POS front wheel well carpet liners are salt traps!

Anyone else who lives in a snowy climate where they use salt on the roads - what was Toyota thinking when they used carpet to line the front fenders, instead of the usual plastic. Went to wash my 2023 yesterday as it was caked in frozen road slush and salt spray. It is next to impossible to clean the POS carpet wheel well front liners. You can hold the powerwasher on the carpet for five minutes and you're still blasting dirt and salt out of it. The absorbent carpet acts like a sponge to hold in the road salt. I gave up after blasting it for about 8 minutes straight. Just imagine how this is going to rot the body panel metal where the carpet touches anything in the well !

Also noticed that the side window seals allow salt road spray to enter your door panels. The rubber seals on all my windows are terrible. The back ones leave a 2mm open hole into the door at the rubber seal union. Salt impregnation is not going to be good for the doors, even though I had them Crown sprayed. Had Toyota look at the POS window seals and they said that was "normal". WTF?

 

Another rant post. You don’t have to have that truck, you can drive whatever you want. So unhappy

 

Get some proper after market Mats instead of the carpet ones. Never used the carpet ones for a second.

 

Oh crap. Misread haha.

 

Buy some Salt Away and treat them with that. It'll neutralize it better than water.

 

It helps with road noise, that is why they did it.

 

OMg you’re a funny man! They did this for road noise, yet they allowed the truck to

proceed to production with totally defective window seals and severe aerodynamic problems with the side mirror profile. The road noise on this truck is absolutely horrendous! The wind tunnel tester who signed off on this needs to be taken out behind a hog barn for a long discussion with a hickory axe or maul handle!

 

Hey, I understand your frustration but no here can make it better for you.

it's a truck. It's meant to get dirty and get abused to a certain extent. I didn't expect a whisper quiet or super smooth ride. I also did not select this truck because of it's wheel well liner material.

If you are afraid of salt, then maybe move somewhere where they don't use it on the roads. Life is too short to be concerned about such things. Take a walk in the Oncology ward of your local hospital, there are real problems there. God Bless.

 

We still haven't designed the perfect truck. I bought mine to get dirty. It all washes off.
If it breaks, fix it, if it can be reworked or improved, modify it.

My 23 window seals are fine. Little to no wind noise. But then again, it's a brick we are pushing through the air and not an F22 fighter.

https://www.google.com/search?q=tod...ate=ive&vld=cid:67c44912,vid:P7Tcggo45TQ,st:0

 

If you open your hood and look at the weather seals that run along top of your front fenders, pull them up and off. The back side of this will be covered in dry salt. I had mine off for other reasons recently and noticed this. Good access to rust proof spray the back side of the front fenders while you’re there. The carpet doesn’t stop it all from making its way through. The good thing is there’s no real inner fender metal structure to rust.

 

My 2015 Camry has the carpet lined wheel wells. They have been fine for the last nine years and we have snow six months of the year. Your Tundra will be just fine.

 

What is behind the carpet mats in the wheel wells? If it’s a material unaffected by salt or corrosion who cares if the carpet liners get caked in salt.

 

Spray them with a nice thick coat of Flex Seal?

 

I get ya buddy! You know when pay a boatload of money on this truck you want it to last too. Nothing wrong with a rust proof spray.
I'm not a fan of the fabric wheel liners either. If you ever drove through road paint or some other oil based paint that is designed to never come off.... ugh

I've had this happen to a tacoma and had to use a power washer (wide spray) to really get in there to get it out. Plastic wheel liners.
I'm not that crazy about cleaning it but I got tired of going in there (brakes etc) and looking at 80's splatter mess painting.
Couldnt imagine this scenario with fabric wheel liners.

My son has my old truck and with good protective spray still looks great and the frame has zero rust.

 

I live in NE and we are known for salted roads which = rusted frames and in some cases the dreaded "wheel wells" & the beach doesn't help much either.
Conveniently the Stealership offered a Waxoil treatment which is basically complete under carriage spray on film,they put the truck on a lift and spay everything but the driveshaft and exhaust and it sits for a day before they give you back the keys.Then ask you to bring it back after 1 year for a touch up.

Just like everything eles in this world, only time will tell if it's good or not.

 

The exterior wheel wells are carpet lined? That's a new one for me.

Makes sense though for a luxury vehicle noise abatement feature though. As far as it causing problems later and the trucks not lasting as long - that's not something that enters the mind of most manufacturers these days.