report of possible rust areas to watch out for

[4 forty]

could s/v 40 owners who have encountered rust problems starting, please give details of vunerable areas to particulary watch out for, so owners who are going to keep their cars for a considerable time can take evasive action.
i know of the following areas, inside the fuel filler cap, due to mud build up in the higher reaches of the wheelarch.
rear of roof in channel above rear screen.

any additions would be greatfully appreciated, by myself and other owners.

many thanks.
paul

[SpeedyReedy]

The front edge at the base of both rear wheel arches where it runs parallel to the tyre tread has started to flake the paint and rust show through. On a 98/99 S40.
The area in front of this is a stone catching area so its worth clearing it out every so often.
Only bit I've found so far.

Speedyreedy 1999
S40 Gdi

[4 forty]

forgot to mention the aperture that houses the grill in the bonnet, this is aparantly due to the fixing bolts working loose and causing the grill to scrape off the paint.

paul

[bigandquick]

Absolutely. 'Grill rub' as they call it in the business. I took my wife's '96 S40 back to Volvo before the paintwork warranty expired to show them this and they claimed that the grill had possibly been changed in the past and so , not being the original fit, they were not responsible.
Strange that, as when I took my 850 back because of corrosion above the handle plate they claimed that the tailgate was not original. Must be the stock excuse for not doing the work.

[Rooster]

I have a new screen in my 01 s40 a few months back and noticed some rust at rear of roof channel but it looked as if my car had had a rear screen in it before i got it so i just put it down to that.

I took it down to a volvo bodyshop for them to have a look at aswell and they didn't want to know either, wouldn't even come outside and have a look at it so i sorted it myself.

[pyaap]

Hi Rooster,

Sorry to hear of this problem. Shouldn't this have been covered under the Volvo anti-corrosion warranty (isn't it 8 yrs) or did they use the "we do not cover surface perforation" excuse?

[v6en]

I had rust repaired under warranty 2 years ago above my rear windscreen, and it has reappeared already. i also noticed some absolutely minute bubbles on the bottom half of all four doors. and i got the surface corrosion story, i.e because they couldn't stick a swiss army knife - no i'm not joking - through the paint and into the panel, it "couldn't have been corrosion from the inside out, therefore is not covered." pah.

jacq.

[4 forty]

i too have found tiny bubbles on the door bottoms of both rear doors, this was brought to the attention of the dealers paintshop 2 years ago[the car is now 7 years old] but because it was not serviced by the volvo dealer, i could not claim. what on earth has a service to do with rust appearing? another get out clause. my conclusion is that the door bottom did not recieve the prescribed ammount of paint whilst going through the robot paint booth. i could of course get the paint thickness measured in microns to proove this, but i will no doubt get anywhere.

paul

[v6en]

I do have a full volvo service history, but it didn't help.

jacq.

the build quality of these cars is certainly poor, whats hapened to volvos high standards? rust on doors, around windscreens, its appalling