Warning! Graphic pictures contained in this thread. May be disturbing to some viewers (this is a pun)

[clevelandLCguy]

My poor 200 has seen a lot of Cleveland winters. I got it for a great price a couple years ago, but the damage had already been done. Today I got under it to do an oil change** and saw this disturbing view. Both of those braces are completely rusted through. Can anyone identify their nomenclature and/or provide p/n's for replacement? With all the other corrosion under there, it's probably not worth doing much, but these look easy to replace, so I might as well.

** Does anyone else feel like the Toyota engineers sat down and said, "How can we make our future owners take a shower in oil when they do changes?"

 

[Artie]

I’m going to have difficulty sleeping tonight… THANKS!

 

[TeCKis300]

Not great, but perhaps it's worse than it appears. That brace is not structural and functions only as skid protection for the transmission pan. It's also been known to easily rust out.

Just replace it. And get some underbody rust protection for the rest of the chassis.

 

[Chamba]

I love Cleveland. I spend a lot of time up there. I was based there in the 90s. Great people, loads of quality places, great food and beer, quality pubs, the waterfront is amongst the best of any of the lake cities.... but what you folks do to cars is unforgivable.

What I truly love about the baby Duramax in my Silverado and my wife's Tahoe is how easy and clean changing the oil is. Every Toyota I've ever had is awful for changing the oil, but with my Duramax I actually look forward to changing the oil. Toyota could learn a lot from Chevy.

 

[AZLX570]

A lot of people when they go with aftermarket skids get rid of the brace/components you're referencing. You can get virtually new takeoffs for very little cost from members here.

Start doing fluid film underneath there every year. It doesn't look awful (yet) and can be saved once you replace those easy rusted out components.

 

[stonepa]

Those parts are easily sourced from Toyota and are easily replaceable. If your transmission shield looks like that than the t-case skid has to be bad too (looks bad from photo). Order some new ones, replace, and fluid film or woolwax the underside, doors, body panels, rockers, and tailgate every year. That will stop the rot.

 

[Battleship]

Let the bolts simmer in some PB Blaster for a while before removal.

 

[hoser]

Can also replace with an aluminum "skid" plate.... one that can be installed a la carte. I don't have a recommendation but this one comes to mind.

 

[clevelandLCguy]

I love Cleveland. I spend a lot of time up there. I was based there in the 90s. Great people, loads of quality places, great food and beer, quality pubs, the waterfront is amongst the best of any of the lake cities.... but what you folks do to cars is unforgivable.

What I truly love about the baby Duramax in my Silverado and my wife's Tahoe is how easy and clean changing the oil is. Every Toyota I've ever had is awful for changing the oil, but with my Duramax I actually look forward to changing the oil. Toyota could learn a lot from Chevy.

I agree, Chamba. What Cleveland does to our cars is one of the only real downsides to living here. It didn't bother me so much, back when cars weren't ridiculously overpriced, overcomplicated, and designed to be replaced in five years, but now that they are, and I have a driveway/garage full of older and better cars I want to keep for as long as possible, it really bugs me. I own five cars, and only drive two of them year round for this exact reason. My S2000, GX460 and RAV4 that has never seen road salt, sit on battery chargers all winter.