I did manage to rip off some of that faux chrome on the kia's grille through over zealous jet washing!).

Ditch the jet washer, as you've found it's quite capable of removing protective coatings!

I just wash the car with a hose and soft brush, but I rigorously hose down (up?) the underside and wheel arches to remove road grit and salt.

Surface rust you don't need to worry about, but once it becomes pitted then you should consider a coating such as waxoil, dinitrol or similar. Remember a pressure washer will remove such coatings!

A useful tip regarding pressure washing - don't jetwash directly through the front grille onto the radiator/oilcooler/aftercooler/aircon heat exchanger - it can damage the delicate fins on the matrix (matrices?)

Any cheap common product such as WD40 will hold the rust back unless you want to get serious about it. By serious I mean something like ACF 50 which I use on motorbikes and recently on cars. You can buy it in aerosol form at about £10 per 400ml or as a liquid - about £30 a litre.

Originally formulated as an anti-corrosion treatment for aircraft airframes it is an amazing product for keeping corrosion at bay.

(Edit - Sorry, its a bit dearer than I said www.nippynormans.com/search?q=acf+50)

( Avant - Not an advert - it's just the best stuff there is!)

Edited by focussed on 15/04/2017 at 00:32

Its disappointing that there is any rust on a car in this day and age, what happened to all the Zinc coated steel and high tech primers. I was a great believer in Waxoil for many years and used it on every car I got but find it unnecessary now. I bought an early MX5 and had no confidence Mazda had got on top of their rust problem so set about it with my Waxoil. Every nook and cranny, in the cills, boors,wheel arches and every cavity I could get it into. A whole 5Lt can used, the car stank of it. A couple of days later went on a trip from Scotland to London to pick up a hard top for it and stopped for a bite to eat. I was embarrassed getting back to the car, it had a pool of melted Waxoil all round it, melted by the rising heat from the car. Nothing I could do, but there was not a spec of rust on that car five years later.

Anyone know much about what is normal in terms of rust and what is potentially problematic? For example what i should be looking for. Or how I can do anything preventative? I am a total novice when it comes to anything mechanical

Just make sure that the structural parts of the underneath of the car are sound - crossmembers, subframes, sills. They can all be prone to rust according to how the car has been used and where, and previous owner care.

Also look at the steel brake pipes where they emerge from their plastic coating near the calipers, a favourite weak point, and an annoying and costly fix as the labour can be expensive for replacing a virtually sound brake pipe save for rust on one small part of it.

Everyone has their favourite rust preventing products, mine is Bilt Hamber Dynax UB, a spray anti corrosion wax.

Modern cars are very good bodywise, but the parts mentioned above will still rust, as can suspension components, but as long as it's only a bit of surface rust, you should be OK. Sometimes things can happen like the drain holes for the suspension turrets blocking up and filling the void with a nice salty soup that will end up with the spring pan collapsing and the car scraping the road. A quick inspection with the wheels off to check suspension and brakes on all four corners every now and then should stop any of this happening.

Edited by corax on 15/04/2017 at 12:33