s1301950

Hi all, just got my Q7 delivered three days ago. Got a chance to open the hood to check out the brand new engine.. except finding something that doesn't look too brand new. As show in the pic, there is some yellowish substance in one of the parts of the engine. Upon touching it, it feels very much like rust. Could it be rust? or some yellowish chemical substance... that looks strikingly similar to ... rust...

BFN949

When last did you look under a new vehicle of other brands? Some of them have for years not even been painting large portions of the suspension components. Range Rovers is one example - many undercarriage components of my Range Rovers were not painted.

phil47

Looks like rust and I don't think you should be concerned. Although it doesn't "look" as nice, a thin coating of surface rust actually prevents further oxidation from occuring as it acts as a natural corrosion inhibitor. This is the theory with many suspension components being left unpainted or coated.

24wheeler

If it was a thin sheet steel component of body panel I would be concerned but this is not something that will ever rust through. I am content that the body of my Q7 will easily outlast the mechanical components. I live only a about 300 yards from the sea and the air is often salty and the roads are currently heavily salted, as they are most Winters, yet I have various vehicles here up to 20 years old where the bodywork has no rust even where the panels are dented and scratched.
Worse components for rusting are chassis on body-on-frame SUV's. The Audi is of unibody construction and the 'chassis' is made of galvanised and high-strength steel that is further treated and which should easily last 20 year.

As such, chill.

s1301950

I would complete understand if it was a metal part that is not painted and rust later. But rust on the day of delivery? if rusted parts like that were picked to build an external part of the engine, i cannot imagine what other parts of the car were built using rusted parts and therefore are weak, can't withstand stress and have shorter life span. It's reasonable that suspension components are not painted and if they rust in a few years. I have no problem at all.

pchansen

Totally normal. It it bothers you, maybe you can hit the area with some steel wool and the then coat it with either a clear coat or maybe satin or flat black paint.

mikemdd

I worked my way through college by "creating rust". I worked construction and my job was to sand blast the paint and coatings on the steel structural components of a new bridge to make them rust. A great job....I received "risk pay" for hanging down from the bridge to do the sand blasting. As others have said....rust can be your friend....