Has anyone experienced “premature” rust on their hitch receiver? My LC is less than a year old, never driven on salted roads, yet I’ve already got several rust spots on the receiver.
Receiver Rust (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter catastrofe
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same here...4 months old, no exposure to salt and sprayed with Fluid Film. Already see traces of rust...
Pretty normal. I put a brand new Lexus oem pintle hitch on our GX470 and same thing happened. The paint flakes and damages easily. You can spray with Rust-Oleum but it will come off where the hitch rubs. It is just surface rust.
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks for the replies. Anyone try to get their dealer to replace the receiver under warranty? Since I love to mess with my dealer (they actually treat me very well), I may try.
CharlieS
GOLD Star
The receiver is a part of the frame and can't be replaced independently (at least on my '13). You'd have to cut it off and weld a new one on.
Here is what 7 years of salted roads does to one (and that includes repainting the visible parts every couple of years!):
Here is what 7 years of salted roads does to one (and that includes repainting the visible parts every couple of years!):
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That's life. The only way to keep the receiver truly rust free is to never use it (and move to the Atacama Desert).
- Thread starter
- #8
Well, my LC is the 10th vehicle I’ve owned with a receiver, and it’s the only one to show rust.
I’ve used that but given how thick it is does it cause issues with inserting a hitch in the receiver?
You are lucky. Every hitch I've had gets some rust on it every winter. Even here in the PNW. Do you use the hitch? The scratches seem to be the problem.
DirtDawg
"It'd be alot cooler if you did"
I wouldn't put it in the portion the hitch slides into, just the surrounding areas. That area will always have slight surface rust. On any vehicle.
Back when I was a heavy equipment mechanic we would lube up the hitches with grease which while messy, kept the rust away.
- Thread starter
- #13
I do use my receiver/hitch. The rust really doesn’t seem to be from scratches...the face of the receiver and the rear part of the safety chain loops are the worst, and those are “no contact” areas when inserting the hitch or when using the safety chains. The front of the safety chain loops where the chains hang is fine...the rear is rusting. It makes no sense.
@Eric Sarjeant...care to offer an opinion?
For some reason the hitch seems to be an achilles heal for a rust point? 2009 cruiser hitch never used. Lived and still lives in the north east with salt. It was the only area that actually looked like almost rot. I scrubbed off all the flake and scale. Coated it with corroseal 2x and then just buttered it up with grease. I never plan on using it. My mid was blown on how much rust it had! The rest of the underside was a little surface rust that could be brushed off with the exception of the transmission guard. That was also shot so I just replaced it. Same type of rot as the hitch. Strange to me because everything else was very very clean for the NE except those two areas?
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pretty common from what I’ve seen too. nothing really you can do but clean & paint it. gets my wheels turning to start offering a Ceramic Coat undercarriage (strong) protection to include the hitch as well as undercarriage too. Thanks for the tag
Here ya go, 5 years and ~72K miles in salty New England. Not a spec of rust, NONE. (please pardon the dirt, truck needs a bath) I have not painted it, that is the factory paint.
My method: multiple coats of Amsoil HD Metal Protector. Love the stuff, I always have 2-3 cans available. It was just starting to show some rust at the welds when I bought it 2 years ago, so I gave it 3-4 coats over several weeks. Let it cure between coats. Now I give it a couple of maintenance coats every year, usually when I'm changing the oil and doing the tire rotation.
I had an '04 Highlander at one point, bought it used in '07. They are very popular around here and I could see that it was a rust problem, so I started the same treatment. I saw that car today, it has over 250K miles on it, and the hitch still looks almost new. Wish I could say the same for the rest of the underbody. Still, great car that has a lot more miles in it.
My method: multiple coats of Amsoil HD Metal Protector. Love the stuff, I always have 2-3 cans available. It was just starting to show some rust at the welds when I bought it 2 years ago, so I gave it 3-4 coats over several weeks. Let it cure between coats. Now I give it a couple of maintenance coats every year, usually when I'm changing the oil and doing the tire rotation.
I had an '04 Highlander at one point, bought it used in '07. They are very popular around here and I could see that it was a rust problem, so I started the same treatment. I saw that car today, it has over 250K miles on it, and the hitch still looks almost new. Wish I could say the same for the rest of the underbody. Still, great car that has a lot more miles in it.
This is my second 200 , Lucky we had a mild winter this year and not much salt was applied in the Philadelphia/ NewYork area ... Just lots of Corona .
Living in a area that loves to apply salt by the inch on the roads I try and hose the under side of any of my vehicles after a event . Toyota seems to lack in the paint / coating area on all of there vehicles ... Sucks you pay all this money and rots away if you don’t take steps to prevent .
I have this 2019 Land Cruiser and I just picked up a 2015 Tacoma that has already started to corrode .
I’m sure you can find posting about coatings a rust , I do Por-15 on the rusty stuff and repaint over factory and Cosmoline everything in everything else .
Living in a area that loves to apply salt by the inch on the roads I try and hose the under side of any of my vehicles after a event . Toyota seems to lack in the paint / coating area on all of there vehicles ... Sucks you pay all this money and rots away if you don’t take steps to prevent .
I have this 2019 Land Cruiser and I just picked up a 2015 Tacoma that has already started to corrode .
I’m sure you can find posting about coatings a rust , I do Por-15 on the rusty stuff and repaint over factory and Cosmoline everything in everything else .
The plastic bumper cover seems to hold all the salt and such against the rear frame member and cause all this rust. I really dont like this design, whether on the LC, LX, the Sequioa, 4Runner, Suburban and Tahoe, etc. All result in abnormal concentration of rust.
bjowett
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