When I purchased my 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser from a used car dealership, I did a quick scan of the underside, but it appeared to be in good condition but it didn't take long for the heavily caked up paint to start crumbling away which revealed extreme rust on the frame and suspension components.
By the fall of 2019, the rear brake calipers seized up completely and were replaced along with the pads and rotors. Shortly thereafter, the front brake components deteriorated rapidly and those components were also replaced. Upon visual inspection it was obvious that all 4 calipers failed due to the build-up of rust.
In February of 2020 the radiator developed a leak and had to be replaced but the radiator mounts had rusted so badly that they were unusable and needed to be replaced. Literally EVERY piece of metal on the underside of my vehicle is in an advanced stage of deterioration due to the relentless invasion of rust.
My truck has 137,000 miles and still looks new from a distance, but the underside of it looks worse than an old abandoned farm tractor that has been sitting outside in a field for 100 years and I'm not exaggerating. It's probably dangerous to drive but I'm no expert so I don't even know what the warning signs might even look like or feel like, but I do know that a 13 year old vehicle with less than 150,000 miles should be in better shape than mine is, so this is nowhere near "normal wear and tear". My wife's 2003 Nissan is rust free so I feel it should be addressed by Toyota. Our lives are at stake here and a lot of us don't understand just how dangerous it is to keep driving our vehicles.
Where to start? The gas tank strap rusted through, so it's about to fall off, the control arm broke off, so the rear end just swings on the axle, and the exhaust bolts are pretty much gone. The undercarriage looks like it has 250,000 miles on it instead of 33,704.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
When I purchased my 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser from a used car dealership, I did a quick scan of the underside, but it appeared to be in good condition but it didn't take long for the heavily caked up paint to start crumbling away which revealed extreme rust on the frame and suspension components.
By the fall of 2019, the rear brake calipers seized up completely and were replaced along with the pads and rotors. Shortly thereafter, the front brake components deteriorated rapidly and those components were also replaced. Upon visual inspection it was obvious that all 4 calipers failed due to the build-up of rust.
In February of 2020 the radiator developed a leak and had to be replaced but the radiator mounts had rusted so badly that they were unusable and needed to be replaced. Literally EVERY piece of metal on the underside of my vehicle is in an advanced stage of deterioration due to the relentless invasion of rust.
My truck has 137,000 miles and still looks new from a distance, but the underside of it looks worse than an old abandoned farm tractor that has been sitting outside in a field for 100 years and I'm not exaggerating. It's probably dangerous to drive but I'm no expert so I don't even know what the warning signs might even look like or feel like, but I do know that a 13 year old vehicle with less than 150,000 miles should be in better shape than mine is, so this is nowhere near "normal wear and tear". My wife's 2003 Nissan is rust free so I feel it should be addressed by Toyota. Our lives are at stake here and a lot of us don't understand just how dangerous it is to keep driving our vehicles.
- Stephen C., Roswell, US