I assume this in the rust belt… salt states… but many of those states have inspections. They’d never pass a car that was that rusted.
I’ve repaired several cars “cosmetically” b/c they didn’t pass inspection. A 1974 Ford Pinto wagon comes to mind. It failed inspection b/c the left wheel well was rusted thru. This was cosmetic b/c no exhaust gas could get inside the car. I fixed the outer wheel well, painted it w/ rattle can, and it was good for inspection. (It went 4 more years before being sold w/o problems.)
Get your estimate. My uncle had a car his dad gave him. We could toss fireworks out… just lift the rear floor mats and there were nice holes in the floor. Sometimes it’s simply a patch the undercoating didn’t cover and they can weld in a couple pieces for sheet metal for a couple hundred bucks. That’ll do you until the next section rusts. Buy a can of POR and coat the old rust. Sure, it’s not as safe as a new car, but an Altima never was. If your shop says these are the only spots, but wants more than $300, then look for a shade tree shop.
The main reason this happens is soaking wet carpets during the winter season and salty water accumulating under them. It’s even worse in cars that are garaged overnight. Boots pick up a fair bit of slush.
The key to avoiding it is to empty your floor trays regularly in the winter, and better yet put newspaper under them to absorb excess and replace that every few weeks during the winter. It will also keep humidity levels down in the car.
The best thing to do would be to have new sheet metal welded in, and if you shop around it should not be hugely expensive. But prior to that, as others have pointed out, have the car examined for rust, particularly the wheel wells and the subframes, as I would bet that it was not hosed off regularly during winter thaws. Avoiding serious rust on ten-year-old plus cars in the NorthEast requires some owner attention in the years prior.
Every Acura we get, we buy (or negotiate for) the winter floor mats. They are very similar to the Weather Tech mats and contain the water and slush that just can’t be helped in the winter. But that takes care of the water from above but I believe these cars have rust problems from underneath. In the winter the car wash has the under carriage wash which I suppose helps some but then of course the problem with spraying water on hot components as talked about in another discussion.
I love those floor mats. I don’t know why factory doesn’t have a raised lip.
Most of the cars I’ve seen with rusted floor pans rusted from the outside. (Exceptions, battery box area in the VWs, one car that had milk spilled on the passenger side, and those left sitting with water inside.)
#1 - The rust belt is not all salt use states. It’s actually a specific region around the Great Lakes that get significantly more snow fall and almost any other populated area in the US. I live in NH and it’s NOT part of the rust belt.
#2 - States that are part of the rust belt (like NY) have much less restrictions on rust then places like NH or MA. Central NY East of Lake Ontario averages 5-10 times more snow annually then where I live in NH or Boston.
Mike is right, people that live in other places, even places that get cold and have a fair amount of snow have bi idea of what it is like to live in the wind shadow of the Great Lakes. I know the advice given is well meaning, but from my perspective, it is mostly just funny.
Newspapers under the floor mats, I do that sometimes but they need to be changed every few days. And if it gets really cold it creates a frozen lumpy mess under the winter mats.
Car washes with under body wash. Do you know that car washes recycle their (salty) water. And how do you get the car home from the car wash without driving through the salt brine that floods our streets.
The court I live on frequently has a 15 ’ high pile of mixed salt and snow waiting for a lull between storms so it can be trucked away and we get salted many times a day.
I had on car that broke in half at the firewall with the windshield shattering, We had two cars that spun in the street when the trailing arm that located the rear axle rusted through and the emergency brake cable locked the brake. Were these cars dangerous to drive? Yes, but my kids were working their way through college and I had trucking companies dropping like flies and none of us had any money. Non of those cars ever failed inspection.
If its that rusted get rid of it .It’s probably not just the floorboards that are getting ready to fail if it’s to the point that the floor is no longer there .
Where I live water is cheap and plentiful. If a car wash uses 100 gallons per car (that seems to be in the middle of numbers I found) the cost for water at the car was would be 53 cents. (water utility info on cost) Not outrageous. Called 2 car washes in town, both use only fresh water, but do filter it.
Here in NH we also have an abundant of water (most years)…and I know for a fact the ones in our town all use a high percentage of recycled water. I was on the town planning board when they applied for their licenses. The systems they buy all have tanks for housing recycled water. It’s not just the water, but the waste-water that’s a problem.
I’m sure many older (grandfathered) car-washes may only use fresh water. But I seriously doubt any new washes do.
In the link below - on average these car washes use well over 200,000 gallons of water for every 1000 cars they wash. We have car washes here that average a couple thousand washes PER DAY. So over a one week period they are using several MILLION gallons of water.
I’d be extremely surprised if they don’t use recycled water. As stated…besides the MILLIONS of gallons of water they use every week, they also have to deal with the waste. Dumping that much waste into the system isn’t good. I’d be extremely amazed a town would allow that to happen.
As stated they only use fresh water, Being on the city plan review representing the water utility for proposed projects we never had a problem with it. The bugs love that stuff, the digesters create methane gas to capture and run the plant and keep the aeration basins warm to promote breakdown activity.
Heard back from the director of operations at the water utility, No phosphates in soap and “We don’t specifically regulate them on anything at this time.” Not saying things are not different elsewhere.