Tacoma Cancer

New to the forum. My 2011 Taco Double Cab PreRunner with 46k miles Tow assembly is rusting away. It's been garaged 5 out of 9 years in Fl and AZ and have never been driven into salt water as the Service Mgr suggested might have happened. It towed a small u-Haul trailer once in 2014. Will this cancer become stage 4 and spread to the frame structure. Service Mgr advised warranty on accessories is only 3 yrs/36k miles. I also have 2014 LS 460 Sport, 2015 Tundra Crew Cab, and 2019 Camry in my stable. Is cancer in my Lexus/Toyota future. Tks

 

Pics might help

 

Is it surface rust on the finish or is the rust actually penetrating the metal or the welds?
We need some pictures.

 

Pics attached.

 

I would not tow anything with that. Luckily a new hitch is cheap, just replace it. Hopefully other areas of the truck are fine, if they are I wouldn't worry.

 

Why can't he tow with that? Structurally it's fine.

OP this guy is off his rocker if he thinks that its dangerous to tow with a hitch that has some rust.

 

Something I'd do is remove the hitch assembly and bumper, clean the rust off, treat it, then repaint the rusted areas. If you just take the hitch assembly off I think you need different brackets to support your bumper.
I recently addressed some rust areas at the hitch and repainted it black. I power washed the rust areas where I could.

 

^^^ Remove it, clean out rust, sand it, rattle-can some primer/paint, slap it back on.

 

I bet someone owned a boat with that truck in Florida and that rust came from loading and unloading a boat in salt water.

 

That's really not that bad, mine's worse. Well, was worse. I wire brushed the crap out of it, soaked it in 3M rust dissolver, then put on two coats of chassis paint. You could do the same.

 

Hitches rust. Its not just a Toyota thing. That's really not that bad.

 

Garages can trap high humidity. Rather than having the air circulation like outdoors. The air in a garage is stagnant.

 

Was that hitch originally on the truck? The mounting bolts look awfully new and the hitch looks like hell.


Remove the hitch, clean it up and paint it. Nothing wrong with that one

 

I bought a 2010 about a year ago and my hitch pretty much looked like that. I just wire brushed, rust prevented and black spray paint. It looks good now.

 

More importantly what does the frame look like?

 

The hitch assembly is painted with a thin black paint that lifts off in big pieces and rusts underneath. Mine looked way worse. Buy a 3M paint remover wheel and put it in your cordless drill and blast it for 20 minutes. You’ll have bright fresh steel underneath. Then a shot of black rustoleum spray paint and some fluid film on top.

 

Original/sole owner since Feb 2011. Never hauled a boat or backed into salt water. Some responders say Florida humid garages or salted air could have caused rust. I've been taking notice and I don't see too many 2nd Gen. Taco assembly that look as bad as mine.

 

Mine looks about the same

 

Sandblast and powder coat it. That isn't rusty that bad at all.

 

Break out some wire wheels and paint; that doesn't look that bad.