Just noticed my Iload is developing minute specs of rust on some panels, and I'm wondering how well these systems work so far as stopping rust goes....

Any one on here have one installed on their van/4wd? If so has your car shown any signs of rust in the period of time you've had it?

I've heard mixed reports on how well they work. I know someone who has one installed in their iload (which gets parked at the beach regularly) but has seen a bit of rust develop, I know someone else with one in a 4wd that regularly gets driven on the beach and through saltwater crossings and it looks to be rust free.

Mixed reviews a few lads at damper salt swear by them but its super salty there so a car normally only gets 4-5 years life on a site.

This topic comes up every few years.
They can't possibly work because a car is not surrounded by an electrically conductive medium,.. like sea water.
Cathodic protection works in seawater and also to protect gas pipes in trenches because the both sea water and the earth is electrically conductive, so the article to be protected can be effectively made a cathode, relative to an anode somewhere. This can be a block of zinc strapped to the hull, or a simple electrical connection to an anode in the ocean or ground.

You can't do the same thing to your car because it has no anode to remain at a negative potential in relation to, and there is no conductive medium to maintain the potential difference across.


Also,..many years ago, a friend had one installed on his 4wd and then went romping along the beaches of Queensland. It was a rusted out wreck in 4 years.

I also have a 4wd that I romp along beaches with, and it hasn't rusted at all in over ten years.
It comes from the factory with a better rust protection paint, plus I sometimes give it a wash down on the underside afterwards, but not if it rains because the wet spray off the roads does it for me.

Thanks Pweedas, a bit more searching on the net (which I shoulda done first) pretty much confirms what you said, they're a very expensive variety of snake oil.

Just have to keep it clean and dry as possible I guess....

Not sure what your on about Pweedas. I had a erps system on my 80 series landcruiser. Worked extremely well.
Use to come home from glass house mountains with dents and scratches and not 1 bit of rust ever formed the metal remained bare and dull but never rusty.
Had the car for 3 years and the only bits of rust where the brake disc.

I owned one and can say mine worked well.

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youngbull said..
Not sure what your on about Pweedas. I had a erps system on my 80 series landcruiser. Worked extremely well.
Use to come home from glass house mountains with dents and scratches and not 1 bit of rust ever formed the metal remained bare and dull but never rusty.
Had the car for 3 years and the only bits of rust where the brake disc.

I owned one and can say mine worked well.

Like all these things, you can only really tell if it worked if you had another vehicle the same, in similar conditions that did rust and didn't have any protection fitted.

I have a 1997 commodore, and a 2001 falcon. The commodore has no rust, and the falcon has a bit. I think its the paint that is different, and my guess is that the falcon's paint system isn't as good as the commodore's. Two cars, treated the same, yet one seems to have more rust than the other.

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youngbull said..
Not sure what your on about Pweedas. I had a erps system on my 80 series landcruiser. Worked extremely well.

Use to come home from glass house mountains with dents and scratches and not 1 bit of rust ever formed the metal remained bare and dull but never rusty.

Had the car for 3 years and the only bits of rust where the brake disc.

I owned one and can say mine worked well.

Well, as I said, I also have a 4wd with NO erps, and it also gets bashed down bush tracks and along beaches and splashed through creek crossings,.. some of them salty,. and mine also has very little rust for it's age. In fact, none on the outer panels.

These things are a bit like catholic miracles cures.
If enough people buy into them, then a few will truthfully report they had very little rust so the magic miracle cure snake oil must work.
Had I had one on my 4wd I could take it that it was the super snake oil erps that saved my car from rust. It didn't,, and I know that for sure because I don't have one, and yet my 4wd is not rusty.

The reality is,. if the body panels of the 4wd have some form of protective undercoat system, such as zinc etc, they survive very well for a long time, even under the worst conditions.

You could see how ineffective the snake oil is on an old misubshi or something cheap which had very little anti rust protection from the factory.
One small scratch and the things rust out in a week.

Anyways,.. it's just my advice, and anyone who wants to can splash out and buy a dozen.

Or,..if anyone can show me a scientific principle on which these things might actually work, I could change my mind, but so far I have not.
( conditions apply,... proof from pm33, aboominator, milsy, japie,.. and that 'feathers falling faster than housebricks' kiterboy dude,.. will not be considered as proof due to previous failures in simple logic.)

Incidentally, the last time I looked into it, their web site said it worked by 'tricking nature'.
Oh yeah,.. that scientific principle works all the time.
Gee,.. they can even get a 250 ton jumbo to float through the air like a feather,..using the exact same principle, tricking nature,..
until some precocious little twit sitting in the back somewhere says to his mum,.. "mummy,.. how can all this stuff stay up in the sky when it should all fall down?",.. end of trick,. the trick effect is ruined and the whole lot of screaming humanity falls to the ground in a hysterical panic,..
So much for 'tricking nature'.
I wouldn't rely on the old 'tricking nature' scientific principle. It has been found to be very unreliable.