LC 100 undercarriage rust (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Mar 24, 2019
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Location
Chicago
I’m looking to buy this LC 100. It’s one owner, no accident 150k miles, body is rust free but has this under body rust. Please help if I should buy this at 15k or not:

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That transmission cross member and rear trailing arm looks like it's about to just fall apart. Also have never seen an accumulator rust to the point where you can see the inside. Pass on this one
 
^This. Don't buy a rusty truck from up North. Look for your ideal truck down south. I learned my lesson the hard way, and got a '05 LX from Florida after buying a rust bucket from my local area.
 
Lexus or Toyota?
15K? run away
 
I am from the Chicago area also and sadly that's about average for around here. Some are better, some are worse.
 
Looks like surface rust. Wire wheel it, apply por15 and a yearly fluid film inside all the nooks and crannies. It should last a long time. Or plan to spend a bunch of time chasing cars all over the country, putting deposits on unseen cars while taking off work to catch a flight to some far off southern location.
 
Looks like surface rust. Wire wheel it, apply por15 and a yearly fluid film inside all the nooks and crannies. It should last a long time. Or plan to spend a bunch of time chasing cars all over the country, putting deposits on unseen cars while taking off work to catch a flight to some far off southern location.
It's a crappy situation either way you look at it... wire wheeling/POR/Fluid film is a MAJOR pain in the ass. I mean you really must love your car and have alot of free time (not to mention skill/tools/patience/and not mind doing dirty work) to do a decent job and truly get to "all the nooks and crannies" which you won't anyways until you strip the entire car apart and have every single part media blasted, etc.

And +1 it seems these 100s sell pretty quick in the salt free states, so if that's the route you're choosing, just know you need to act fast because there are plenty of other people trying to buy the same truck you are.

I recommend trying your luck and buying a southern one sight unseen, even if issues come up (like accident evidence, poor body work, mechanical neglect, etc.), all that stuff can be fixed. Nothing really fixes the amount of rust that truck has that you posted. That ain't no surface rust lol.
 
It's a crappy situation either way you look at it... wire wheeling/POR/Fluid film is a MAJOR pain in the ass. I mean you really must love your car and have alot of free time (not to mention skill/tools/patience/and not mind doing dirty work) to do a decent job and truly get to "all the nooks and crannies" which you won't anyways until you strip the entire car apart and have every single part media blasted, etc.

And +1 it seems these 100s sell pretty quick in the salt free states, so if that's the route you're choosing, just know you need to act fast because there are plenty of other people trying to buy the same truck you are.

I recommend trying your luck and buying a southern one sight unseen, even if issues come up (like accident evidence, poor body work, mechanical neglect, etc.), all that stuff can be fixed. Nothing really fixes the amount of rust that truck has that you posted. That ain't no surface rust lol.


Agreed, that ain't surface rust, stuff is flaking off and is potentially falling apart. Imagine what the inside of the frame looks like if this is what's on the outside. That's the thing with boxed frames, the little holes allow salt and chemical to splash in there and it just sits and rot away from the inside. My Tundra has an open C frame and i can rinse off the salt a lot easier.
 
It is pretty crusty. I am not scared of a little frame rust but that one looks to be pretty crusty. That rust is really hard on the air ride systems. 15k for any 150k miles LC with that kind of rust seems high. If your plan is to just drive as stock then it may very well give you trouble free miles. If you plan to abuse it on trails and add lots of overland part mods then pass.
 
I am just north of you and would keep looking. Just have to be patient if you are not willing to travel. I found ours in Iowa that spent a lot of time in CO and had minor rust. I have also seen some clean truly rust free ones a couple times a year pop up, but they tend to know what they have and fetch a premium price. It is a losing battle in this area but if you keep up on under body treatment every fall you can slow it down. Good luck
 
Additionally, you would want to plan on putting a traditional suspension like OME in a vehicle like that one. Ahc will not be worth fooling with. I didn’t see anything super bad other then the tank skid, but they rust quick. This is just the reality of the rust belt. Every one buying these pristine southern trucks and bringing them north, what are you expecting? With in a few years if you drive them in the salt they will rust and it doesn’t matter if you keep them washed. All my cars have rusted here and I’m ocd about cleaning the salt off. You could just put them in storage for winter, kind of would defeat the purpose of a capable 4wd.
 
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Additionally, you would want to plan on putting a traditional suspension like OME in a vehicle like that one. Ahc will not be worth fooling with. I didn’t see anything super bad other then the tank skid, but they rust quick. This is just the reality of the rust belt. Every one buying these pristine southern trucks and bringing them north, what are you expecting? With in a few years if you drive them in the salt they will rust and it doesn’t matter if you keep them washed. All my cars have rusted here and I’m ocd about cleaning the salt off. You could just put them in storage for winter, kind of would defeat the purpose of a capable 4wd.

There are steps you can take to prevent, minimize rust though. I wirebrush my frame with a drill and clean prep the surface then apply a couple coats of POR15. Do that to the frame and rust will not be able to penetrate the coating and get to the metal, then i hit the rest of the tub, bolts/nuts, inside frame with fluid film. Treat it before winter and be liberal with the fluid film mid winter should you need to. I have a lift so it makes things easier.
 
Youd be better of with a 200k clean dry climate truck. No amount of POR15 can revive or mitigate that crust- as FX said this is what you can see, theres more that you cannot.

You will spend a lot more $$ over time simply replacing rusted components,
drilling and tapping broken frozen bolts. Because of this, the cost of labor for replacement components will increase significantly compared to a rust free truck.

Have patientce and find a cleaner example. This is a below average example not worth putting 10k into let alone 15k+ all the thinngs it will need.
 
That rust isn't the worst I've seen, but should definitely be accounted for in the price. $15k is too much for any 100 with that much rust, there are virtual rust free ones for around that.
 
This is a 07 model, has low miles and one owner is what attracted me, but I guess I will wait and see if something cleaner comes up. Thanks ya all!!

Body and interior was very clean as well. But I sure need to replace the AHC and treat the under body rust, I guess not worth that much investment and hassle.
 
There's a clean looking LX470, 2001, with 157k in Englewood Co for 11,500 ish. They don’t show undercarriage photos, but it might be worth asking about. I’d also be open to doing a drive by.
 
Don't do it.

I bought my 02 LX without considering undercarriage rust. Top side and maintenance history looked great. I know, I was an idiot, and shortly after joined Mud and started to learn.

That mistake cost me many thousands in AC lines, failed AHC and subsequent OME replacement, spare tire hoist, exhaust. It's a pain to work on. It's now been Krown'd so hoping the decay is significantly slowed. But up next is transmission crossmember.
 

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