Rust on fuel filler neck

Recently been noticing rust at the top of the fuel filter neck. Is this a symptom of a more serious problem? Or should I just lube the gas cap o-ring? I live in south Florida where it’s been raining heavily the past few months.

 

salty sea air must be getting inside there ??

 

Valid point, especially with all the onshore wind we’ve been getting with those hurricanes.

 

Not a serious issue.
The only issue that may arise is that it could get bad enough to not seal and cause an emissions code. But you aren’t that bad yet.

If you really want to be proactive.
Wipe it down with some 0000 steel wool.
Then a dab of engine oil on to “protect” it.
Might stuff a rag in the neck while you scrub it down, just so you don’t get crap in the tank when cleaning it.

Also, you can get a little dab of oil off the dip stick.
No need to go buy a quarter of oil.
Super handy when you do this every month or so to keep it from happening again.

 

is it 'safe' to mix engine oil with taco juice in the tank?
i would use some of that lucas oil UCL fuel treatment or similar additive to put a fine coat of lubricant on that neck opening after cleaning

 

You only need 2 or 3 drops of oil to coat that area. The rest of the filler neck looks ok to me.

 

Thanks for the tip, sound like some easy preventative maintenance to add to my repertoire. Funny enough I've had a P0442 code for a while now, but I only recently noticed the rust. Maybe this will finally fix it?

 

Possibly. But a new o-ring on the cap wouldn't hurt either.
The thing is, you have to buy the cap to get an o-ring.
And the after market caps don't work well on Tacoma.

If you don't care about the code, I wouldn't worry about it.
Unless you want to try it. Just to see.
But The truck is 20+ years old. I bet there are some other EVAP issues.
It almost never the gas cap. And if it is, it usually because it's loose / no tight enough.

 

I did buy a new gas cap a while back, and replaced some vacuum hoses too. So it must be something to do with the fuel filler neck or evap canister or something down there.
Definitely not bothering me, and thankfully it hasn’t gotten worse over time. Aside from this rust showing up which prompted me to post about it. So now I’ll just practice the “wait and see” method