bad areas.
3) Soak the affected areas with acrylic clear coat to seal and bind together anything I could not get to or see.
4) Completely coated all affected areas plus 1-2” perimeters with fiberglass bondo. It’ll be a SOB to get off / weld-around when I go to do a more permanent fix, but this should prevent further damage and provide somewhat of a level of structural support. Took about 60 minutes +/- to both the rear passenger and driver sides.

For a permanent fix, I’d like to weld on some cover plates, (4 sides of weld) over these areas. Has anyone done this? What type of weld technique was used: stick, MIG, TIG…? And what of plate did you use: 1018 (mild), 4130, ..? What type of weld wire?

I’m a little rusty on my TIG skills, (couldn’t help the pun), and I currently do not own a TIG setup, but I did all the TIG welded fabrication for 2 years in college on our SAE Mini-Baja, so I’m pretty “bull’ish” on my ability to fabricate and fix these areas.

…Anyone in Rockland, NY, do this? …This warrants a building a local community to rectify… Local guys/girls with tools, shop access, etc. post or PM me if interested.

 

What I have noticed with my Evo 7 is that the door drains are rotting away. Car's presently at the painters respraying in a Nogaro blue. As the car was stripped was surprised to see:

Rust under the kick panels...
Door bump stop rubber holders and drains rotting badly
Door lock mechanisms rusting
Behind the rear taillights had a hole on left side
And the shocker: underneath the rear windshield lower moulding were holes along the clip points for the moulding itself

I also had some light surface rust at the rear after removing the bumper and oxidation under the car... but as I don't live too close to the sea the car's stood up for 16 yrs.

But that rust in doors/ windshield moulding/ taillight sockets is something anyone who has their EVOs out in the elements often should check for.

 

You people in the rust belt need to be under oiling your cars or parking them in winter. Those are your only choices. And under oiling is never perfect. You will still need the occasional repair.

 

I was reading through this thread and had the car on the lift, so I decided to check the area that people are finding some bad rust on the rear, well prepare yourselves. From what I have seen its actually not that deep and mostly surface rust. My current plan is to take off the rear suspension/subframe assembly and wire wheel it and then try to fab up some new metal to weld in. Has anyone done that rust repair DIY on this car before? Any misc tips that could help the thread? Something specific to evos?

 

Indeed. Seems like this isn't as popular a thing in the US as it is here in Canada. I've had mine rust-proofed every fall since I got the car in 2010. Makes working on the car a much dirtier job, but there's probably enough layers of the stuff on the underside that it could hold the car together even if the actual body was to rust away

 

After giving the advice that people in the rust belt should be under oiling their Evos if rust belt winter driving, I've never done mine. After looking at these rust pictures I went under for a look last night. The rear crash bar is about half rusty and the gas filler tube is rusty but that's about it. I think that's pretty good for a 2003 car that sees snow every winter. My practice has been, once the streets are dry after snow, to set out a running lawn sprinkler in the driveway and parking over it, repositioning the car a few times for a good rinse. Still, this is a wake-up call. I'm thinking of using fluid film having heard good things about it but am open for suggestions.

 

You're looking at 3-5k in labor alone to put this 100% right and safe judging by your pics, Friend in PA that hass had to do a few of these CT9A's now. We've seen them so bad that the rear subframe mounting points are completely swiss cheese. Dont know how the car stayed together.

Its not EVO only issue, it's where we live issue, anything that see's salt roads this will happen to, Subarus, Audi's anything. Just so happens that we want to keep these cars so this is the point where you have to decide to go all in or move on from it honestly.

 

never seen this happen before, anyone else having those issues?

 

Front cross member that was supposedly treated by Mitsubishi dealership a year ago.

 

 

 

I started noticing rust marks on my rear fender, so I removed my rear bumper this weekend. I was rear-ended a few years ago, and maybe I'm insane, but I expected all the areas that were affected by the accident to be immaculate. This is obviously a dream because the shop who fixed my car was useless...

 

Been working in the automotive industry for many years & have dealt w/corrosion related issues /damage many, many times

Really just have to keep any tuner / collectible car out of the wet winter weather (salts & other de-icers play havoc w/all metal & electrical components)

 

Damn i can't believe they didn't even bother to paint the reinforcement bar..