rob said:
Hello Insight lovers,
Has anyone removed the cover on the rims, and found rust on the side walls around the center (bolt?)? Probably no big deal, but just in case. I have a 2000 MT.
I know that things are often challenging to describe, but I can't understand what you are talking about. Please offer more context.
Until I get more context, I'm making some wild guesses here. I'll guess that "the cover on the rims" might be the fender skirts. It's a wild guess because usually when someone says, "the cover on the rims", I think "hubcaps", since the rim is the wheel and the cover is the hubcap, but Insights don't have hubcaps. They have custom mag wheels. This is an aluminum/magnesium alloy, so there's no rust. So, back to guessing, are you talking about the fender skirts? These are the plastic pieces covering the rear wheel wells. Most cars built since the 1950s don't have fender skirts.
I'm guessing that the side walls are the body parts around the wheel well. Normally, when someone says "sidewall", I think the white stripe on the tire, but in this case, I can't make the sidewalls have anything to do with the rest of the description.
I'm guessing that "around the center (bolt?)" means around one of the spring clips or screw-fasteners that hold the fender skirts in place. I'm guessing this because the Insight has body panels made of either plastic or aluminum, and neither of these rust. The spring clips are ferrous, as were the original screw fasteners, though newer ones seem to be made of carbon fiber. These new ones cost about $15 each, but they don't rust. The old ones did.
At any rate, if I'm guessing right on all these counts, the rust is from these little spring clips or screw fasteners. They are sturdy enough to take a good bit of rust before they rust through, and the rust won't hurt the body panel because the body panel doesn't rust. It's just cosmetic, and doesn't show unless you take the fender skirt off.
I don't recommend driving with the fender skirt off. It costs you slight gas mileage at highway speeds, and it is butt ugly.
I've had to do it, myself, having lost two of those $15 fender skirt attachment screws, but I've gotten better at not losing them and don't intend to lose another one.
Anyway, let me know if I guessed right.