Frame Rust

P

PMHSLight

New member
Hi Everyone

Full disclosure - I am a new member and this is my 1st post. I just purchased a 2016 4RunnerTRD Pro in Quicksand. I absolutely love the truck and want to keep it a very long time. I am worried from some other threads and posts I've read online that rust is an issue. Is there anything I can / should do to the frame? I bought a few rattle cans of Fluid film and sprayed it on parts of the frame / cross members / differential / etc. Nothing major - just some spray. Has anyone had any issues and should I be concerned with trying to get 15 years + out of the truck? Having come from a Jeep which had every problem imaginable, I'm super excited to be in the Toyota TRD Pro!

thx
 
Register to hide this ad
You are going above and beyond with FluidFlim. There is a group of folks here who have done that or similar treatments, and I have no doubt its effective however I plan to keep mine the same length of time, live in the Midwest and haven’t done anything other than muddy water coating and everything but a few of the welds or places where I have scratched the underside look fine. My limited understanding is that modern day dipping/treatment of metals at factories is leaps and bounds above where it was even 10-20 years ago. I suppose only time will tell if the additional treatments make a substantial impact on frame life.
 
Thanks Engineer

I also forgot to mention I live in NY so we get lots of road salt, ice, and snow. Hopefully with the Fluid film it should help. I took before pictures and will take after pictures once the winter is over to see if it helps or not.
 
I had the shop we use for appearance packages coat my frame and then he said to redo it every 5 years. My inlaw has had it on his Denali since it was new in 06 and there isn't a spec of rust on the frame and car had 250k on it now. He uses that thing daily for construction work so it sees all sorts of stuff
 
You wont be sorry you stepped up from a Jeep to a Toyota :thumb3:
This is a big concern for me, since I live near the beach and drive on the beach ALOT. Depending on where you live, it wont be as big a deal but salt from salted roads or the beach will eventually rust that undercarriage. I'm a big believer in undercoating, every new truck I get gets undercoated. After that I'll buy spray undercoating in a rattle can and touch up and spots I see. And after I go on the beach, or after a snow storm and salted roads, I always fresh water rinse the chassis. The spray anti corrosion coatings work, but they need to be re applied at some point and its very messy. Do it once and forget about it is my feeling :)
 
ive used fluid film in the past and think for the money its worth it.

Some will disagree.

Thats my recommendation
 
I've been noticing alot of 5th gen T4R's in my area that only spend 1 year the the great up north before being sold down in the south. Typically is 1 yr spent in the salt bad? I'm worried that the frame might not show rust today but will rust start appearing years down the road due the the 1 year that it spent up north?
 
Just rinse the underside on a regular basis in the winter. I had '08 TT FJ and a '11 TE and no issues. Both looked great underneath after 4 years (sold them after that). I do the same with all of my winter driven vehicles.
 
We fluid film ours. Besides where the underside has been dinged, there is no rust. On my 4th gen, I wire brushed a lot of the frame rust off of it, then coated it with Eastwood encapsulator prior to hitting it with Fluid film. I love the stuff, but I guess it's not for everyone.
 
Not so long ago I used a product called Rust Bullet. It worked pretty well, but I had to apply it by hand. Anywhere that I was able to cover with that, never rusted. Other spots that were more difficult to get to, rusted of course, but not where that was applied.
 
I had rust in some areas underneath. Used loctite naval jelly, washed and sprayed off. Dried then spray painted black. 2007 T4R, that was in the north for 7 years. I did take a beating, but phosphoric acid always wins.

Good thing is, now that its in the South, the rusting process has stopped.
 
Im in FL so I have no idea what your talking about... jk kinda lol!

wax your truck every 3 months too,im sure that will help, im really big into detailing my car and close friends and family SO I always wax my cars and have had no rust from the salty sea or paint thinning from the sun!
 
I live in the midwest and fluid filmed my 17 before winter. I went through 3 bottles with the 360 degree attachment and filled every hole I could find in the frame and then sprayed the frame itself with a couple of bottles. We've had very mild winters here and not a lot of salt on the road. I also go through a touchless/brushless car wash a few times a week that rinses the undercarriage.
 
Northeast winters, and the shit they put on the roads, will play hell on ANY vehicle. If you can swing it, buy a second vehicle to drive during the worst of the winter months. I tuck my '17 in a heated building during the winter and drive my 4th gen.....it's a crying shame what that vehicle looks like underneath.
 
wsgoat said:
Northeast winters, and the shit they put on the roads, will play hell on ANY vehicle. If you can swing it, buy a second vehicle to drive during the worst of the winter months. I tuck my '17 in a heated building during the winter and drive my 4th gen.....it's a crying shame what that vehicle looks like underneath.
Click to expand...

why would someone pay 50g for a 4runner and not use it in snow is besides me.

as a certified tech and 14 car collector. rust on the underside is pretty common with factory thin black coating they come with. toyota or any one else is not going to spend big money to build a miliion cars with fancy rubber coating underside etc.

plus the rust on the thick steel is not big deal.

if you care for your ride put effort to keep it nice. undercoating and washing underside and then you are just fine for 20 years

if you think you can just drive any car and let the underside pockets sit with water or salt and expect it to look black still then that is silly dream
 
Learn from every rust thread in the forum of any prior gen 4Runner(or any Toyota truck for that matter), and just fluid film your frame. I don't think they've changed jack shit in the coatings or metal thickness in years. Not like they even bothered changing the suspension in sixteen years, let alone the paint they put on it. Give it twenty years, these things will have rotted frames all over the rust belt.
 
arehman11 said:
I live in the midwest and fluid filmed my 17 before winter. I went through 3 bottles with the 360 degree attachment and filled every hole I could find in the frame and then sprayed the frame itself with a couple of bottles. We've had very mild winters here and not a lot of salt on the road. I also go through a touchless/brushless car wash a few times a week that rinses the undercarriage.
Click to expand...


smart man you are well done:nod: .

after me undercoating 200 cars on my lift. few things to note.

1- wash and let dry fully ur ride before coating
2- under coating is good because it flows into tight areas etc.
3- one issue i would see is it can make rubbers swell etc which i don't like
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 360 (members: 7, guests: 353)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,304
Messages
3,554,041
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top