New 2021 Tacoma - Need Rust Prevention Advice

5 years in the fluid film in my tailgate still seeps out of the drain holes and drips onto the rear bumper on hot days. Anyone who says that this stuff will clog drain holes and trap water doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

I can't understand why one would worry about places for rust like rocker panels on these 3rd generation taco's. Thought toyota claims their galvanized. I never used any type of rust inhibiter in 20 years in that area on my tundra, and they were still fine.

 

Fluid film is okay on rubbers (most) as per the bottle

 

I sprayed in side the rocker panels on mine. I figured since it has rubber plugs why not it was easy. My old Liberty was starting to show a few rust bubbles in the paint on the passenger side rocker panel after 14 PA winters with no FF treatments so it can't do anything but good for the truck.

 

If you look underneath your truck after a snow season, you can see what starts to corrode first. It's usually the bare metal parts such as threads and bolts. These are the things that will cost you money replacing. They will need the most maintenance, they will go first, and they stick out collecting salt. You likely will not rust your entire frame out.

Most of the other stuff such as your frame and bed and honestly 90% of the stuff under the truck doesn't need any coating - do a thin one for peace of mind. Just need to check it out every year and see if it's getting a layer of corrosion. If not, spend that time and money using a metal brush spraying all the nuts more frequently.

I encourage everyone to do it themselves, I wouldn't pay $250 for something that'll take a few hours to complete.

 

You're kidding right? ALL of the stuff under the truck needs to be sprayed....whatever rust inhibitor product you like. The FRAME most definitely needs to be sprayed with Krown, Fluid Film or whatever else has been mentioned here and to say it doesn't is bullshit. When I bought my 2014 I had a friend who had an 08 Tacoma
( SIX year old truck) that he didn't do anything to...the truck had less than 50K miles on it and he could rub his thumbnail across the frame of the truck and quarter size pieces of rust would fall off. He had a rust outline on his cement garage floor because every time he closed the doors rust would fall to the ground. Needless to say he got a new frame....less than 50K on the truck! I have no problem paying to have my truck sprayed every year for $148...well worth the price....still no rust and my truck lives outside all year round.

 

I know where I bought my Tacoma when I had to take it in for the Toyota CRC spray they had me take it around to the rear of the building and behind their service area there were STACKS of new Tacoma frames ready to be installed. I love my truck and it's dependability but they have still not gotten their sh*t together with these frames and it's been over 20 years that they've had the RUST problem. Take care of the frame.

 

Yeah will notice that guys location is Orange County, probably California so that is not a rust belt state. Anyone that ever lived in a rust belt state for years in my opinion would likely not say you don't need any coating. That may be true for SoCal but not quite where I live. If you aren’t keeping it past a lease you might not care but plan to keep it 10 years that changes.

People that don't live in the rust belt should watch the South Main Auto Repair channel on youtube. He is in NY state and gets some cars in that look nice but put them on a lift and look under them they are rotten.

 

I agree. I got friends in NY, NJ, and PA area and when see their cars and trucks, I see why they need to protect from rust. We in CA don’t have rust concerns we just have gas price concerns. lol

 

LOL says the dude from southern California to OP from Pennsylvania......

 

As far as frame rust...along with all the welds, theres some thinner steel cross sections/pieces as i recall that wouldn't take long to rust through in our climate here. I made sure to spray them well. Anywhere that salt or brime would collect got an extra dose.

 

I just spent 4 hours today coating my new 2021 with CRC heavy duty corrosion inhibitor. The stuff seems to leave a pretty durable coat of amber mateial, like cosmoline. I don't want to do my truck every year like FF,. This stuff seems to be pretty durable and will only need a touch up most likely every year. Good stuff. 5 cans for the suspension and frame and 4 more for the underside. I used acf50 in the doors, it seeped nicely, but not my favorite...but it will work for this winter. The smell is minimal, and dries fast.

 

Where I live there’s so much salt residue on the dry pavement during non snow times that vehicles create salt dust storms as they move down the road. Pedestrian? You can taste the salt in the air waiting at intersections. I’ll disregard your advice thanks.

Also my Krown was $150CDN even if it took me two hours @$75/hr? It’s still not worth me doing it.

 

I’m considering moving to Massachusetts for work. This prompted me to look up rust protection because everyone was talking about it. Holy crap what a headache. Car manufacturers should just make non steel cars for you guys. 10000 bucks more for the stainless steel or aluminum or carbon fiber version lol.
I mean it seems like such a pain in the ass. Why not just make everyone run snow tires or dump some other material all over the roads. Also over the decades, doesn’t the road salt build up as run off ? Doesn’t that salty ass water kill the soil and mess up drains? What are you guys doing over there with all that salt. holy shit.
If I moved there I’d walk into the mayor’s office and be like “uh ya some ass hole is tossing salt all over the place, who’s paying for this damage”
Living next to the sea (in San Diego) and working with boats is the only point of reference I have to how gnarly that shit is. And even then , most people have fiberless hulls. If we off road on the beach we know to wash that sea water off ASAP. Occasionally if we head to the mountains we gotta wash off all that dusty road salt from our cars too. But it’s rare...
I don’t know . I’d rather slip and slide
over the icy roads vs having my $30000 investment rust away like some rusty nail. At lest insurance covers collision damage. We need better solutions guys...

 

Well now you’re trying to get at this with reason. Big mistake! You’re in for endless disappointment if you keep this up

 

That was fun to read.

Where I live everyone does run snow tires.
Yup all the salt runs right into the rivers and creeks via storm drains.
Yes, destroys the soil, within 3’ of the roadways nothing grows.

One of the biggest issues is what the salt does to infrastructure like bridges. Massive campaign every spring to close down and wash bridges off with fresh water. Of course that water again goes right into the river. They’ve been trying different products in recent years, including beet juice (yes the root vegetable). With winter basically being 8 of 12 months a year and all I’ve ever known I really haven’t put much thought into it.

When I’m on vacation in Palm Springs I look around and wonder how much power is being used by air conditioning units, or how much water is being used to keep golf courses a boulevards green in a desert. Humans are wasteful by nature the waste just changes depending on location.

 

Yea true AC bill in CA can be over 300 bucks a month especially if you don’t have expensive ass solar panels. I actually wanted to trench my back yard 4’ down and run coolant lines like a radiator so I could use the ground as a heat sink so id never need AC again.

Ideal climate is probably live less than one mile from the pacific ocean from Oregon down to Baja. Just move up or down till ya find the sweet spot.​

 

They use to sand&salt the roads here in connecticut. Now they've deleted the use of sand after finding it causes silt buildup in our brooks and streams....sooo what do they do now? brime the roads to no end before a winter storm. A buddy that runs a local repair garage tells me nothing he's ever seen eats cars faster then what their using now all in the name of safety. Ma. is just more of the same.

 

Same here. I’m convinced someone in my area is getting major kickbacks for using the stuff. It’s terrible stuff. What the mucky mucks at City Hall don’t understand is that it isn’t a simple equation. Depending on brine concentration being applied and moisture content of the snow you can actually make the traction issue worse. Where I live -36F is routine, and those used to be the best winter driving days, the cold is dry and the roads are actually dry as a bone. Since they started with this brine product the road never dries out, no matter how cold it gets this weird greasy slime is always present.

 

What bugs me about this, is the waste to. How many times they predict a winter storm and then they brime the crap out of the roads....then hrs later the storm miss's us, and goes out to sea. In the meantime all the traffic is collecting this stuff on their undercarriage's.