What's ur choice for undercoating?

I personally like fluid film. I've had great results with it.

 

I have krown do my 2010 every fall. It lives in MA and has zero body rust, and almost no frame rust. They dont just do the frame. They do the insides of all the body panels, tailgate mounts, inside tailgate, gas filler door, battery( the spray protects electronics) , underside of hood, hood mounts, engine mounts etc. They drill small holes inside the door jams and insert a sprayer wand to mist the insides of the body panels. They then plug the holes with black rubber plugs that look factory. They pop out your tail lights, stick in a wand that is several feet long and coat the insides of your bed. If you start the yearly treatments from brand new, i think they guarantee the vehicle against perforated rust.

 

How clean does the vehicle have to be before applying? I bought my truck the end of 12/24. It’s only seen winter and I wash it at least once a week with a touch less wash that sprays the underbody.

There is a high quality shop by me that cleans and then applies, but the asking price is a little over $1000. Not sure I want to spend that much.

 

I used Krown on my 4Runner and will be doing the same on the Taco. Fluid film is also great if you have access to a lift, I did it while laying on the ground but never felt I could get a proper coating, ymmv.

 

krown gaurantee, has anyone ever heard them fix anything? my 87 and 97 toyotas rusted out, the 2000ranger hasnt been sprayed and is still on the road!

 

Hi!
Am a new Taco Hybrid owner - getting the truck in a couple of weeks. I was at the dealership and they were trying to sell me on the dealer undercoating. I said I'll get it done myself, and the finance lady was like "it'll invalidate the warranty, you can't spray the bottom of a hybrid". Seems like complete bullshit to me, anyone can confirm this?
Appreciate anyone's thoughts? Reading through the forums, looks like a split of folks doing DIY and the rest doing Krown/FluidFilm/etc?
Thanks!

 

Did you ask the finance lady to explain why what the dealership was trying to sell you wouldn't invalidate the warranty?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtwGxYyt8Vo

 

Vehicle warranties aren't monolithic things existing only as "valid" or "void".

If you have a problem with something, and it was caused by something you did (or didn't do), they can deny warranty coverage of that specific repair.

All other things would remain fully covered.

As @Alex the Great mentioned - I'd have pressed the point of asking exactly what problems DIY undercoating causes on a hybrid that it doesn't on a non-hybrid, and exactly how the dealer undercoating avoids that. Would've been fun watching her try to tapdance out of that...

 

I live on a dirt road and have used fluid film on a previous Taco. These lanolin coatings never dry so they attract and hold dirt like crazy. It made the truck look like ass. I switched to amsoil metal protector which dries hard, like a wax almost.

 

That's a good one, didn't think of that at the time.

Thanks for the thought on the warranty. Makes sense!

 

I live in NJ and we have crazy winters here with lots of road treatment with salts. I have a 10 year old BMW with zero rust that I can visually inspect except on the brake rotors. I’ve had many different cars and SUVs with no issues with rust. Is this really a thing with trucks only?

 

The cars/SUVs you had were probably all unibody, i.e no separate frame. Most trucks like tacos are body on frame, the frame gets corroded, not body. I live in Jersey too, and they are maniacs with salt and brine. I've had Toyota trucks all my life and if u don't treat frame, you'll have a well running truck rusted in half.

 

You learn something new everyday . Thanks for that insight. I had no idea body and frame were susceptible to rust.

 

Makes sense. IIRC one is oil based and the other is lanolin.based.

 

If it's an oil based treatment it should easily penetrate dirt and gunk. If it's a waxy treatment maybe not so much.

 

Probably Surface Shield.

Repair Geek on youtube does comprehensive, exhaustive tests and is pretty smart. See also his series of annual follow-up (Year 1, year 2, year 3.. etc.) videos on underbody coating applications and how well they are working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE1_EiZIVHs

 

Looks like I’ll be applying Vaseline this fall! Cheap and effective.

 

Fluid Film.