Advice Needed - Rust, considering ditching 4R

[02SE]

I've owned a bunch of BMW's. They were all unibody. Less nooks and crannies for salt to sit.

A body-on-frame vehicle has that steel frame the body is sitting on. That steel frame is more susceptible to corrosion, as there's lots of places for salt to just sit and work it's destruction. That's true of frames from every manufacturer.

Wash the vehicle, especially the undercarriage, at least once a week in winter is my advice. As others have said, parking in a warm garage when the vehicle is covered in wet salt, will speed up the corrosion.

The salt brine they use is horrible for vehicle longevity. I've been dealing with it all my driving life. I am really giving serious thought to moving somewhere where snow, salt, ice, and rust is a bad memory.

 

[thejuice]

My preference is to hold onto the 4R as long as I have some confidence that I can drive it to 200k miles without costing a fortune. Does anyone have recommendations for a shop in New England that could assess the frame and drivetrain? I tried scheduling with my dealer a couple days ago to replace a heat shield, but they don’t want to work on it.

 

[Johnate0]

I live on Cape Cod and take the ‘11 T4R out on the ORV beaches pretty much year-round. I hose down my undercarriage religiously and the rust has been kept at bay so far. One thing I stopped doing was driving through the actual salt water at one particular beach where it was unavoidable if you wanted to get it on the sand flats at low tide. My ‘01 rusted out horribly because I’d sometimes take it though deep salt water with not a care in the world.
A few products I use nowadays are POR15 and fluid film. I hope to get even more miles out of my ‘11 than I did my ‘01 which I sold at 250k miles. That truck still ran beautiful and I miss it but the frame was toast.

 

[thejuice]

I live on Cape Cod and take the ‘11 T4R out on the ORV beaches pretty much year-round. I hose down my undercarriage religiously and the rust has been kept at bay so far. One thing I stopped doing was driving through the actual salt water at one particular beach where it was unavoidable if you wanted to get it on the sand flats at low tide. My ‘01 rusted out horribly because I’d sometimes take it though deep salt water with not a care in the world.
A few products I use nowadays are POR15 and fluid film. I hope to get even more miles out of my ‘11 than I did my ‘01 which I sold at 250k miles. That truck still ran beautiful and I miss it but the frame was toast.

Nice striper in your prof pic! I used to fish at OBX and assateague, and hit my fair share of tidal pools (different vehicle) going a little too fast.

Do you have a shop apply the por15 or fluid film, or do you just do that yourself?

 

[Dabigono]

Bummers about the rust.

take the 14K and trade in for new 4Runner, but do better preventive maintenance next time around.

 

[northcoast]

Nice striper in your prof pic! I used to fish at OBX and assateague, and hit my fair share of tidal pools (different vehicle) going a little too fast.

Do you have a shop apply the por15 or fluid film, or do you just do that yourself?

Just get 2 or 3 cans of fluid film, use the red straw, spray it in every hole you can see and on the outside of the frame and be done with it. Takes an hour once a year. No biggie, my man. This is coming from a relative non wrencher.

 

[85GT-79FJ40]

Just get 2 or 3 cans of fluid film, use the red straw, spray it in every hole you can see and on the outside of the frame and be done with it. Takes an hour once a year. No biggie, my man. This is coming from a relative non wrencher.

Pretty much this. I would flake off any loose stuff you can beforehand though. take out the spare tire and really get in there with a wire brush. short of sandblasting and powder coating you'll never totally stop it but fluid film goes a LONG way. I'm at 68k on mine and hoping for well over 200. Pretty much every body on frame truck or SUV is going to rust just as bad as a 4Runner will given the same amount of care and driving conditions. Take care of it and it'll take care of you.

 

[Zjbond]

I just bought my 2020 ORP and live in northern Illinois where they use tons of salt. I have a undercarriage power washer attachment I plan on using is that not enough and if I go ahead and do the fluid film will the power wash attachment take that off?

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[northcoast]

I just bought my 2020 ORP and live in northern Illinois where they use tons of salt. I have a undercarriage power washer attachment I plan on using is that not enough and if I go ahead and do the fluid film will the power wash attachment take that off?

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I don't power wash with fluid film applied. I just wash without pressure, because, yeah, I think enough times doing that will take it off. I would think the fluid film plus regular rinsing would be a much easier path. How would you power wash with a week of January temps well below freezing? Not only that, you're going to be stressing out about washing it after every run in the slat/ice/snow.

 

[Zjbond]

I don't power wash with fluid film applied. I just wash without pressure, because, yeah, I think enough times doing that will take it off. I would think the fluid film plus regular rinsing would be a much easier path. How would you power wash with a week of January temps well below freezing? Not only that, you're going to be stressing out about washing it after every run in the slat/ice/snow.

Ya very true especially in January. I thought about running a hot water pipe into my garage and connecting that to my power washer to blast the undercarriage. Although undercarriage attachment I have doesn't put out crazy amounts of pressure since it spread out through four nozzles.

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[02SE]

I don't power wash with fluid film applied. I just wash without pressure, because, yeah, I think enough times doing that will take it off. I would think the fluid film plus regular rinsing would be a much easier path. How would you power wash with a week of January temps well below freezing? Not only that, you're going to be stressing out about washing it after every run in the slat/ice/snow.

What I've done is drain the hose completely after every below freezing wash, before the water in the hose can freeze again.

It's absolutely a pain, and the main motivating factor in my wanting to move someplace where snow, salt, and corrosion, and going to the extreme trouble to prevent it, is a bad memory.

 

[northcoast]

What I've done is drain the hose completely after every below freezing wash, before the water in the hose can freeze again.

It's absolutely a pain, and the main motivating factor in my wanting to move someplace where snow, salt, and corrosion, and going to the extreme trouble to prevent it, is a bad memory.

Makes me wonder... do people have trouble with the frame rust in tropical coastal locations where salt hangs in the air?

 

[02SE]

I've seen plenty of rusted out vehicles from warmer coastal regions too, if they drive through salt water. If they don't drive through salt water, and it's just the salt in the air, corrosion takes longer, but corrosion will eventually happen if the vehicle is never or rarely washed.

 

[Johnate0]

Nice striper in your prof pic! I used to fish at OBX and assateague, and hit my fair share of tidal pools (different vehicle) going a little too fast.

Do you have a shop apply the por15 or fluid film, or do you just do that yourself?

I run an auto body shop. Yes I did it all myself.

 

[Jivewalker]

Keep it as a beater for winter driving only. Anything you get will succumb to the road salt. I had the same issues when I lived in PA. Road salt corroded the brake lines out on my bronco and accord. Might even consider leasing if it's that bad up there with corrosion.

 

[thejuice]

Thanks for all the responses, everyone. I wanted to share an update on the rust issue.

I took the 4R to a shop which banged on the frame rails and convinced me it was worth salvaging. I replaced the rusted out skid plate and engine undercover sub assembly with new ones that I painted with several layers of rustoleum. I had to drill out and retap a few bolts on the underside. I reinforced a couple heat shields with washers, but ripped out the muffler heat shield since the mount points were beyond salvaging, and I didn't want to deal with riveting new posts. I didn't notice hot floors or other issues driving around this summer without the heat shield, so I feel safe leaving it off.

I had a local shop strip the remaining rust and spray the underside, rockers, and inside the frame with fluid film. The treatment cost about $350 and they applied about 2 gallons.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can drive the 4R for a few more years, and hopefully without a big repair, like AC or xreas.

 

[<<<<]

Heat by itself is not an issue even in the summer if you don't use heat shield the condensation under carpet and potential mold in the winter is a concern if you have shield off under rear passenger area. You can get Rivet Bolts and proper tool on Amazon and install these from underside:

 

[thejuice]

Heat by itself is not an issue even in the summer if you don't use heat shield the condensation under carpet and potential mold in the winter is a concern if you have shield off under rear passenger area. You can get Rivet Bolts and proper tool on Amazon and install these from underside

Makes sense. I looked into something like those rivets, but it’s a tight area to get into with the muffler in the way, and there’s no dropping the muffler with the amount of rust on the flange. Maybe a project for next spring..

 

[Jono.ful]

Wow!

In my neck of the woods they spray calcium chloride solution rather than using road salt. This stuff is brutal, all our bridges and lamp posts are rotting away and there are a litany lawsuits outstanding.
My '12 with 180k km (~111k mi) and no undercoating or rust treatment of any kind barely had surface rust on the welds even, but I wash it weekly through the winter.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.