I was in conversation with one of the people who advertise in a well known Land Rover Magazine concerning the advisability or otherwise of having the Sport treated with wax oil, this gentleman stated that the Sport was very prone to rust where the body work attaches to the chassis. To date I have no evident of rust on my 2007 model, and now enquire from other members if they have knowledge of this situation. One question that I cannot answer is "how much of the Sport is manufactured from galvanised sheet metal in particular the sills"

I don't know about the exterior, but mine's rusting on the inside!!!

I have the premium LR rubber mats with the aluminium corners and they've started to rust for real - The aluminium obviously hasn't, but the pins connecting the rubber to the aluminium have, quite badly. Enough that it has started to stain the carpet.

Another LR design over function

All modern Land Rovers come with 10 years anti corrosion warranty in the UK and the inspections are supposed to carried out during services. I know the company you mean - it's in Newbury - however I have heard mixed opinions about how effective their service is and one year they got a huge amount of bad publicity at one of the lR shows. I think that unless you are going to keep your RRS for a VERY long time then it isn't worth it. It is also best done on a newish car (months old as opposed to years!) Also one of the main causes of needing to inject waxoyl into Defenders is that they have aluminium bodies and LR have never seen fit to insert neoprene washers into the points where the steel chassis and steel parts like hinges come into contact with the aluminium body so you get the steel becoming sacrificial in the electrolysis cell that forms. Waxoyl works best on box sections too where you cannot get in to clean them - a failing of the Defender chassis too. The current generation of modern Land Rovers don'r have aluminium bodies - they have zinc treated (but not galvanised) sheet steel for their bodies so the problem of chassis corrosion is greatly reduced in the newer cars. Even the newer Puma Defender2's don't get decent treatment and I have seen 2 this weekend that have quite severe chassis corrosion at 2 years old....... my own 90 's chassis survived until it was 11 years old before I had to replace it with a nice shiny galvanised chassis. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on Mon Feb 01 2010 8:11am. Edited 1 time in total

To Tim of Scotland, thank you for taking the trouble to write such a detailed report, concerning the possibility of rust on the Sport. The Sills appear a possible weak link, any comment? I must clarify that the gentleman I spoke to was not the Newbury man.
I was in your glorious Scotland during December past and, I complement your authorities on the manner in which they kept the roads open, a thumbs up to the Road Gritters.