4Runner Rust Question

[ol' scott]

I'm going to see a couple of 4Runners this weekend and was looking for opinions about rust. Here is one that I'm looking at:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/sale-vehicles/116697-fs-1999-sr5-4wd.html

Under-carriage pictures about halfway down. He says that when he purchased the car he had it put on a lift and the mechanic said that it was surface rust. Looking for opinions since I'm not experienced with rust (lived in GA almost my entire life).

For comparison sake it's either the above listed vehicle or this one:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/sale-vehicles/115956-fs-99-toyota-4runner-4x4-w-manual-trans.html

 

[Containerized]

My FJC (now in Uganda) was originally bought in Wisconsin. This scared the crap out of me from a rust perspective. It did have a fair amount of rust, which we put many hours into "fixing" to the extent that it's possible. Here are some thoughts on rust:

1) Rust is serious. It's difficult to remediate and expensive to repair.
2) Depending upon the year, Toyota took rust seriously to a varying degree. Some parts began being galvanized in the early 1990's. On the trucks, unfortunately, they continue to not two-side galvanize nearly anything (a constrast to European manufacturers - lots of stuff on the GWagen is two-side galvanized). Roads are not salted in most of Japan or in most markets, so the level of corrosion seen in the American midwest is some of the worst in the world (per year of vehicle age).
3) Think of steel in terms of layers. Layers are infected ("penetrated") by rust from the outside in. Areas where water can sit (frame rails, boxed sections, any captive depressed area, gaps between the bed and the frame, etc.) will suffer worse than areas that can "air out" (and hence dry out). Salt water will generally do much worse damage than fresh water.
4) A part damaged by rust will never be the same as it was beforehand. Rust is like cancer, it can be treated but never completely cured without replacing the part.
5) The rust you see in those pics, from what is shown, does not look all that serious compared to many Midwestern cars I've seen of about the same model year. However, rust does not "get better" on its own. It takes constant maintenance and, with an attentive owner, the issues can be managed for years.

Overall, you're going to eventually pay for rust - you'll have to fix it when it gets bad enough and you'll never get enough of a discount when you buy it to pay for what replacement/repaired parts will cost down the road. All else equal, buy something without rust. But that's often just not possible.

Take a good look at what you're getting into and realize that this is 1) not that bad but 2) something that may require attention down the road.

 

[4xdog]

X2 on the comments by containerized. Rust is hateful. I grew up in the Great Lakes states (Ohio) which is just about ground zero for the world of corrosion. And my now completely rust-free 1962 Triumph TR3B is about to take to the road again after some big dollars spent on bodywork.

That being said, the rust in those 4Runner images look like nuthin'. Don't think I'd give it another thought.

How long to you plan to own the vehicle? My 2001 Tacoma qualified for Toyota's frame rustproofing remediation warranty and I had a dealer in Ohio (wheree the vehicle does spend some time) apply their treatment almost two years ago. Impressive system of a black coating outside and a white waxy treatment inside the frame. I expect to be driving thhe Tacoma twenty years from now (having kept the family's 1981 Toyota Truck for 29 years, that doesn't seem too hard to imagine), so peace of mind on the frame was worth something to me.

If I had that 4Runner, planned to keep it indefinitely, and lived near a northern state where Toyota was warrantying Gen 1 Tacoma frames, I just might pay to get that treatment on another vehicle.

4Runners of that vintage don't have big corrosion issues, do they? I'd look first at overall condition and move rust concerns way down on my list.

Don

 

[Rightovercrest]

The first one isn't bad at all and it seems to just be surface rust. Nothing like we get in Ohio! I purchased my '97 Land Cruiser in North Carolina with that amount of rust and people just couldn't believe how clean it was compared to Northern vehicles.

Don is right on the money on this particular truck from the South. If the overall condition mechanically is tip top you should be fine for a very long time.