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I will never buy another GM vehicle - frame coating peeled off

Haus_Z71

By Haus_Z71
in Troubleshooting & Recalls

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HondaHawkGT Senior Enthusiast

HondaHawkGT

Posted
Posted

Guy, please read through the vibration thread, the entire 440+ pages of it and then be happy that your truck is one of the good ones. The problem you are worrying about about is very trivial compared to what other people are facing with these trucks. What you have is surface rust only on the frame that will not hurt anything. That frame will not rust through for years even if nothing is done to it.

 

Have lived in the rust belt at any time? The rust we develop from driving in the winter is the cancerous kind that rots holes in frames and body panels if left alone. Surface rust to holes in a matter of a few years.

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pm26 Senior Enthusiast

pm26

Posted
Posted

Have lived in the rust belt at any time? The rust we develop from driving in the winter is the cancerous kind that rots holes in frames and body panels if left alone. Surface rust to holes in a matter of a few years.

Yes,

 

I lived in the rust belt for a number of years. Now I live in coastal Florida, whose climate is extremely corrosive to unpainted steel, in fact worse than the rust belt.

 

The point I was trying to make to the original poster was that frame coating peeling off is not that big a deal and can easily be fixed. I would much rather have that issue with new truck than dozens of other annoying issues others are having and complaining about on this site. I certainly am not defending GM for this yet another flaw in their quality control.

Graphic Enthusiast

Graphic

Posted
Posted

I live in indiana. Plenty of salt and brine on the roads in the winter. This a definite problem with the coating on some of these trucks.

 

Do I think they will rust through? Maybe, but probably not. Depends on the source of the steel, how well it was refined, etc. Some of the pictures make me shutter... Long term results we'll have to wait for, and I wasn't going to be an experiment. We have seen how GM experiments with customers investments and lives. To hell with that...

 

Do we want to wait 5 years and take the financial risk that they will? No.

 

Did my 2008 Silverado and my wife's 2010 Avalanche look better than a truck with 8000 miles? Yes.

 

Does GM think this is a problem? Yes & No

 

Is GM fixing it? Meh...

 

Is GM losing long term customers over this? Yes, but not enough to put a big enough dent in the financials to make them listen yet.

 

How many DEATHS did it take to get the ignition switches taken care of?

Z45 Senior Enthusiast

Z45

Posted
Posted

I read this once and saved it.

 

 

The road-facing side of the truck is basically a sand-blasting cabinet at highway speeds.

ruggerag Enthusiast

ruggerag

Posted
Posted

I was at a trade show a couple years ago and they had some samples of oxifree. I think I'm going to call them and see if they have anyone local who would coat a truck frame. It looked pretty neat

JMD86 Enthusiast

JMD86

Posted
Posted

I purchased a new body style Sierra in late 2013 and in January of 15 the frame rust was pretty bad, took it to dealer through a long process with filing a claim with gm I was given a $4900 trade in assistance toward another gm vehicle! So I got a 15 Chevy and had the dealer spray an additional frame coating on top of the crappy wax coating gm uses. Almost a year later there are some SMALL sings of frame rust, mainly where the service departments lift comes in contact with the frame during services.... What r u going to do!?! If I had a ford, ram, Toyota, Nissan, armored tank... I would find something wrong with it, inside and out!!!

Haus_Z71 Enthusiast

Haus_Z71

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I purchased a new body style Sierra in late 2013 and in January of 15 the frame rust was pretty bad, took it to dealer through a long process with filing a claim with gm I was given a $4900 trade in assistance toward another gm vehicle! So I got a 15 Chevy and had the dealer spray an additional frame coating on top of the crappy wax coating gm uses. Almost a year later there are some SMALL sings of frame rust, mainly where the service departments lift comes in contact with the frame during services.... What r u going to do!?! If I had a ford, ram, Toyota, Nissan, armored tank... I would find something wrong with it, inside and out!!!

Thanks for sharing. I've never heard of trade in assistance. Although that would go against my whole thread title lol.

What am I going to do? Every spring and fall I'm going to clean up the rust myself. I'm going to sand down the exposed area, clean it, and retreat it myself. And just hope nothing serious happens, like this vibration issue I just read about!

Janster Enthusiast

Janster

Posted
Posted

Tacoma owner here..... and yes, Tacomas have had frame rust issues since the 1st gen trucks. Some history: I don't know exactly, but it took them at least 6 years before offering a solution to the owners. At that time, they offered a 15 year frame rust warranty. The first gen trucks (95-2000) were offered a 'buy back' program. If your frame failed inspection, they'd buy the truck back. If it passed, they'd spray it with this nasty black undercoating. 2001-2004 trucks were given complete frame replacements &/or undercoating. If you had the undercoating, it would extend the warranty to another 5 years from application. That 15 year warranty was cancelled by Toyota without notice (so I've read) just last year.

 

2nd Gen trucks - 2005-2008 are currently under another frame rust warranty. This time - if you fail frame inspection, you get a completely new frame. If you pass, you get the undercoating. To fail an inspection, all you need is a 2" sized hole thru the frame. My truck had a soft spot that they poked right thru it..... fail. My truck failed and I had my frame replaced about 3 month ago.

 

All this information is 'here-say' based on talk and experience. I've been around tacomas a long time but nobody truly knows why the frames are rusting. The ongoing rumors are - the frames weren't prepped properly from Dana Corp. They are rusting from the inside out (boxed areas).

I highly doubt Toyota is suffering and/or loosing money from this. If Dana Corp is 'at fault' - I'm pretty sure they're eating the costs.

 

Yes....a lot of the Toyota guys are going thru hoops and spending a lot of money on protecting the frames themselves. However - the rust is occurring from the INSIDE OUT. If you coat the outside - that doesn't help protect against internal rust. It is unknown (at this time) if the 2009-2015 trucks are affected by the rust issues.

 

So.....obviously, you guys at dealing with a completely different rust issue. So the question is...... If you have a new truck and don't see evidence of peeling yet....do you take that chance of spending all that time & money coating your frames only to discover later, that it'll peel off?

 

With the Tacoma rust.....there were guys who did all sorts of undercoatings only to discover their trucks failed the frame inspection anyway. Their frames were replaced and their undercoating efforts were gone/wasted. Nobody knows whether these newer frames are gonna last....

 

Sorry..that was long. Tell me to shutup! LOL

JMD86 Enthusiast

JMD86

Posted
Posted

Went to the local Chevy dealer this morning to look under a few trucks, new and old, and all makes. There wasn't a used Chevy/gmc truck on the lot that didn't have frame rust! Some worse than others. I also looked at a 2013 tundra, 2014 ram, 2014 high country, with minor frame rust. All cosmetic.... The 2016 new body style still had the wax coating so it's only a matter of time and miles before those show signs of rust! I found the oldest Chevy on the lot and looked at it as well. 07 159,000 miles, interior was pretty rough, so it probably wasn't and easy 159,000. The frame looked like hell!! You could actually pick flakes of rust off with you nail!! And the body panels under the door jamb were nearly rusted all the war through! But like I said the ford, ram, and Toyota all had some rust, so they are all going to do it at some point. The gm trucks are just a lot worse! I also noticed the dealer had poorly applied an under coating on a lot of the used trucks. As bad as spraying over large clumps of mud on the frame of an 13 ford raptor! Like I've told myself before if it's not one thing it's something else, ask my wife, if there is a flaw in my truck I will find it and beat myself up trying to correct it or justify buying a new truck! I'm still a gm fan, but damn I wish they would put a few more hours in there r & d for rust prevention!!!

Haus_Z71 Enthusiast

Haus_Z71

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Went to the local Chevy dealer this morning to look under a few trucks, new and old, and all makes. There wasn't a used Chevy/gmc truck on the lot that didn't have frame rust! Some worse than others. I also looked at a 2013 tundra, 2014 ram, 2014 high country, with minor frame rust. All cosmetic.... The 2016 new body style still had the wax coating so it's only a matter of time and miles before those show signs of rust! I found the oldest Chevy on the lot and looked at it as well. 07 159,000 miles, interior was pretty rough, so it probably wasn't and easy 159,000. The frame looked like hell!! You could actually pick flakes of rust off with you nail!!

I was curious myself after seeing my frame. Stopped at my local chevy dealer and checked out their used lot. They had 6 trucks all lined up. Only one had held up pretty well. The rest looked like this: http://imgur.com/a/vOC9T

That was a 2011 or a 2012.

JMD86 Enthusiast

JMD86

Posted
Posted

Yea that's abt what the 07 looked like! If I switched to fords, I'm sure I would fine something just as bad or worse. So I'll stick the rust buckets for now.

  • 2 weeks later...
Z45 Senior Enthusiast

Z45

Posted
Posted

Steel exposed to the environment is going to rust, unavoidable no matter how they try to prevent it. Rust started the day it was made. Look at all the steel bridges and overpass's.

pm26 Senior Enthusiast

pm26

Posted
Posted

Steel exposed to the environment is going to rust, unavoidable no matter how they try to prevent it. Rust started the day it was made. Look at all the steel bridges and overpass's.

Except that the steel on those is at least 10X thicker which makes a big difference. Surface rust is not a big deal for structural members 2 inches thick, but potentially troublesome for something only 1/8 of an inch thick.

Badass69 Senior Enthusiast

Badass69

Posted
Posted

It's concerning sure.... but I mean I own a truck approaching 30 years old with a rusty frame that has been rusty for a couple decades and it's still there...80's GM trucks don't have super thick frame rails either. If you plan on owning your truck for 20 years I see the concern... 5 or 7 years like a lot of guys... or even 10... the body will rot off it before the frame breaks in half lol. This waxy stuff has been awful for as long as gm has been using it and now it's just gotten a touch worse than it was.... honestly it's more their application seems to be lacking at least from what I saw on my truck. I remember peeling this crap off in sheets on every gm truck I have ever owned so to me it's nothing new. Undercoat the chassis and keep up with touching it up and it will be good for longer than most any of you will ever own it.

 

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