Aggravation: Free of charge

[Mark B]

Anti-Rust Mechanism?
I would like to know what this guy is talking about.
I have never heard of this in the VX. In fact, I have never heard of this in any vehicle.

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah, once you figure out what is going on, I would totally throw down for an Optima Red Top. These batteries are very good, long lasting and well worth the money, plus they are a lot smaller than conventional batteries, which keeps things looking good under the hood.

Hey, that rhymes!

Bart

[Boogieman]

Anti-Rust Mechanism?
I would like to know what this guy is talking about.
I have never heard of this in the VX. In fact, I have never heard of this in any vehicle.

Well, I found out what it is... sort of. There's two boxes, one mounted on the firewall on the left side, and the other on the right side fender well (inside the engine compartment). I couldn't get a decent picture with my camera phone. The main one is on the firewall- a red positive wired directly to the battery, a negative ground and a white wire connecting the other box mounted on the fender well across the engine bay. Definitely an anti-corrosion device, though there's no ISUZU markings or logos, so I would also say it's an aftermarket unit. Which doesn't surprise me- the previous owner loaded this thing up.)

Haven't jumped the VX yet to get it running again, but hopefully disconnecting this unit will fix the issue.

Read some interesting articles on these units yesterday. one went as far as to say that, because of the inherent fact that a CAR sits on RUBBER, these devices by their very electronic nature CANNOT work- there's no ground. Hmm.. Snake oil anyone??

Thanks for the help-
Keith

[claylong]

Ok. Let's think about this:

Rust is a chemical reaction between iron and oxygen. Corrosion is similar. They both result in loss of mass (after the metal gets transformed and flakes/breaks away).

Electroplating is the process of using electrical current to coat an electrically conductive object with a relatively thin layer of metal. (wikipedia)

I guess you COULD use the electroplating process to make sure that the frame (presumably what is being protected) collects material instead of losing it, however that would require a return path for the current. And because, as you mentioned, the car is on rubber, there would be no such path.

So my initial impression of this "rust prevention" device is that it is bogus.

Anyone have any experience or research to the contrary?

UPDATE: News article on the topic

UPDATE: Forum post (note the username of the guy that has the "device")

UPDATE: Seems that most pages I find are based out of Australia and New Zealand. Counteract Products

[Boogieman]

Well, I got it started w/ a jump and let it idle for a half hour. Then drove it around the block a few times, back to the house and shut it off. This morning it's dead again. No lights, nothing. So, it's back to the shop tomorrow morning for another check, probably a(nother) new battery... frustrating. But since the alternator checked fine the last time, it's either gotta be a bad battery or something that's not turning off and draining it.

Maybe the factory VehiCross "keeps turning heads after all these years device" is not turning off...

Keith

[Dino]

Check out this tip I posted:

http://vehicross.info/forums/showthread.php?t=11247

Good luck!