Harmonic Balancer rust.

Greetings Tacoma World,

Looking for some opinions from on the rust on my harmonic balancer. I’ve attached a couple photos and while the rust isn’t as bad as I’ve seen on older vehicles, it took me aback a little. Truck is a 2018 with 69k and I’m getting a little belt squeal at start up. I’m going to change the Belt but am suprised at the rust on the crank pulley. For comparison I looked at my wife’s 4Runner (2020 with 64k) and the pulleys all look brand new. Any thoughts appreciated as I haven’t seen much about it online. Thanks in Advance, Ryan

 

You live in a salt state I would say.

 

Man they cut a lot of corners on these things... A little rust isn't that big of a deal, but it could have been done better.

You could... Take it off, sand blast it, and powder coat or spray paint it. If yours is doing it now, a replacement will too. All the same material.

I had good luck doing as I described above to the outside of some brake drums and they held up rust free (on the outside) for years.

 

Yes I live on the Mass/NH line. Truck doesn’t go off road at all and I avoid deep puddles. Just normal driving.

 

I live on the U.P. of Michigan. Major salt here, no rust on mine. But I do wash engine bay weekly, because I don't want that. Engine bay looks show room new, on my 18.

 

Thought so, that pitting on the idlers/accessory pulleys is salt damage. It blows under there, deep puddles or not.