Rusty Air Filter Nuts
 

This is an embarrasing one, but better just 'fess up I guess.

My 88 300E started it's life in upstate NY where it got a a salt bath every winter. A short while back, I lived literally on a beach for a year and the car begin rusting quite severely. My work situation was such that I barely drove the car (it has ~167K miles on it now) so maintenance was.. how you say.. deferred? Yes, I changed the oil but I didn't do an air filter change.

I changed the oil the other day and was getting ready to swap air filters when I noticed that the bolts had rusted. They're looking pretty gnarly/corroded too. I didn't have any rust penetrating stuff on hand, so I tried a little teflon bike lube and let it sit overnight. As you probably guessed, the teflon lube didn't do much.

So now I'm wondering what my options are. I'm trying to keep this as DIY/cost effective as possible. The car's running fine but I'd like to get a new filter in there.

Pics are below. Any thoughts? :confused:

http://static.flickr.com/101/2742177...271a5e.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/115/2742177...4cdfb0.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/86/27421774...8681ea.jpg?v=0
http://static.flickr.com/87/27421774...daa1d6.jpg?v=0

i recommend you get some pb blaster. soak them good for a few days. now these are which bolts? are they the ones that are integral to the rubber mounts? if so you can just buy new ones and drill them out if the pb doesnt work. or are they the ones that hold the air filter top on?

if they are the top ones i dont know how hard they will be to replace if you have to drill them out.

tom w

The big concern is the base of the air filter. The "bolt" part of this is a square head that goes up through the air filter base, which is plastic. If you aren't careful the square heads will rotate and make holes in the square section of the base, which will allow unfiltered air to get in to the air intake horn.
Gilly

Top of Air Filter
 

Thanks for your replies. These are the nuts that hold the top of the air filter on (in addition to the little metal clamps). I started to turn one and the bolt started to turn with it, so I stopped. They're frozen up pretty good.

:(

If you have access to something that would cut down across the nut without cutting in to the metal lid that's what I'd try. You could also try drilling in the center of the square head of the bolt.
Gilly

Opie, try a small cutting wheel on the nuts/studs. You may end up having to get a new air filter housing from a salvage yard. What does the rest of the car look like? I've never seen such rust under the hood of a car.

Looks like alot of cars in WI, although admittedly the type which have been "riden hard and put away wet", or someone parks it in their tractor shed next to the manure spreader. Seen cars that look just like this quite a bit. Just shows you to not believe all the whining you hear from farmers, lots of them make enough to be able to afford Mercedes, and then treat them like manure spreaders............
Gilly

Picture
 

Here's a partial shot from a camping trip I took this Spring. As usual, you can't really see assess the condition of the car from photographs. The rusting seems to have stopped since I moved to Colorado

http://static.flickr.com/45/14167437...7bf4f7.jpg?v=0

Here's one of the air filter without the recrop.

http://static.flickr.com/97/275485592_9492f1ac45_o.jpg