Our "new to us" 2012 SR5 has a wee bit of rust on it's underside having spent it's time in New Jersey, despite only 46k miles.
Now it's here in sunny Florida, so no more heavy doses of road salt.
I'm thinking two or three good pressure washings with dawn to get any residual road salts out as well as old grease, oil & whatnot, let it dry well, a light wire brushing on anything that looks flaky, poke/probe anything that looks really nasty, followed by some Prematex Rust treatment, and finally some Fluid Film.
I'll probably swap out the front break calipers. Had it to the local dealership for a VERY minor interior cosmetic issue* and while they had it in the shop they advised me I needed new brake pads and rotor turnings all around, and that the front breaks were sticking.
Not wanting to pay their rates on the brakes I picked up some OEM pads and did my first break job in probably 25 years. Of course 3 out of the 4 brake pad retaining pins were frozen and refused to yield to a PB Blaster, then Kroil soak over a few days time. Out came the dremmel, hammer, and punch. Plenty of sil break grease. Somethings still sticking (based on the very very slight shimmy in the wheel). I suppose I could try to puzzle my way through pulling the pistons, but I think the easier and wiser course is to just get a couple of OEM rebuilds, as a decade in the NE with their road salt has to have taken it's toll. I may upgrade to steel braided lines while I'm at it, as I'm also at the mark for doing a complete change of brake fluid.
I'll be messing with the rear brakes next weekend. Oh Joy.
I'm going to post a few pictures of the front half of the underside in hopes some of you more experienced with 4Runners in the NE can give me a better idea of what I'm likely to be looking at problem wise based on the amount of rust seen. The skid plate seems to have had the worst of it, as the beefed up area around the jack point (where the larger hole is) is rusted out, and I think there was supposed to be another skid plate back towards the tranny which isn't there anymore.
Pics....If I can figure out how....
Pardon the rather haphazard photography. I was taking a break from dealing with a grease gun stuck on the zerk for a spider...else I was considering explosives
*covered under warranty by the seller. And at the prices on Toyota plastic I think they just lost all their profit....
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