I was looking in my JC whitney catalog yesterday and saw an ad for a device that is supposed to prevent rust. It is supposed to work by running some kinda current through the cars entire body, Says it uses a 12v battery to feed a vehicle ateady flow of free electrons to interrupt the corrosion process. Im not too familiar with the way metal works so maybe someone a little more experienced came chime in? Would this really work or is it just a gimmick?

 

Hmmm. Sounds a bit shady to me. electrolytic corrosion certianly DOES occur, especially in cooling systems that arent propoerly grounded/ set up. The flow of current literally eats away the metal. This is also a problem in the fuel systems of cars that run on alcohol... I dont know about electrolytic corrosion throughout the entire body... What parts would be the cathodes/anodes, on a body that is made up of the same material, welded together and (hopefully) properly grounded?

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is... I would like to see a study of this product in action though...

 

I've seen then installed on a bunch of cars. I couldn't tell you form personal experience, but the cars that I saw didnt have much rust.

 

Your car already has a steady 12V current flow. It's called the charging circuit, and it uses the body sheet metal.

Cleaning up all your body grounds will almost certainly fix ground-related problems better than installing a battery in a questionable manner.

 

Those things are a crock. They don't work. Like already mentioned, there are already plenty of electrons running through your car's body.

My father's 94 F150 had one of those widgets, but it didn't stop all of the air conditioning and power steering lines from rotting off the truck within 70k miles. His oil pan wasn't far behind either.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it is supposed to be used in conjunction with undercoating.

http://www.ruststopnorthamerica.com/

 

it's marketing bull****. Undercoating will have absolutely no effect on the electrical properties of the steel. If this gimmick worked, it would do it with or without undercoating.

 

Thanks for the info, I wont be buying one

 

I think there is more to them than just passing current through the car. I remember something about capacitive pads or someting??? Heres a link

http://www.counteractrust.com/capacitive%20coupling.htm

http://www.counteractrust.com/

Don't know if it works though

 

I wish i could get a hold of one and test it out on a bare piece of sheet metal.

 

What a complete crock. Capacitive coupling, a term they misuse, is nothing more than inserting an inline capacitor (and usually a shunt resistor) to filter DC out of an AC signal. It has no effect on polarization of electrons or any of the other nonsense they spew on that site.

That site's explanation is pure bullsh*t with a little bit of incorrect technical jargon sprinkled in to intentionally fool those who don't know better.

 

But, what do you really think about them Jim ?

 

por15, ospho, there r a number of products that r suppose to treat or prevent rust

 

I once had to do a presentation in school on the wonderful world of corrosion, and like Jim this sounds like BS.

The usual way to prevent rust is to take a wire attached to one metal lets say steel, and run it to a more corrosive prone metal like iron, or something else. This will cause electrons to pass to the anode (sacrafical metal) being the iron or more corrosive material. Therefore prevent or slowing the rust of the other metal called the cathode.

They use this on large tanks buried under the ground, namely gas stations.

They are other ways, but if passing electricity through a metal, then are cars should never rust, they have approx 12 volts when turned off, and i think 13.5 when charging(correct me if i am wrong here).

I believe stainless steel will start oxidsing at large amounts of voltage. Seeing how we don't drive DeLoreans this isn't a problem. If we did, then we wouldn't be having this therad at all.:P

Corrosion or oxidation is the lost of electrons of a metal. This is why copper or lead will oxide quicker when exposed to a current than, without, but still happens.

 

I'm a maintanance electrician at a MCAS.One of my responsibilties is the cathodic protection system for the underground fuel tanks,fuel lines and gas lines.Like Toehead,Jims85 and hmmurdock point out the only way to slow down corrosion,there's not way to completly eliminate it,is thru the use of cathodic protection which does use DC current to excite the anode beds(think of these as being sacrificial part of the process)but that's the extent that electricity plays in the process.The fuel lines and tanks also have anti-corrosive coatings applied.