Colorado Rust

I'll be moving to Colorado later this year and I have concerns about winter and the damaging rust that comes with it.

I'm originally from the Northeast and have seen the havoc winters can do to vehicles there.

Anyone living in CO have major rust problems with their Tacomas? In particular 3rd gens?

What have you done to protect your Taco. Oil undercoating?

Any help is appreciated.

 

Rust problems with 3rd Gens's after 1yr of ownership? Umm.....don't think you have anything to worry about....
Fluid Film or similar product applied once or twice a year is what most guys do including myself.

 

I agree, I live in southeast and the rust is bad here. My truck was an Arizona truck all of its life up until two years ago. I did a fluid film undercoating which took about 3 cans

 

Rust isn't much of an issue in Colorado. Nothing like it is on the east coast or in the midwest. They use mag chloride on the roads, not salt, so as long as you wash your car more than a few times a winter you should have zero issues with rust. I have never had any rust on any of my cars here and spend a ton of time in the mountains driving in bad weather.

 

Fluid film and regular inspections. You will be fine. When I see a spot starting I hit it again.

 

That's great news. I appreciate the feedback guys. I saw what upstate NY did to my buddies Tacoma after a few years, didn't want the same problems. But CO not using salt is a huge plus. Sounds like a couple car washes and a fluid film undercoating will do the trick.

 

The treatments they use on the roads in Colorado don't seem to be as corrosive as the stuff used in the Midwest or the north east.

 

They use salt here in utah, but rust is nowhere near as bad as some of the stuff you see out of the NW.

 

The combination of how dry it is here and the lack of salt keeps the rust pretty well at bay.

 

Rust is not an issue here in colorado

 

had my taco for 3 years no real signs of problems. Not much humidity here being so dry.

 

When the weather is nice you will see a few hotrods rolling around anytime of the year here and none of them worry about rusting out those sweet rides

 

I looked at a Tacoma from Colorado before I bought my turd gen.

I would consider the below pics pretty bad. 2014 with 27k. Dealer inspection said no rust, I asked if they even looked under it, and the sale guy says, "Well, does the rust really affect the vehicles performance." I offered 21k and they wouldn't budge on their 26k list price. It was an SR Access Cab Manual 4x.

I ended up buying a brand new SR for 24.4. If I had to guess, dealer got screwed on it, and are now using it as a bate car.

The whole under body looked like this. Not horrible, but pretty bad for such a new vehicle.

 

^^^that truck may have been for sale in Colorado, but it didn't start life here.
Mine is 20 years old and has no rust, never been treated.
There are more vintage, rust free antique vehicles here than anywhere in the lower 48.

 

Guessing it wasn't originally from Colorado.

 

Magnesium chloride is a salt and has a similar corrosive effect on metal than any other salt (eg sodium chloride)

The benefit of mag chloride is that is far more water soluble. So if you wash your undercarriage regularly in the winter you will have no problems with rust.

 

Not rust but that mag chloride seems to corrode the chrome trim if you don't wash it off soon after.

 

Yay more people

 

I've lived in Colorado for decades. Currently live on a gravel road, and the county puts mag chloride on it frequently. The only issue I've noticed is that mag chloride loves to eat the "chrome" on GM cars. It's really a plastic, not metal. I've owned a 1999 Mazda B4000 pickup since new, and it tolerates mag chloride with no problems. The chrome on the bumpers still shines like new. Our GMC Acadia and Cadillac CTS both have been discolored, despite running them through the car wash frequently. I love our Tacoma Limited, since there is very little "chrome", therefore, little chance of discoloration.