What do you think about these pics of rust?

Qualification: I am a self-taught DIYer who mostly just knows how to follow instructions, but doesn't know all the correct names of things, so pardon (and please correct) any ignorance in the following description. Also, I bought my 2017 with 40k miles on it, so I don't know what all it has been through, but I do know it stayed in south Texas, away from salty road. When I got under it, I did see some scuffs and dings that I know I didn't make, which makes me think the previous owner definitely threw it around off road (and rightfully so!).

So I have an appointment with my dealer next week, but what do you guys think of the rust I am noticing? Is it normal? It certainly doesn't seem normal. I'm pretty sure rust is never normal.

These are from the rear diff and axle. I see some paint chipping at the bottom of the diff. Anyone have a ghetto way to touch those up with something? I don't really care how it looks. Black spray paint? I don't want to trap moisture with anything, so I am cautious. I am also wondering what the orange dots (rough texture) at the top and bottom of the diff are. I thought maybe they were for aligning something, but I scratched on them real hard with my fingernail and it wouldn't come off. The other noticeable thing is the tinge of rust on the welds on the axle. FYI, on the diff the only rust there is at the paint chips. It looks like its all rusted on the bottom in the pic, but that's just dirt.


These are from the driveshaft. The rust here is pretty obvious. The rearmost u-joint looks the same.


Anyway, if you guys have some input, I would love to hear it. I am getting close to 60k miles, and I have an additional dealer warranty until 100k, so hopefully that will all help if these are as big a deal as I think they are.

 

Perfectly normal.
Warranty is not applicable.

 

Looks to be in normal condition to me

 

Nothing to cause concern. Wouldn’t hurt to get it checked out and documented I suppose. You probably won’t deal with it throughout you own it unless you keep it until it breaks.

 

Agreed.

 

Good to hear so far guys. I appreciate your time. I'll definitely have them give it a once over next week cause I still need to get a new key fob and I am hopefully going to get them to figure out if my chirp is the HPFP. Figured I'd get her in for a checkup before the 60k hits. I'm just super happy I didn't find any rust on the frame.

 

Salty winter roads normal. Did you Carfax it to see what state it was from?

 

What rust lol?

You should see my brake fittings etc...

Nothing like salt crunching as you drive over it to make you cringe.

 

Agreed, that is really not a rust issue, lol. But if you want, you can touch up any of the surface rust with a rust converting black paint. I use Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer (from Walmart). Works well. Then just followup with black chassis paint of your choice for protection. It does a good job for touch up and this type of preventative rust maintenance.

 

What rust?

Matt

 

I've seen more rust on a new truck sitting on a dealer lot!

 

Man that's picky! Honestly don't know how you even noticed it. You should see the underside of my ole Duramax lol. Its crazy what some people want "fixed" these days.

 

I’m gonna give you my 2 cents:




Wut

 

My 2016 was my first new car. Having spent lots of time working on project cars with lots of rust and nursing daily drivers to 200k+ miles I really enjoyed crawling around under my new truck to study how clean and perfect it was. Then a few weeks later I realized there were some spots that were bare metal, like the u-joints that had surface rust. Not a big deal, it’s a thick piece of metal that is now protected by oxidation. The welds on the axle probably didn’t get a good paint job, so you can wire brush them and coat them with primer and paint if it bothers you. Rust on thin metal needs to be stopped (body panels, fenders, etc)

 

Gotcha. Thanks for the input guys.