RUST! Third gen taco

2018 taco, 50k miles. Truck overall is in very good condition until you look under. How bad does this look- should I consider trading in? Paint also has those light orange rust spots down below. Washed at least 2x per week in winter. Have seen trucks twice as old with 2x as many miles that look better, so not sure what to do.

 

Part it out

 

What environment do you live in?

 

1: sand
2: paint
3:???
4:cosmoline
5: profit

 

This is in MA with lots of driving to ski areas. I don’t mind the rust as I know it’s inevitable, but am concerned it will get much worse and obviously don’t want a failure down the road. I have several more years of payments to make on the truck, and am concerned it’s this bad already

 

Looks like me 07 that lives on the west coast. Spray wool wax on it each fall and you’ll be fine

 

^^^@skydvrr

 

Seems really bad for an 18.

 

That's pretty typical depending on where you live. The environment takes a toll for sure. That's more rust than my 2004 Doublecab...

If you live in the cold weather areas where they salt the roads or on the coast, your truck will get eaten alive unless you start taking some serious preventative measures. That mostly looks like superficial surface rust. Nothing to worry about (yet). But the sooner you treat it, remove it, and prevent it from coming back, the better.


Whatever you do, a couple things to keep in mind:
1) The inside of the boxed frame is more than likely worse than what you see on the outside. That is where road salts and dirt don't get washed off very easily.
2) Don't use paint or bedliner (a single chip/crack will allow the brine inside where it doesn't belong), you want one of the products that stays "wet" (POR-15 is a popular one)
3) cleaning/treating the INSIDE of your frame is a PITA and requires at least annual if not seasonal maintenance, but a necessary evil of living on those cold weather regions

There are several commercial products out there, but in the end, a clean and dry frame won't rust. The more you can do to keep it that way, the better. People like to blame Toyota for this since it's an "issue" that's bee around since at least the 1st gens, however you'll find rust buckets of EVERY brand in those regions. It's a region problem, not a Toyota problem.

 

Where do you live?

 

Pretty typical for a toyota vehicle that old if it wasn't rust proofed. I live on the border of ma. and ny. Knowing the past history of toyota's i've had, i made sure i cosmolined my 2020 sr5 soon after i got it. To this date not a hint of rust anywhere. Icy, slushy wet roads with no shortage of salt can be bad here. I tow a snowmobile to mount greylock fairly often in the winter.
I'd wired brush the surface rust aways best as possible, and apply some rustolem rust converter. You can the paint those areas over in chassis black. Then shoot the chassis with cosmoline rp-342 once all is dry. That should put an end to any future rust.

 

Doesn't look too bad...especially if you've never undercoated.

 

Thanks for the tips guys, anyone know how to get those little orange spots off the paint as well?

 

It would be helpful to know where you live. My 2020 with half the mileage looks worse underneath and its undercoated. Par for the course considering where I live. Hit the rust spots with rust converter and have it undercoated.

 

Spray some Rustoleom rust Reformer on all the rust. Even the nuts and bolts. Let it dry. Then hit it with Cosmoline or that new stuff by PB blaster which smells and looks a little like Fluid film but it seems to stay in place a little better.

 

Get a couple cans of Fluid Film and spray on the rust as soon as you can. And if it doesn't get worse, you should be fine. Spray the complete underside, doors, and fenders with woolswax in the fall. This should slow it down.

 

IronX

 

This is a Massachusetts taco for anyone wondering

 

Is this your first new automobile?

 

Im waiting to see photos of horrible rust.

Rust proof it end of the summer, then it wont get worse. But hardly anything to be worried about.