This article presents the results of a study on the corrosion characteristics of the single and dual particle reinforced aluminum alloy 6063 based composites. The reinforcements of silicon carbide and zircon sand were utilized to fabricate the composites by stir casting technique. The influence of reinforcement and their weight percentage on the hardness variations was investigated. The electrochemical tests in sodium chloride solution were conducted to study the corrosion performance of reinforced composites and base alloy. From the corrosion analysis, it was observed that the single particle reinforcement offered better solution on enhancing the corrosion resistance of base aluminum alloy in comparison with dual particle reinforced composites. In the single particle reinforced composites, addition of zircon sand exhibited increased corrosion resistance, when compared to silicon carbide reinforced composites. The governing mechanism behind increased corrosion resistance was found to be the absence of galvanic coupling between the elemental compounds and the corrosive media at particle–matrix interface. The scanning electron microscopy of composites was performed to analyze corrosion mechanism and correlated well with the corrosion behavior. © 2016, © IMechE 2016.