Rusty underbelly

Now that the newness of my truck is wearing off, I decided to take a closer look to see what I missed before purchasing my Tundra. And I found the following. This truck grew up in New York, so I suspect salt, etc. caused this rust. I've got a leaky oil filter cap too. It could be worse, but I have some work to do!

 

That doesn’t look good. I live in NY and mine is nowhere near that bad. It looks like it was submerged. It’s a 2019?

 

I agree, it's hard to believe those pictures are from a 2019.

 

OUCH !

 

Damn thats hard for a 2019, I do know one local to me shop that does dry ice cleaning (rust removal) service, its super super good and if you want to keep the truck for long, I would do something to remove the rust and prevent new rust.

https://leadingedgeautosport.com/

 

Yikes. I'm in MB Canada and we get snow 6 months of the year, I park outside, no garage.

I did nothing the first two winters, now I use Corrosion Free, you can still see it from the last application (stippling effect on sliders/frame).

"It could be worse"? I don't think so, your underside looks awful.

Here's mine, pic just taken.

 

Thats crazy in that short amount of time.

 

Yeah, that’s why I think it was flooded or sat in water for awhile.

 

It looks like a shipwreck pulled from the sea.

Definitely doesn't look like normal wear and tear for a truck that old.

 

The Carfax didn't show anything, natch, but I'm starting to wonder too if it was in water. There's nothing major in the service records I have now, but I think I'm going to take it to the local Toyota dealer to have them take a look at it. Safety check or something like that. Seems like a lot of deep rust for only being a few years old. Echo Park has a 7 day return policy too, so I'm going to check that out as well. The rest of the truck look as I would expect for it's age and miles, but this rust has me concerned. Looks like the truck lived in the Buffalo, NY area previously.

 

I’m in pa, my truck is a 16’ that started its life in nj for the first three years. 56k on my truck. I even take mine out for joy rides in the snow and mine looks brand new compared to this. Wish you luck.

 

Agreed! I've only had the truck for two days, but will look into Fluid Film and the rest if I keep it.

 

I live up in Maine about five miles from the ocean where the Salty McSalt Trucks go by every ten minutes whenever a snowflake makes an appearance.
Neither my 2018 thats seen two winters nor my husband’s 2003 with fifteen winters and no undercoat (washed underneath religiously) look anything even remotely close to that. A disclaimer though I bought mine from KY and WoolWaxed it immediately before it saw any salt.
My guess is that thing was either near/in the ocean or a lease that was NEVER washed because “im going to trade it in anyways so who cares”.
A few days and a wire wheel may get it back to somewhat acceptable shape. If you do hang on to it id say clean/repaint it, PB blast what you can as far as hardware just because, and get undercoating on it stat (or make sure you wash the freakin thing if you dont).

 

I'd strongly recommend to remove the rust as much as possible and reapply some sort of paint/coating before fluidfilm.

 

This is my 2020 Tundra, PA, so similar exposure to salts during winter.


I suspect that yours may had excessive exposure to the ocean (driving on the beach, etc) and un-cared previous owners.

 

“Laaaaserrrrr”

https://youtu.be/ssaNTgwY8zE

 

That's what I'm thinking too. The pisser is that the rest of the truck is in excellent condition.

 

Ouch that does look bad for the year. I live in Northwest Pa and the truck lived in Canada before I purchased it last year. The owner before me had it oil sprayed every year and it does not look like that and it's a 2014. I need to have it done again but the underside looks good compared to yours. I would definitely look into a place that can oil spray it so you can prevent it getting worse. I know people that oil spray all the time and their vehicles stay in great shape with the winters we have and the salt they use on the roads. It is definitely worth it.

 

If you can return i would there're deals.out there.

 

I would find a used Tundra that never left Colorado. No rust going on here. I would have run away fast from that 19. There's some shady used car dealers here. Sucks, but try to return that 19 if you can.

 

My 97 Land Cruiser looks a bit worse but only slightly. Rust sure does suck. I just used Fluid Film on the 2020 Tundra and will do so going forward

 

My 2010 from NY looked like that. I didnt feel like replacing all the brake lines, dust shields, calipers, crimped rubber lines, hose clamps, exhaust pipes and manifolds, and squeaky bushings if I kept it any longer so it got traded.

Man a 2019 looking like that...ooof. I'd try to find a way to get rid of it. In 5 years that thing will be a nightmare.

 

I'll be testing the dealers 7 day return policy tomorrow. It's sad, but I don't have any confidence or trust in this Tundra now.

 

<<runs outside, checks truck>>

 

Best move I think.

SPP

 

Read the terms closely so you can know what you're allowed to claim. I would bet they will do everything to convince you to keep it. I would never buy a three year old truck that looks like that. I just sold my 2000 that didn't look anywhere near that bad. Good luck. And next time, crawl all over the truck before you sign.

 

Maybe an off lease truck used for snow plowing that’s never been washed?

 

Even my 20 year old Tundra doesn't look like that.

 

Even if you could clean all that rust - how would you clean up the rust inside the frame?
You can never get ahead of that. in not too many years you'll have a truck needs a new frame or it'll be a throw-away. I'm sure you spent too much to paint yourself into a corner like that. I'd worry that you'd fail inspection before you finished paying it off.

 

How did the return attempt go?

I went over a pile of 19-21 tundras over the past two months. Some very young trucks (19-20 usually, less than 20k miles) were brutally rusted. I suspect COVID lockdowns had something to do with it, with the trucks getting salted and just sitting unwashed.

Most tragic was a '20 with 14k miles that came down from NY I was excited to go look at.... hose clamps, fasteners, frame, etc were close to looking like yours.

Saw this a lot too. Personal leases usually had the worst maintenance records out of the single owner carfaxes and the most rust. Best were often single owner corporate vehicles...