I just bought a blue srt4 and also noticed the rust on the sway bar and suspension while on the showroom floor, zero miles. Then I drove it and the rust was the last thing on my mind. nothing a little por15 cant protect. Besides, the quality of the engine internals including the forged rods, turbo pistons and exhaust valves, not to mention the oil pump, by far out weigh rust.

 

This thread is pretty long so sorry if some one already said this. The reason there looks like there is rust on the underside is the same reason rust appears on your brake rotors after a wash and it sits for a while. The metal is so hard (a certain type I dont know) that when it is wet it will turn that color when it dries. It disapears on your rotors right when you brake a few times because the pads rub it off. Since there is nothing rubbing your underside, the discoloration will not disapear. It is not a defect or bad quality. Its just the metal type. Again, sorry if someone already wrote this. <edited><editID>svtf_srt4</editID><editDate>38006.9651041667</editDate></edited>

 

Yea, my 1978 Dodge Van, has got a rusty sway bar too...........been waitin 25yrs. now for it to fall off...................rust on a 1"thick piece of solid steel means NOTHING!...............unless your showin it!___________5___________

 

Don't worry about it. Its just a metal bar, not the body. If you dont like it, take it out and have it powder coated. Besides your gonna change that thing out anyways to upgrade the swaybars. If it makes you feel any better, my bars are rusty too :-)

 

Concur. Surface rust on structual parts is no biggie, besides you can always fall back on the warranty. Just don't paint over it or even worse, get it undercoated without cleaning it off...

 

As I said before... if you REALLY wanted an SRT-4, surface rust wouldn't stop ya... I know I don't care... car comes with a warranty.

~Amanda

 

How very true indeed, on both parts.[sm=smiley20.gif]

 

i believe the mans point is if they coated them from the factory then they wouldnt rust in the first place.i work at a dodge dealer and a guy just bought an 05 dakota and he brought it back because the whole suspension was rusted. if dodge would just spend 10 minutes to coat those before they put them on then their quality would be up tremendously. i got an 00 gmc sierra and it has no sign of rust on it at all. i believe that is because it was coated from the factory. as far as because the way they get delivered ( the rain makes them rust) they rust because they are not coated. as far as rotors go. every rotor is going to rust when it gets wet because it is bare because if it was coated then the brakes wouldnt be very functional and it would prob. burn this coating off. moral of the story is buy some other brand that the company has the respect for the customer to coat the parts. ill bet the ceo's of dodge dont have rust on their cars.

 

Ok, the SRT-4's have rust on the sway bar.... We have established that. Will dodge fix that problem? Probably not. Why not, because its not worth it to them. Out of all the people on this post how many care if there is surface rust on a part that is underneath the car and will not effect their performance(the main reason people purchase this vehicle, performance). I can understand your frustration, but they are not going to spend the extra $.50 to fix that problem because that is a lot of money when you figure out that amount of neons they make. The good thing is that the dealer has agreed work with you on the surface rust, but of course, thats not good enough. I just dont see where dodge can win here. You have a prob, and they offer to fix, and now you are going and looking at other SRT's?

 

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