Body Rust Caused By Leaking Water Pump?

I went to do the water pump today which has been slowly leaking for two years. In that time I have driven only about 10,000 miles as I have another vehicle. I discovered a large amount of dangerous rust in the section the control arm is bolted to. There is no visible rust on the other side of the car. I find it hard to believe that two years of coolant leakage could have caused this, but I guess it did. The leak has only been bad for about five months and during that time I have used distilled water about half of the time.

My car is a 1995 LSI with the four cylinder engine, automatic transmission and 120,000 miles. I live in South Florida so I thought rust would be less of a problem.

Now I am going to squirt 50 wt oil on that section once a month after I get finished with the water pump.

f100.

That's the standard place where all these cars rust, I doubt the water pump had anything to do with it. Take your back seat and interior trim panel out, $20 says your rear wheelwells are rusted badly too.

Thanks for the feedback Woodie. On the same (passenger) side of the car there is some rust a few feet back on a "frame rail". The other side of the car has no visible rust. I just noticed that the drain hose from the evaporator discharges above and just on the edge of the rusted out section. This seems likely to cause rusting, too. I'm going to extend it.

f100.

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