bazz54

Yeah, but the problem is that the term "red oxide" now refers only to the colour of the paint and gives you no info whatsoever about what kind of paint it is. Originally, red oxide referred to paint containing red lead oxide, which was a good corrosion inhibitor, but is now banned. Buying red oxide paint now is just a lottery, unless you get some tech info from the supplier.

Subsequent to my OP, I did a bit of digging for info and found that the two paints I quite like these days (Hammerite's Beat Rust and Screwfix's Red Oxide) turn out to both be zinc phosphate paints. The Screwfix stuff is actually made by Johnstones, who are a top British company and part of the worldwide PPG group, and as well as making domestic paints, they do paints for little things like oil rigs, bridges etc. I was lucky to spot a 5L tin of Johnstones industrial "fast drying zinc phosphate" going very cheap on eBay and have just used that for the first time today, and not surprisingly, it appeared in all respects to be exactly like the Screwfix red oxide. The things I like about this stuff are (i) it is a very good "wetting" paint that seems to adsorb on to surfaces really well, doesn't need much brushing in and (ii) even without a top coat, seems quite good are arresting/preventing rust. The ebay seller also had 5L of Johnstones industrial semi-gloss, high-build top coat, so that's going on next.

I'm coming up on 11 years now and very pleased that I bought it, even though I didn't originally know about the G7 pre-facelift engine issue it, but so far, that problem hasn't shown on my car.

This issue with subframes seems vaguely reminiscent of the problem with the original mini years ago. I never owned one, but always had the impression that the rest of the car could be great but the subframes completely gone. I've just bought 5L of Johnstone's zinc phosphate primer and 5 L of their semi-gloss over-coat (well below list price on ebay) and need to make a start on both cars ASAP.

One of the other known issues with chloride is that once it is on, it is bloody difficult to wash it off completely (even though you won't be able to see it). Consequently there are products on the market specifically claiming to help remove it, like this stuff from the Rustbuster paint folks http://www.rust.co.uk/4-salt-removal/t16/ I'm not recommending this particular product, simple because I've never tried it. But, I will be doing some painting on the underside of my Gen7 this spring and even after using lots of water to clean it, I probably will use this or something similar before slapping the paint on.

Road salt (sodium chloride) greatly accelerates corrosion simply because it is a source of the chloride ion. If you looked at any text book on corrosion it would tell you that chloride is just about the worst contaminant in the everyday world for initiating/maintaining rust. I used to work in corrosion testing and I've seen corrosion test specimens where you could see finger prints (caused by the salt in sweat) on their surfaces even after they been in hot gases for thousands of hours. Remember also that kitchen washing up liquid is loaded with salt and should be kept well away from cars.

Are you going to strip the whole wheel or just do the bad bits? If the latter, what I have used in past are the small (cheap) tins of Humbrol enamel paint intended for model makers; I think they do a number of different silvers of different shades.

No one has mentioned it, but it is important with aluminium to start off with primer coat using a paint intended for aluminium. The last time I painted aluminium I think I used an aerosol etch primer made by Clostermann and that seems to have lasted.

The original red oxide paints contained lead, but have now been very much restricted (banned?), so the term "red oxide" now mainly refers to the colour of the paint. Though it's generally accepted that "Red Oxide" paints are rust/corrosion resistant, any two of them could fairly different. All that said, Screwfix do a a very inexpensive Red Oxide, which brushes on and takes to surfaces very well (some paints seem "stodgy" by comparison), and I've not used it on a car, but it does seem to have done well on other stuff that gets left outside.

Picking up from the thread in the Gen7 sub-forum which suggests that corrosion on 7's (rear sub-frames and petrol tanks) is now becoming an issue, I'm curious about what people currently think are the best paints for dealing with such problems. A couple of people on that thread say they'll be using Hammerite, and in the past I would have agreed with them; Hammerite used to be the dog's danglies. But lots of paints have had their formulations changed in recent years to suit health/safety/environment requirements, and in the case of Hammerite's "direct to metal paint", I'm not sure it's as good as it used to be. I recall seeing comments on other car forums that the current formulation is hard/brittle and does not do well where the component is subject to flexing or stone impact(?). I do have quite a good opinion of Hammerite's "Rust Beater", which I think is a completely different product to the direct to metal stuff. As my 7 is coming up on 14 years old , I probably need to take a look at the chassis when the weather gets better. B

I just looked at that site and got up the details for my other car which is a Rover 600. It said exactly the same thing - most failures on lights/electrical and then on suspension. On the R600 owners forum, the number one risk of MoT fail is always regarded as the handbrake. As yet, my Gen7 has never failed. As suggested above, that data might tell you more about owners than cars.

When it comes to the compatibility of rubbers with fuels, intuition is not always a good guide. Who would have expected that too much bio-diesel in diesel or ethanol in petrol in ordinary fuel could have the really bad effects on some rubbers which it has? Seeing as the hose will not be permanently wetted, I suspect you could get away with it. Personally, I'd rather have the right material; is the issue cost or availability?

Agreed; maybe OK for cars on their last legs...or about to be sold

Yep! If it is not leaking, I bet it is slowly taking more as it purges out air. As for boiling points above 120'C, well all conventional coolants are 50% water, so how much higher than 120 can the boiling point go, and how often would you ever experience that? I've never changed the thermostat in a Gen7, but on every other car I've ever worked on the stats are usually begin to open around 90'C. So short of a track day, or being stuck in traffic on a really hot summer day, I would have thought 120 was OK ?

There can be significant differences between types of coolant, but they would not account for coolant loss. Up until a few years ago, pretty much all coolant antifreeze was ethylene glycol with certain corrosion inhibitors -really important for aluminium engines like ours. Then some new mixtures came out with better corrosion resistance (supposedly!!!). To id the two types, the companies brought in colour-code systems, but different manufacturers used different colours. The simplest thing to do is stick with toyota coolant of the same colour as was in originally; it has been suggested that mixing the two may cause corrosion problems. But if you are losing it, there has to be a leak somewhere.

I am sure that I have heard suggestions a number of times that Vaseline is harmful (long term) on rubber. On very thin rubber, I think it does damage quite fast!

The term "conditioner" is ambiguous and may mean different things to different people. I believe it refers to so-called pulsers and I have one which is sold either a kit of parts or ready assembled by a company in Scotland called Courtistown Marine, which I really think does work and serves to break down sulphate deposits which accumulate as a battery ages, or worse still, is unused for a period of time. However, the reality seems to be that alternators operate so that much of the time, your battery is only partially charged (maybe 50-75%), but with an older battery, or if you do lots of short runs, it may even be less. Deep discharging greatly reduces the life of batteries and so every 4-6 weeks, I connect a charger to mine and get them right up to full charge; sometimes they don't need much, other times they will take 15-20 amp hours of charge. Other thing is that if you look after a battery it should last 5-6 years (the OEM ones often last appreciably more), and my view is that when it's clear they are deteriorating, don't mess about; replace them and keep the old one as possible back-up while it still has some life left in it.

I have Goodyear Ultragrip winter tyres on my saloon and very happy with them; got them at a good price from a French (think that winter tyres are compulsory over there so they may be cheaper cos they sell more) online outfit called pneus, who have fitting network in the UK. Winter tyres will wear really fast in warmer temperatures so you will need to take them off around March; I keep 2 sets of wheels to save hassle.

There is no exact way of knowing how much you need because you have to bleed until you 'guesstimate' you have flushed through; if you are lucky, you might be able to see a colour change between old and new. But based on my experience of doing it on the Gen7, I think Opie is right and that 1.5L should give you a margin, though a 2 litre pack barely costs more. DOT3, 4 and 5.1 are all interchangeable glycol based fluids as distinct from 5 which is silicone. Toyota now only supply 5.1, but the Gen7 was designed to use DOT 4 and that's what I stuck with.

Try here; Got my winter tyres from them.

Although I can't offer an exact answer, I'm sure the issue of torque is more complex than just compensating for the coefficient of friction. Factors like loading and extension come in to play. What I do have experience of in regard to stainless steel fasteners is that of pickup or galling, i.e. the tendency of stainless steel parts to "friction weld" themselves together. This may not be relevant here, but it can be real problem; to avoid it you have to use either PTFE tape or a suitable lubricant on threads. Overall, I am not sure that going to stainless is a great idea on a standard engine. For cosmetic purposes, getting ordinary steel fasteners plated with nickel may be an idea.