Rust on 2025 4Runner

[mattsuff]

Rust on the rear axle and on some of the cross members of the frame, and a bit on the driveshaft. 4Runner in the piedmont area of NC (north of Charlotte) for the fall and winter. I personally washed the heck out of the undercarriage of the vehicle 6 times between December and February in addition to some normal trips to an automated car wash with undercarriage spray. The rust is shown in the images below.

I am a bit concerned because I have other vehicles that have been in the same climate for years, one of them being a 2006 corolla that has received far less care in the cleaning department and none of them have any rust underneath.

Should I be washing the undercarriage more frequently than once every week to week and a half?
What would you recommend to do to remedy the situation? I am asking here before I speak to the dealership.

Photos were taken while washing the vehicle so some areas are wet.

Thanks

Thanks

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[Formidable]

Not to sound like a Chauncey but please search. This topic is discussed on a fairly frequent basis. Going to copy and paste what I said to another member here.

Just wire wheel off whatever surface rust you can. Pick up a POR15 Kit on Amazon or your local auto shop, (pep boys, autozone, checkers, etc), which includes metal treatment and rust inhibitor. Make sure you follow the instructions to the tee and pretreat any rust (yes you can POR15 over any rust as long as inhibitor is layered on), or bare metal areas after prepping. Then hit it with the POR15 epoxy. Consider getting the entire undercarriage prepped and sprayed with undercoating, wool wax, fluid film, dinitrol or ceramic coating.

 

[gmarcucio]

How many miles are on the vehicle? I honestly don't think there is much you can do for it at this point. If anything would have possibly helped a little is getting it undecoated before you put many miles on it. The rust you see like in your pictures is not so much the rust you have to worry about it's what you can't see and can't clean up that is going to be the problem down the road. Cleaning and painting what you can see is going to make it look better no doubt but that won't help the areas you can't see and clean up the rust.

 

[Mr. Wolfe]

How many miles are on the vehicle? I honestly don't think there is much you can do for it at this point. If anything would have possibly helped a little is getting it undecoated before you put many miles on it. The rust you see like in your pictures is not so much the rust you have to worry about it's what you can't see and can't clean up that is going to be the problem down the road. Cleaning and painting what you can see is going to make it look better no doubt but that won't help the areas you can't see and clean up the rust.

I totally disagree. This is just surface rust. Wire wheel it and treat it like Formidable typed above. No issues at all.

Mr. Wolfe

 

[gmarcucio]

I totally disagree. This is just surface rust. Wire wheel it and treat it like Formidable typed above. No issues at all.

Mr. Wolfe

I know it's surface rust. What do you disagree with? Do you disagree that it will look better cleaned up and painted? Do you disagree that there is more surface rust in places you can't see and get into to treat and clean up? Do you disagree that he has to worry about places he can't see that has surface rust and can't get at to wire wheel and clean up. My point was why be worried about the surface rust that you can see when you also need to be worried about the surface rust in seams and joints that you can't see. Cleaning up what you can see is not going to help those areas.

 

[Mr. Wolfe]

I know it's surface rust. What do you disagree with? Do you disagree that it will look better cleaned up and painted? Do you disagree that there is more surface rust in places you can't see and get into to treat and clean up? Do you disagree that he has to worry about places he can't see that has surface rust and can't get at to wire wheel and clean up. My point was why be worried about the surface rust that you can see when you also need to be worried about the surface rust in seams and joints that you can't see. Cleaning up what you can see is not going to help those areas.

Maybe I read your post wrong. I thought you made it sound dyer. My point was there is nothing to worry about, especially if you get it taken care of.

 

[127.0.0.1]

fwiw dire

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