So going through my '94 I noticed the automatic transmission pan is really pitted and rusty. Do these pans rust through often? It still seems fairly solid all over but in some spots it's about half the thickness it was originally.

 

I slathered it with some eastwood 2 part rust converter I had left to try to stop the carnage for now.

Wow thats rather scary thought. I haven't seen it happen but here they don't corrode that bad either.

Thanks for the info Shawn. Yes I don't know why this one is so rusty. My other soobs the pan isn't rusting like this. But based on what I see on the underside (and sides!) of this soob, I can tell the previous owner wasn't too picky about going 'over' things. The pan isn't dented but it might have gotten the paint scraped off pretty good.

 

I'm trying to stave off what rust damage I can with various treatments each fall, since, at this rate, rust is going to eat these poor soobs wayyy before they reach the useful end of life.

I've seen a few oil pans get rusted through. The rear axle cover on my buddy's truck rusted through late last summer and dripped 2 quarts of gear oil (nearly all of it anyway) over about 3 miles. We figured something was up when it started whining like a dieing cat. Found a 1/8" hole right at the bottom of the pan and the whole back of the truck was splattered with oil.

Wow yah that would stink losing all the gear oil. Did she blue up the gears real nice? I'm trying to pay attention to this ATF thing because losing all the ATF leaves me stranded. She rusted through one of the trans cooler lines last winter and dumped it out until she wouldn't move. So those got replaced with hose.

 

I put eastwood rust encapsulator over top the treatment tonight. That stuff seals things up pretty good.

I've had to deal with two rusted oil pans, one on my truck and one on my wife's Jeep. Salt doesn't just eat through the body panels and isn't exclusive to domestic vehicles.

 

While Eastwood's encapsulator is a very good product (and rated better on some independent tests over POR-15), if the corrosion ate through the pan completely, I'd replace the pan if it were me. It's often hard to tell if it went through without removing it to visualize the other side. This is something that I'd not feel too good about Mickey Mousing a repair on. I'd coat the replacement to keep this from reoccuring.

Thanks for the info. It didn't eat through the pan completely (yet). I tapped the pan all over and it still feels thick enough to hold. i.e. I didn't punch any holes in it while tapping it. I've had good results with the eastwood rust converter and encapsulator, they do seem very durable. I will, however, have to give the 'thumbs down' to the Ace Hardware black barbeque paint, that stuff didn't make it even a couple months before the engine oil pan was like I didn't do anything to it at all.

 

The other thing is that this is a Subaru reman'd transmission I believe. Maybe there was something different about the pan on it that let the rust eat it up real nice. Maybe they blasted the original finish off it and just painted it during the process.