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Suspension parts are comprised of all sorts of metals. A arms can be made of stamped steel, cast iron, aluminum. It really depends on what the strength requirement of the component and what work load the engineers determined while designing the vehicle. The amount of exposure and coating integrity also help them last. This does not mean large parts like axles will last forever but it does help.
Is it due to their thick structure that helps them last long if they’re made of a type of steel? In terms of rusting
if i am correct in assuming, typically made of a tempered steel, too the point the metal is treated that the metal is tempered and bends and goes back into shape. the same method is used to make a lot of swords, using tempered steel.
In terms of rusting, all suspension parts are made of pretty lousy steel. If you’ve never seen a crumbling control arm, you should take a look at this:
This kind of thing is quite normal in the salt/rust belt. At least once a week, I see a car on a lift that I can poke my finger through a rusty subframe or suspension component. It’s certainly more often than that to see rust holes in bodywork sheet metal. Less than 1 out of 50 cars ever appear to have the owner give any concern at all for keeping salt or mud off the underbody components. Even when everybody knows salt eats cars and knows they’re driving their car through clouds and pools of it this time of year, the rate of complete neglect is quite staggering. I could do a rust video like that Nissan one above every week, but that video never got any action so I don’t bother. The rust disasters are endless.
In some expensive cars, they use higher quality metals that are more pure/virgin as opposed to being 5th generation recycled scrap metal. They will also alloy things like nickel or chromium into the better base metals to make them more corrosion-resistant. Brands that clearly use better metals are Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, certain higher end Lexus and Infiniti, and higher end Audis that do not share the platform with a VW model. That’s just based on what I’ve seen over the years. Domestics and economy Asian cars have been having serious problems with structural rust over the past several years.
MEGA-RUST. There to reminder me of the only perk of living somewhere it’s usually too cold for salt to be used.
[quote=”Fopeano” post=156729]In terms of rusting, all suspension parts are made of pretty lousy steel. If you’ve never seen a crumbling control arm, you should take a look at this:
This kind of thing is quite normal in the salt/rust belt. At least once a week, I see a car on a lift that I can poke my finger through a rusty subframe or suspension component. It’s certainly more often than that to see rust holes in bodywork sheet metal. Less than 1 out of 50 cars ever appear to have the owner give any concern at all for keeping salt or mud off the underbody components. Even when everybody knows salt eats cars and knows they’re driving their car through clouds and pools of it this time of year, the rate of complete neglect is quite staggering. I could do a rust video like that Nissan one above every week, but that video never got any action so I don’t bother. The rust disasters are endless.
In some expensive cars, they use higher quality metals that are more pure/virgin as opposed to being 5th generation recycled scrap metal. They will also alloy things like nickel or chromium into the better base metals to make them more corrosion-resistant. Brands that clearly use better metals are Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, certain higher end Lexus and Infiniti, and higher end Audis that do not share the platform with a VW model. That’s just based on what I’ve seen over the years. Domestics and economy Asian cars have been having serious problems with structural rust over the past several years.[/quote]
I don’t see a picture or video that I think you were referring to?I just changed a tie rod on my 98 Honda and the metal in the suspension didn’t seem rusted like id imagine for the year only surface rust but appeared very structurally sound and I live in New England so I assumed it had to be of a higher quality metal?
Interesting part is what can you make out of old auto parts.
Blacksmiths will always point at suspension springs as well as leaf springs to horde for quick and easy to find metal stock.
So from making knives to even metal stock for tools, it’s an interesting idea because you can usually find those parts cheap, whether scraping or in a junkyard. Also with leaf springs, some sites will show how to test the steel for cracks while heating the steel.Even one of the most uses for blacksmithing is using the rear drum to make a fire pot for a forge to heat metal.
Here’s a link from: http://www.anvilfire.com/article.php?bodyName=/FAQs/junkyard_steel.htm
http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/jnkstee1.jpgThats because most leaf springs are made from 5160 High Carbon Spring steel. Its a good steel and its one of the easier to harden high carbons. There are many different qualities of 5160 used in automobiles and most of it isn’t as good as 5160 billet made for knifemaking and tool steel purposes. Its just easy to come by. 5160 Leaf springs typically are a little more corrosion resistant because of a higher Chromium content.
Leaf springs have a specific alloy requirement for functionality that requires a quality controlled alloy. Not so with many other suspension parts which are made with Chinese pot metal.
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