Worrying rust spots

[ikeane]

Hi. New to this forum. Going to buy an FTO. Looked at 2 96 GPX's today. One thing I wasn't sure about was a few rust spots on the piece that holds the engine onto the chassis (welded to the struts). This appeared on both cars so I was wondering if this was a common problem and if it was a serious one.
If this is in the wrong forum please move it.

[CJ]

Welcome ikeane, good to see some new owners coming on-stream

As regards the rust spots, are you talking about the top of the inner wheel arch close to the power steerging fluid resevoir on the LHS of the engine bay? If so, this is a common problem caused by a lack of undersealing, if its serious, it may require a new inner wheel arch, its a time consuming job. If its minor then you might get a way with treating it and in turn slowing down the corrosion process.

Use your good judgement and you should be fine, remember, you could also use this as a bargaining tool!

CJ

[raymond.harper]

In this month's Japanese Performance magazine is a buyers guide to the FTO. It mentions engine mount rust. Why not import a car from Japan that will be rust free? They don't use salt on their roads in the winter

[AL]

they dont use salt on the roads here either ( during winter ) they use salt in the UK

[ikeane]

Cheers guys. To answer ye're questions: yes, the rust is on the engine chassis over the wheel arch and on the LHS. Both cars are Jap imports. I'm going to get someone to check it out anyway. I'll also look around some more.