Help! Has rust been covered up?

Hey all!

I’m in the process of upgrading from a 2001 to a 2014.

I’m looking to get opinions on if it looks like rust has been covered up at all by the dealer. Personally i am not sure. I don’t know what to look for exactly. The dealership says if they get anything with rust they remove it and “seal” the bottom with some sort of protectant. My knowledge is not extensive obviously. The taco came from New York, I live in Oregon.

any suggestions on what to look for outside of rust are also helpful! Maybe a quick checklist (mechanical) I should run through when looking at it next. Thanks everyone .

 

They literally sprayed the entire underside of that truck with some sort of undercoating, even the exhaust system. Walk calmly away from that one. New York= rust. Mid-Atlantic region, the HWY depts dump TONS of salt on the road in the winter and some even use a magnesium phosphate pre-treatment which seems to be even more corrosive then the salt.

 

If it’s from New York then it likely has at least some degree of surface rust. Being that you’re in Oregon I personally wouldn’t waste my time with a NE region truck. But if you are really wanting this thing I’d take a rag a wipe off all the what I presume is black fluid film or something and see what is underneath. The frame seam welds will likely have surface rust. The rest of the frame from what I can see looks rather smooth and flake free but it’s hard to tell from photos. The rear diff/3rd member looks suspicious.

If you work on your own vehicle its going to be a messy pain in the ass with the degree of rust spray they used

 

run far away.. while it doesnt seem like heavy scale was covered, that undercoating job was done poorly. and that style undercoating LOVES to make rust happen as it ages and cracks allowing water into it

 

To me, that truck looks like it got a frame replacement. The frame looks fantastic, but the body itself is absolutely a cover up job in my opinion. But being a '14 it's too new for a frame job, really odd...

It looks like they used more than one kind of undercoat too. Some of it looks rubberized and some of it looks like fluid film. Either way I'd walk away, living on the west coast you've got way cleaner trucks to choose from

 

It’s hard to tell. But it doesn’t look horrible.
They didn’t do a good job on the yokes of the front drive shaft.
I can see some surface rust there.


The key areas are on the inside of the frame.
Inside frame by converters. The drivers side is usually the one that rust out first.
Next is about middle of the frame, the lower section the is NOT boxed in will start to delaminate.

See arrows below.

 

I live in NE Ohio and deal with this all the time with used vehicles here as they use tons of salt here. Looks like cheap black undercoating you can buy at any parts store. All the dealers around here do it to used vehicles to make the underside look less noticeable and cleaner looking if there is any rust/corrosion. If you look in the pic at the rear axle, you can see the surface looks pretty rough looking. Personally I would stay away from any vehicle that has that amount of the undercarriage painted like that. I bought a used 2020 tacoma with 50k miles that lived it's life here and only rust was slight rust coloring on the welds as stated above. Since I have touched up the welds and frame parts only and undercoated with fluid film and looks new now. Obviously your choice to buy or not to buy but from someone who lives in the region I avoid vehicles that have any dealership undercoating.

 

We use wool wax in the rust belt. Fluid films thicker cousin. Looks solid to me. Sloppy that it's on the exhaust but looks OK. Tap around with a hammer.

 

Agreed. Look at the covered up scale on the fuel tank strap. Yet the rails look pristine.

Clean title, or salvage? Perhaps it was a collision rebuild?

 

The inner rocker is scaled too, the frame is just way too clean for that much body rust

 

It's probably solid to drive and won't break in half or have any structural failure in the foreseeable future. Just as a personal preference bothers me how dealerships do this type of thing. Like above, title status and vehicle history are always important things to look at 1st.

 

Clean title - 137k miles - consistent oil changes, thorough carfax - 1 owner

 

You might sign up on the Toyota website.
Make an account, add the vin# and see what’s been done?

 

I think it's unlikely someone swapped the frame yet didn't replace and of the items that have visible surface corrosion. Frame is the most important thing. Tanks straps and carrier bearing and all that can be replaced compared to a rotted frame. If it's a decent price and you're ok with the undercoating go for it. For me personally I couldn't do it with what I see too often here.

 

I wouldn’t trust it. If not prepped properly rust will be trapped underneath, over time water will find holes in the coating and speed up the process. The coating will make it harder to check the condition of the frame over time. I’m not saying that happens to all undercoated vehicles, however I personally have seen it happen more than once.

 

Just did a deep dive thru Toyota.com and found some interesting things check it out:

 

Well I'll be darned there you have it!

 

So it did get the frame recall! I wasn't aware that new of a truck had that option.

Well there ya go, your frames gonna be perfect. But that body, not so much

 

Considering the frame replacement… they replaced it likely due to rust correct? That means the remainder of the undercarriage is likely very rusty underneath the film coating?

 

Yeah, it's pretty significant from what I can tell. Rear sections of the inner rockers are definitely scaled up. It won't crumble to dust in a year, but you living out west, unless that thing is a smoking deal I'd look for a cleaner one