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So, it depends.

Are you hoping to use this forever/ indefinitely or for a few years?

Where do you live and is there ongoing exposure to salt?

How much time/ budget do you have

Do you care how it looks, or just want to make sure it doesnt rust through and become unsafe to drive?

The other areas I would check are the radiator support under the front of the vehicle. The frame near the passenger front wheel well/ door - The AC drain is here right on to the frame for some reason and can be a cause of rust. and the rear cross member under the bumper cover. Those will be the most likely spots to rust significantly

You could do nothing and just watch it regularly. If your state has state inspections, someone will have to get under once a year. Otherwise, anytime you have to bring it in, theyll generally do a quick safety check before putting it on a lift

You could try to remove all the flaking/ rusting metal you can. Scrape it, needle it, sand blast it and then use a rust converter and paint it

You could look into professional shops for rust mitigation/ repair

Hi all,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but this seemed like as good a place as any rather than waiting to start a new one.

New member here, I have an 06 4R Sport V6 that's coming up on 180k miles. I've only recently started doing more of my own maintenance on it, and as such am getting under it for a good look for the first time. My concern, probably unsurprisingly, is rust. I've only done a surface-level look so far, and plan on getting under it again this weekend to look more closely. There's definitely a good bit of surface rust, but also a couple of areas that are more concerning to me. Forgive me for any incorrect terminology wrt the 4R and its components, but this is where the front suspension connects to the subframe (pics attached).

I'm interested in feedback on how bad this is and what remediation makes sense. I'm at a point where I need to make a decision on how to move forward given the mileage and other work I know the truck needs in the not-too-distant future (strut replacement being the primary one). I've seen other posts and videos about wire brushing/treating everything under there, but if this is going to require more extensive work, or it's not worth it at all, I'd rather figure it out before getting started on all that. I'm happy to take more pics this weekend but at least wanted to get some initial thoughts.

Thanks!

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That rust is pretty mild. I dont think your frame is gonna rust out anytime soon. You can certainly go ahead and wire wheel, rust convert, but may be a tough area to get it all

good luck

That doesn't look bad, just the coating Toyota applied chipping off. Scrape it off and see how it looks after that. The areas you need to watch are the bottom flat areas of the frame near the bottom of the axle arches, the front tow point areas and the frame behind the bumper cover.

Thanks to both of you, appreciate the clarity there. I hadn't thought about the coating flaking off, but yeah, that does seem likely. I'll get a better idea this weekend of what the trouble areas look like and plan from there. I don't know that we're looking to keep this thing through 300k or anything but I definitely want to head off potential showstoppers before they get to that point.

+1 to wire wheeling and poking with a screwdriver to see how deep it goes. From pics it looks like just surface rust and can easily cleaned up. I used the Eastwood rust converter and chassis paint on mine and it worked great and is holding up fine in NYC after 5 years although I also woolwax every other year.

One tip is also to drop the skid pans in the front, I just did a CV job and found some rust starting there on the arms next to the diff that needed wire wheeling and paint as it gets blasted by water and salt.

Its not a super fun job but highly satisfying and worth taking time over as a good job will last years. I did my whole underbody in 1 weekend when I got the car 5 years ago including the inside of the frame rails with Eastwood internal frame paint and its still looks perfect with some minor touch ups in the spring.

Ok so I did a little further looking this morning, and there were two areas that look like actual concerns. First, as mentioned, was behind the rear bumper. The are two holes on the driver's side corner, and the passenger corner looks a little rough too. There is a good amount of surface rust at least running the length of that section.

Second is right next to the cats. This looks like it's getting a little deep as well.

Thoughts?

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