Surface rust on my exhaust

theclarkfam,

Dont feel like the lone ranger. Think this is what you are talking about...the support rod for the mufflers at the tail. Heres a few snaps of mine and it is an 09 I took delivery on 7/28/09.







Plan A is to see what the dealer says.

Plan B is to buy a can of Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator and coat the rods myself (this vehicle is a keeper...long term.

Post your response/results from your dealer trip.

Regards,

Jim

theclarkfam & Others,

Sorry for the delay of posting Saturn's official responses to my request to replace the support rods for the exhaust on my '09 XR (see pics above).

I have a good rapport with the Sales and Service Department at the Saturn of Lakeside Dealership on Hall Road. Pete Salich is the Service Manager there and when I called him about this he asked if I could provide pics which I did directly to him via e-mail (the ones above). Pete called me back and said he's quite willing to do something as long as Saturn would honor this as a warranty item. His submission of my pics to the North Central Regiion Zone District Service Manager, Jay Townsend resulted in a rejection of correction. I, frankly, was kinda' surprised on this rejection. I am attaching that rejection in the form of an e-mail back to the Saturn Service Manager.

Certainly there is no degradation to the performance of the part...right now. My complaint is the whole undercarriage of this vehicle is devoid of any rust save for these support rods to the exhaust system. Pete Salich hands were tied but he encouraged me to appeal to the Zone District Service Manager...which I did.

I am also attaching the rejection of that appeal (copy of letter directly to me).

So, this has been my experience on this issue. I've asked for a fix from the dealer who in turn requested a read from Saturn's Zone Manager...rejected as normal surface stuff. My plan is Plan B as I stated further up on this topic.

Curious to see if others here having this managed a different outcome.

Jim

I went out and took some pic's. Pic 1 is of the OUTLOOK and pic 2 is of my 05' VUE that I just bought. 10 mth old OUTLOOK with rusty supports and a 5 yr old VUE with no rust ???.

Here is the result of my applying "Plan B" to fix all the rusted exhaust supports on my '09 XR. Here's a pic of the products I used to do the job. Again, this was a no-biggy for me because of the lift I have in my garage to do this.

Here are 4 pics of the end result using the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator and Exhaust Paint. The large jug in the above post is a metal ready non-toxic product which I applied first with a rag.

I've trapped the rust and sealed it with the exhaust paint (600 degree type). There are higher temp exhaust paint you could use. Time will tell. For now I am a happy camper.