Dissolving Paint on a Super White 2019

Yeah, I'm afraid you are right, but I really am scared to find out what's in there. They sticking lead acid batteries in there for some reason?

As an aside on the lubing locks side of things, the few times I've done that in the distant past, I used graphite. Come to think of it, I've never even used the key to unlock the doors on this truck; I've always used the fob.

 

So this is kind of a long shot, but look at the paint where the hinges of the door are, and where the fender meets the rocker.

I have a thought that is hopefully 100% wrong, but its a idea. Brake fluid spilling out of the reservoir due to a bad or missing cap can make its way along the firewall till it finds a drain, then wind could blow it to the rocker.

Its a crazy idea, but this is a crazy situation.

 

Will do when it gets light again. If that turns out to be the case, then it's going to be on the dealership as the truck has just shy of 20k miles and I've let them handle all of the service so far under the free maintenance plan. Not that I can even think of why anyone would pop the cap on it at its current mileage.

 

If your truck has the “predator” steps Toyota puts on them, those look powdercoated. at least ones on my truck. Powdercoat is very very durable stuff. Either way, looking forward to seeing what the outcome is and hope you end up happy with the resolution and your truck goes back to looking great.

 

They are N-FAB ones, but I was wrong and they are powder coated.

 

I checked and it's definitely not an issue with brake fluid from the master cylinder reservoir. Everything under the hood behind and below the reservoir is fine and the damage doesn't extend to the front of the door. It looks like the worst of it lines up pretty well with the front weep hole in the door, so definitely looks like it's from something running through the door.

That said, I'm still fairly baffled. There's no damage to the exterior of the door and the paint on the door below the weep hole is okay (there is damage to the paint on the edge that I noted earlier, but not right there). As has been noted, the next step is to pop the door panel and see what's going on back there as there isn't much more that can be gleaned before that.

 

Damn I would be furious

 

Well, I ain't happy, but it doesn't look like it's Toyota's fault.

 

Manual transmission? Is there any sign of fluid around the clutch master cylinder pushrod on the inside of the firewall?

 

It's a manual, but whatever got in there came through the door from the looks of it.

 

On the subject of it being a manual, I had the clutch pedal replaced a few months ago because it was creaking a lot, but I can't imagine any reason they would have had brake fluid inside the cab while doing that job.

 

Any update for us?

 

Not yet. It started raining before I got a chance to pop the door panel and nothing from Toyota yet (for the fuel pump they ordered nor the paint).

 

Not just white paint, Taco paint.

I metered the entire truck and it's mid to low 3 mils.

That is ridicuously thin even for a budget brand.

My old 16 STI which is a comparably budget brand is at least in the 4 mil.

I like how ford does it on my Focus RS, you can pay for tri coat like the Nitrous Blue and get 8.x mils factory, so winning.

 

At what thickness is it too much?

 

4 is really pushing it, having been around autobody business my opinion is that anything under 4 is just needlessly cutting cost at the expense of quality.

Let's take Dodge even, aside from sometimes having shells that weren't acid dipped properly, Challenger shells are 6 mil like my last hellcat which I metered at delivery. Even BMW back in its hay days of mid 90's only had 5.x.

If Toyota really wants to cut cost, they should at least offer a $500 option for Tri Coat, that's what it was for the Focus RS to get 8.x mil.

 

So what’s in a tri-coat? Would that be what seems to be dissolving here? Or the primer / undercoating?

 

A different paint process than what is on most regular cars.

TLDR version is it's thicker.

3.2 to 3.5 on my Pro is ridiculously unnecessarily thin.

 

That's effing nuts. My 2006 Xterra has been in salty ass.ohio ever since i got it. I literally have driven it across the country multiple times all conditions. The paint down there is still fine. You shouldn't have this.

 

I love that she immediately gravitates to you screwed it up. People like her are why dealerships get such a bad rap. Hopefully Toyota makes this right.