How to protect the underbody of a Suzuki Jimny

We live less than a mile from the North East Coast in the UK. It’s often pissing down, cold and wet. I made the mistake of not taking extra precautions to protect the Jimny from rust when I first bought it. This was actually a direct recommendation from the dealership I bought the car. Additionally I rang Suzuki UK who informed me that the corrosion warranty would be invalid if I were to get Waxoyl or Dinitrol applied.

While it’s not rusting to pieces, it was only a matter of months before a lot of surface rust started to appear. I’ve inspected the chassis as best I can and not found any issues but there are places that are a cause for concern.

Reaching out on Instagram there was a few options people recommended but I decided to go for a cheaper DIY kit. With covid shutdowns, cost of getting it done professionally and the time the car would need to be off the road, I thought this was a more sensible approach.

To reiterate, the Jimny doesn’t look to be suffering from any major rusting as of writing this blog, in month 20 of owning the car.

Why Lanoguard?

I don’t know these guys and there is no any affiliation in place. I ordered the kit from the website after seeing a few YouTube videos then a bunch of Instagram ads kept stalking me. They’re also a local business here in the UK and if I can buy local I always will.

UPDATE: JimnyStyle sell the kits too.

Other than the attractive low cost of £71.94 to my door, the fact that I can quickly apply it myself with little fuss and mess appealed to me. I don’t have the room to work on the car in any major fashion other than lying down in the street. Therefore speed and ease of application was essential.

The shopping experience was simple and fast. I ordered it on a Wednesday and received the parcel the next day. Brilliant.

They also sent a helpful email to give me tips on applying the product during colder winter months. Basically you need to try and keep the bottle warm so it remains thin enough to spray effectively.

Applying Lanoguard

It’s a straight forward process. Jet wash the areas you want to apply it too, dry it off and optionally remove any surface rust (apparently you don’t have to do this though).

The prep took longer than the time to spray the protection on. So this part of the process certainly lived up to its promise. What didn’t live up to expectations was the spray applicator. I couldn’t get that thing to work for more than a 30 seconds at a time, constantly pumping the nozzle trying to drive the fluid through the plastic pipe. It just didn’t work.

In the end I kept the main bottle in a hot bucket of water (outside temperature was 6 degrees celsius) and poured 400ml into a handheld spray bottle that I was using for wetting my leather work when dying it. They’re super cheap to replace so no harm done.

I watched a guy on YouTube applying it without wearing a mask and eye protection, I wouldn’t recommend this. At least in my experience you’re going to breathe it in and it will 100% get in your eyes. Wear latex gloves also.

Before Treatment

Here’s pictures before I applied the treatment.

After Treatment

Here’s pictures afterwards. Note, it’s still wet and won’t dry as shiny as shown in the pictures below.

Final thoughts

I’ve never had a vehicle with Waxoyl or Dinitrol protection so I’ve nothing to compare the product too. All I can say is, if it helps to reduce rusting as an extra precautionary measure it was worth the time and money. I’ve still enough left to treat the Jimny at least 2 more times and they recommend treatment twice per year.

So to round up, other than the applicator being crap the job took me less than 30 minutes. Much of that time was closely inspecting the Jimny and deciding which parts needed some extra love and care prior to applying the Lanoguard. It’ll work out £24 per treatment on the little Jimny off roader and that can’t be bad.

Let’s hope it does a good job the reviews certainly support this.

Cheers and hope this laymans review of Lanuguard protection for your Jimny helps 🙂

UPDATE: I got lazy and didn’t to the 6 month top up. I’ll not lie, I regret it as the Jimny needs some TLC before I treat it again. I think it held up well but the lack maintenance is my fault!