Ok guys so here's what I'm thinking... I've seen a lot of bonnevilles in junk yards all with the same rust spots that are actually kind of hidden. I'm thinking of posting images and descriptions on where and why they are starting

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

Main one seems to be gas door. I'm sure there are more. There was another posted more recently, up front by the strut towers.

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-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 247k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 98k miles

Yea there's one up under the splash shields in the front. Another one is where the engine cradle meets the the unibody. Another one is under the plastic rocker panel covers.... Specifically under where the road rash is under the rear doors. So.... There's a lot of hidden spots

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

I think that it would be a great resource.

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*Gone, but not forgotten* - Black 2000 SSEi, HIR Headlights, Angel Eyes fogs, 3rd brake light overlay, hi-flo cat, 180 degree thermostat, HS 1.9 rockers, LSx yellow springs, Intense FWI, PCM, shift kit, push rods, and 3.4 Pulley. ZZP Power Log.

Cool I'll take a crud ton of pictures and what not of the places I've found rotten to check

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

Sounds great, and like a lot of work.

If you haven't already planned it, include the rear wheel well area, trunk holes/leaks, and spring mounts.

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*Gone, but not forgotten* - Black 2000 SSEi, HIR Headlights, Angel Eyes fogs, 3rd brake light overlay, hi-flo cat, 180 degree thermostat, HS 1.9 rockers, LSx yellow springs, Intense FWI, PCM, shift kit, push rods, and 3.4 Pulley. ZZP Power Log.

That would make for a great forum resource.

Kudos to you!

Oh yea definately those places too... I've also found out that where the filler neck goes to the tank under that plastic cover rots out bad too.

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

My dog bones are rusted. One is gone the other is bubbling

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1989 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350
2004 Saturn Ion 3 Quad Coupe

just to make sure im not looseing my mind (which is entirely possible) where are those at? I keep thinking those are the engine mounts. unless your speaking about the dog legs which are the panels between the rear doors and the rear wheel which will be covered also.

just waiting for the snow to clear before I can take some pictures!

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

and its picture and description time!

1st is my most favorite! (not really...) This particular rust spot is a big issue, its where the engine cradle meets the body of the car and causes terrible structural loss. Not sure if theres any true way to prevent this besides a good undercoating

and another


2nd is the one ever bonnie owner knows and dreads.... gas door rust.... Now with this one dealers and collision shops like to be able to hide this from consumers but us Bonneville owners know this is almost inevitable. As you can see here ive been loading it with paint knowing it wont help. Fix? well theres a nice post on the forum here on how to prevent this. Link here: exterior/topic43523.html


3rd is another common one for northerners. Rust under the front splash shields. Now when you go looking at a car you cant exactly take it apart and mechanics wont really look here either but good places to look that signal severity is rust 'bleeding' from these spots or a hole here. these two spots are where the strut tower meeting the sides of the frame. Basicly where the over flow bottle is. Look closely between the bottle and the side of the car and on the opposite side. This may have been a design flaw but what needs to be done is heavy rubber coating and the splash shield hole welded up.

and the opposite


4th is actually very well hidden thanks to GM. You know those wonderful plastic rocker panel covers? Yea they hold lots of hidden rust. But! theres a way to see (or feel I should say) where this rust begins. If you look where our wonderful road rash is on the rear doors theres a hole in the plastic covering that is a decently sized hand. All you need to do here is feel and you may feel a hole, which is not good. This may be prevented by the use of splash guards and undercoating.

Second picture shows the severity of it. Now as you can see this is pretty bad to show up here. You see this? you might not want to bother... you will have issues in at least 2 years.

And another supporter of this even though theres no hole nearby the rust is above the rocker... not good. Yes I know its difficult to see but its there!

And since we are here look at this area just in case theres a chunk of metal missing from here


5th is one that's easy to skim over because I know I sure did. This ones due to the wonderful rug crap they use inside the fenders. These rugs of course hold water when it rains. Water + Metal (painted or not)= Rust. Prevention? well to be honest make sure that theres good corrosion protectant behind it or just replace it.


6th is one that seriously sucks if left untouched. The only time you will be able to tell how severe it is, is when you are in the process of replacing the rear shocks. Now with this one you can sort of tell if its starting to rust is if you see and red dust around them when they are fully installed. Now... if you see the red dust it doesn't mean its severe luckily. With this one just cover it in rust prevention and truck bedliner. Prevention? don't think there really is one but just make sure you have a good covering of paint on it.


Now since we are in the same area we might as well cover the 7th area. 7th is a little strange to me but its good to look for. Inspect around the rear shock tower and verify there is no bubbleing or rust bleeding. This can signal that rust is appearing behind that wonderful rubber crap in the wheel wells. You wont be able to see the rust from inside the wheel well but the trunk is a good indicator to check. Prevention? don't drive it in the mud? to be honest I have no clue.


8th might be tied to the gas door rust but is still a good place to look with a phone or light either way. This is an area waaay deep into the quarter panel. Prevention? same as gas door rust.


9th is a little difficult if you always keep your car nice and clean. This particular spot is a good spot to check if theres rust INSIDE the door. Just look at the rubbers going into the door next to the windows. If you see rust dust here there might be something internal going on. Best way to keep this away is make sure your car regularly is washed!
terrible picture I know but the reflection kept getting in the way but it gets the point across.


And now to really look under the hood. As always with aluminum hoods we get hood herpies. My hoods just lost all sorts of paint underneath. A good indicator of this starting is bubbling paint and a powdery white residue. I have no clue if this is preventable or not


Another few spots to check is on the frame itself. Now this spot in general is quite easy to see but can be overlooked. Its under the AC (thingy?) I don't know what this is called. But it is near a ground point so you definitely want this clean and free of rust. And prevention is just keep your car cleaned! the most simple thing no one does.

Another frame spot is to check where your air box is behind the headlight. This one is actually hard to see unless your looking.

and around the air intake. this one kinda makes no sense to be rusty but that's just me.


Another place that's easy to check is under the door seals on the door itself. This is a common GM fault especially on the impalas. Mines not terrible luckily.


When you are looking at the underside make sure to look at this piece in the back under the trunk. Its visible under the car and I don't know if it serves any purpose besides possible air flow. This piece is subjected to a lot of abuse and can start rust in the spare tire well. Make sure its intact. Prevention would probably be truck bedding painted here. Terrible picture I know.


And even though I don't have rust here the paint is peeling and will probably start within the next year. Check the roof gutters. Not sure about a bonnie with a sun roof but I imagine it to be the same.


Theres other places to check like where the hood hinge where the cabin air filter is and others, I will update more as I get more!

also my car is not normally this dirty.... its just finally salt season

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

Sorry, Dog legs. Dang it musta had a brain fart myself.

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1989 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350
2004 Saturn Ion 3 Quad Coupe

haha we all get those, some more than others so I think we can let that slide lol

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

Bump it we can get a moderator to post to tech help

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

This is going to be a great resource. I plan to do a lot of rust repair on my Bonneville this summer, and this will give me a nice checklist. I just spotted the rear rocker panel rust last week on my driver's side, and that's going to be my first project in the spring.

Luckily, my underside is still mostly clean. It just seems to be all these little nasty hiding spots.

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- Greg | -- Project Prasinos -- |

1995 LeSabre Custom: 312K Miles | Custom K&N CAI | Edelbrock SDT Muffler | Camaro Tips | 180 T-stat | LED Interior
& Exterior | 20% Tint | PA Grill & Portholes | Limited Trim | GTP Rims | Ported LIM | Plus Many More Mods | Restoration Thread
2001 Bonneville SSEi: 225K Miles | Instense FWI | Intense MPS (3.4") | 180 T-stat | ZZP Plog | Ported Rear Manifold |
ZZP 3" Downpipe | Magnaflow Cat | Retrofitted HIDs | GenV M90 | GXP Brake Upgrade | 35% Tint | Plus Many More Mods |
2005 Bonneville GXP: 101K Miles | Custom FWI
2009 G8 GT: 89K Miles | 35% Tint | Roto-Fab CAI | SOLO Mach Exhaust | BMR Tunnel Brace | BMR Sub Frames | BMR STB |
Kooks Headers | QTP Electric Cutouts | BMR Sway Bars | Elite Engineering Catch Can | Innovative Dual Wideband Kit
1984 Caprice Classic Wagon: 86K Miles | Restoration Project

Yea I wish I knew these spots before other wise I proudly would a gotten a few grand off

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

Thanks for referring me to look at this thread. I do have a lot of the similar areas starting to rust, the worst being the rockers. I think one side of the engine cradle support is gone already as well. NY winters can be very harsh on these cars.

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1995 Jeep Cherokee Country- 200,XXX miles and running strong. 4.0L paired with a 5 speed manual. 4.5" long arm lift with 32" tires and regeared to make up for power. Best of all, shes a fire engine red!

2000 Bonneville SSEi- 145,XXX miles, bonestock for the time (don't hold your breath, it might be a long while)

Typos courtesy of LG Optimus G- yes, I do most of my trolling with my phone. Don't judge me.

NY winters most definately do suck.... Especially since I live in Rochester and we have our own salt mine.....

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still

So another spot you will want to add to this list if the hole in the body where the gas tank filler hoses pass through. Since there is a plastic cover that only clips to the hole in that area, it doesn't really seal it off very well. Considering the fact that it's in the wheel well, a lot of debris can get behind that, collect and eat away at the body and frame of the car over the years. I probably sucked out at least five pounds of material from this spot and have a larger hole in the body than what should have been there originally. I can provide a photo to show how bad it can get if it's not cleaned out properly.

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1995 Jeep Cherokee Country- 200,XXX miles and running strong. 4.0L paired with a 5 speed manual. 4.5" long arm lift with 32" tires and regeared to make up for power. Best of all, shes a fire engine red!

2000 Bonneville SSEi- 145,XXX miles, bonestock for the time (don't hold your breath, it might be a long while)

Typos courtesy of LG Optimus G- yes, I do most of my trolling with my phone. Don't judge me.

Ouch mines in the same boat but I can't get a good picture. I cleaned mine once when I had to do the brake lines but probably needs to be done again so I can toss some metal in there

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2003 pontiac bonneville Sle with kenwood sound system. Upgraded tweeters, door speakers, deck speakers, kenwood sub and amp. Rage r20 18inch rims. Front and rear KYB shocks and struts. GXP Strut tower brace.. She's a work in progress still