Light rust in engine compartment

[kgrove]

I noticed some light rust on some of the frame and body components in the engine bay near the battery, I think a result of something I did when replacing the battery about a year ago. There was a fair amount of corrosion around the battery terminals, so I used a baking soda and water solution to get rid of it.

1) Is it important that I get rid of this rust or is likely just a surface discoloration? If I need to get rid of it, how do I do that? It's basically everywhere underneath the battery that water would run.

2) For future reference, would it have been the baking soda solution that caused this? I wouldn't think of that as a cause for rust. Perhaps it just liquified the acidic material around the battery terminal and cause them to spread through the engine bay?

This is an Arizona truck, so rust is really rare here... no moisture to speak of and they don't salt the roads. I think this area around the battery is the only rust anywhere on the truck.

 

[stonepa]

Battery out gassing can be highly corrosive and battery trays therefore rust prematurely. That doesn't look too bad but you can either replace the tray or coat it with something like POR 15 to stop the corrosion in its tracks.

 

[Sandroad]

Looks like a battery problem of some sort, with corrosion that heavy right under the tray. Is the battery OK? Leaking? Old? Before you treat the rust, I'd figure out what caused that corrosion and crusty white stuff.

 

[kgrove]

Looks like a battery problem of some sort, with corrosion that heavy right under the tray. Is the battery OK? Leaking? Old? Before you treat the rust, I'd figure out what caused that corrosion and crusty white stuff.

The battery I replaced may have been leaking, but the new battery is fine.

Is it worth the effort to remove the battery and use a wire brush to get rid of the rust? And if so I assume coat those areas with some kind of spray paint? Like I mentioned, the environment here is so dry rust is an extremely rare occurrence absent some kind of odd situation. If the acids or chemicals that caused this bit of rust are gone, I would think there would be no more rust build up, though the current rust would continue to annoy me every time I look under the hood. I would like to avoid extra work that does nothing to improve the longevity of the truck... don't want to spend time on OCD work.

 

[Sandroad]

I'd remove the battery and clean up the damage to make sure all the acid is out of there and slow the rust.