Rust in Engine Bay

[DangItsDen]

Personally, if I caught it at a pre-purchase inspection, (yes, that is correct, I hope to inspect and video everything prior to writing the check), I would complain. As others alluded to, it's a sign of cost cutting, poor quality or both. I too would be unhappy. However, what is a dealer or Toyotas going to do? Allocate a new truck? Reduce the MSRP? I doubt it.

I'd clean the rust off and paint with some high temp quality paint.

I wonder what else is rusty underneath. I have two other vehicles, one 20 years old and one 11 years old. No rust showing anywhere in the engine bay.

Keep us al informed what action your dealer or Toyota take. Sorry you have to deal with this crap on what should be a happy new car time.

The warranty should cover rust especially a few weeks after purchase... The sales person I worked with told me to bring it in as its likely a warranty issue. I am not going to be sanding and painting any of this my self. Taking it in tomorrow to see what they say. We have lemon laws in Texas, although I don't know the details, but if this isn't an easy fix for them, I guess I will find out.

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[ryno]

its just surface rust from where they machined the ends of your castings, mine is doing the same. it will never hurt anything. if you zoom in you can see a few spots, but the pic is showing the cool upgraded Redline Tuning quick lift strut set up Toyota should have installed to being with !

 

[DangItsDen]

its just surface rust from where they machined the ends of your castings, mine is doing the same. it will never hurt anything. if you zoom in you can see a few spots, but the pic is showing the cool upgraded Redline Tuning quick lift strut set up Toyota should have installed to being with !

That's what a few of my car-centric friends have told me too. Any exposed steel is going to do this, so the fact that they didn't coat it means they knew it was going to do it. Like others have mentioned, I mostly just want to take it in and have them acknowledge it so there's a paper trail. After reading the factory warranty again, it covers rust/rust-through for 6 years/unlimited miles so that would be silly for them to cut that corner financially. Don't love the way it looks though, so if it is even just cosmetic, I may clean and coat it myself later.

 

[4runnerHI]

I live in Hawaii, contacted the Toyota dealer I purchased it from. The dealer’s response on the last picture. Said, it’s cast iron and they can change the part, but it’s gonna be exactly the same with no coat on exposed surfaces, which won’t fix the problem. Looks like this one is gonna be a waiting game for some time.

 

[Andrew's Grocery Getter]

I live in Hawaii, contacted the Toyota dealer I purchased it from. The dealer’s response on the last picture. Said, it’s cast iron and they can change the part, but it’s gonna be exactly the same with no coat on exposed surfaces, which won’t fix the problem. Looks like this one is gonna be a waiting game for some time.

I just noticed this on mine aswell, should I remove what I can and put some fluid film over it?

 

[4runnerHI]

Ideally, it needs to be disassembled, cleaned the surface rust and painted, which will prevent from happening again. Unfortunately, Toyota dealer said they can’t do that. So I left it as is at this point. But you definitely can do that yourself.

 

[Lamuncha]

Good chance- no excellent chance - the dealer fix (if they do it) will not meet with your inspection.
That rust is BS in any new vehicle.
Get a bunch of those small steel or aluminum brushes at the box store and clean it well.
Get a small can of black rust o leum and few small brushes , paint it on. Might even paint on some primer.
That stuff is magic and imo holds onnfor a long time.

 

[Andrew's Grocery Getter]

Ideally, it needs to be disassembled, cleaned the surface rust and painted, which will prevent from happening again. Unfortunately, Toyota dealer said they can’t do that. So I left it as is at this point. But you definitely can do that yourself.

Damn, that sucks. I'm pretty new to a lot of car maintinance myself but i'm still confused by many people saying this is no big deal and to pretty much ignore it. Are you guys saying that this will never go deeper and weaken the metal over time?

I think i'll do the fluid film as a short term fix then look into painting it myself. How bad would it be to do some "Landlord Painting" over those spots? lol

 

[Nodak]

in the grand scheme of things, there is a lot more places with surface rust that you cant see that you are not worried about.

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