Rear Seat Belt Corrosion! pt. 2

Hello all, here starts the next part of my 2017 Tacoma's corroded rear seat belt brackets and seat belts themselves. Since being quoted a ludicrous $800 to replace them by the Toyota dealer, I've decided to try and fix this myself.

I've pulled off the seat belts and brackets that bolt into the base of the car under the back seats. Here are the "before" pics of what they look like. Turns out my seat belt female receivers themselves are also fucked up. I will post "after" pics after they're cleaned up. We'll see if they're still usable.

I pulled off the bolts using a 9/16 socket wrench.

Link to pt. 1 here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rear-seat-belt-corrosion.690346/

 

That sucks. Does that other belt on the left in the last picture look the same or is it only the ones bolted to the body?

 

I have seen allot of galvanic corrosion in marine and over the road applications.
Looks to me like the metal there is a sacrificial element, which is possible because of the plating. Something in your environment is causing this reaction.

Do you get static shocked when leaving the vehicle? Are you in close proximity to EMF (high tension wires), is there extensive salt used in the winter?
Do you have any electrostatic modifications done or are around?

If this was a boat a corrosion meter could be used to measure the values and seek out where the highest values were at, then a sacrificial anode could be placed.
Some people have installed said zinc anode on their vehicles, this may be a solution for you.


I would catalog those photos off to Toyota for them to digest.

 

it seems worth noting that the mounting surface, hole and fastener are almost completely clean and corrosion free. I think the Zinc is doing its job, but whatever is causing it might be a problem.

 

Hi folks. Yep, I see the fastener and mounting holes are free of corrosion. The zinc must be doing its job... I do not get static shocks when entering or exiting the vehicle. I am not near any high tension wires, nor do I live anywhere with a lot of salt on the roads.

Not sure what is causing it without a corrosion test I suppose. The seat belt area has always been kept dry...

 

I've cleaned off the mounting brackets, opened the seat belt buckles, and my next step is to figure out how to remove the metal bar in the buckle mechanism so I can clean that off completely too. It's only partially cleaned off.
One thing I notice is that there are slight aberrations on the steel. Not sure if this is rust pitting or if these parts are just poorly casted from the factory. See the close-up pics.

 

The left belt in the last picture is the one in the close-up shot (you can see the other two in the background of that pic).

 

How does one catalog photos to send to Toyota? Just send them an email?

 

send all the BEFORE photos to them. must show the corrosion.

 

2 dissimilar metals. I'm guessing some rainwater or something else seeped back there to create that reaction.

 

I'm seeing a bunch of dog hair back there, any chance your dog is taking a leak in the back of the truck occasionally? Dog/cat piss is some powerful stuff. Looking at the pictures it looks like the worst pitting is around where the fabric attaches like it's been soaked in some corrosive liquid (like dog piss)

 

Highly suggest antiseize. When I replaced the carpet in the floor I made sure to coat the bolts to prevent this from happen as there was corrosion forming on quite a few bolts.

 

I appreciate the suggestion for antiseize.

Do you have pics of your bolt corrosion?

 

I don't, it was not as bad as yours. Mine was just red rust from 150000 miles of crisscrossing the country. Yep antiseize is going to be your friend, I would also suggest going through your undercarriage using dielectric grease on all the electrical connections.