I know where YOUR truck will rust out first

heavy4x4 · April 17, 2006

Hey guys (and gals)...

I washed my truck this weekend, and while I was looking over some stuff, I found a horrible engineering mistake on GM's part.

Open the front doors on either side of your truck. From inside the open door, look "into" the front fender. At the bottom, you'll see a piece of foam rubber. Pull that piece of foam rubber to the side, and if your truck is anything like mine, you'll find a whole mess of wet leaves, sand, grit, mud, etc. I can only guess this stuff finds it's way in there either through the cowl or between the plastic and metal inner-fenders.

I suggest you check this spot and clean it out periodically if it needs it! I found blasting it with a hose was the best way to do this.

Thanks, GM, for not caring about corrosion engineering...I guess maybe they were thinking about profits because if your truck rusts out, you'll probably go buy a new one.

-Steve

(Sorry if this is a well-known issue already and I'm not contributing any new information)

sjspor · April 17, 2006

Heck, i had the passenger side door sand blasted and painted 2 years ago. Its the rust around the hood latch that has me worried.

MS3DALE · April 17, 2006

Actually from what we're seeing here at the dealership the '99's and early 2000 extended cabs without the fourth door are rusting at the bottom of the drivers side quarter panel,GM decided to spray an expandable foam in there for noise reduction.

We haven't seen any fenders rust out but we have seen a few door bottoms that were pretty nasty like sjspor ran into.

And yes the hood latch area is real common,Almost every '99-up truck I've seen has had some kind of rust in that area,Me and all the guys in the body shop that have these trucks have sprayed an inner panel rustproofer that penetrates between the inner and outer hood panel to prevent rust (We use the stuff from Kent Automotive) So far on my '04 thats almost 2 years old no sign of any rust around the hood latch area,My '99 I had had rust within a year in that area.

05W/T · April 17, 2006

My 05 has rust around the hood latch with only 10,500 miles on it, I bought it last August.

Brian

05 GMC Serria W/T RCLB 4.3 V-6 5-speed

89 Chevy K1500 RCSB 4.3 V-6 5-speed

jsbossert · April 17, 2006

I have a feeling what i did wont work, i silicone where the 2 pieces meet, but i probably rusts from the inside. Well if it rusts out guys, we have a good reason to tell our wives we need a new doom or cowl hood right?

cokedrvrbjw · April 17, 2006

I bet the inside of the bumpers is quicker than inside the fender. On my 03 Sierra, you can see in the bumper holes and see the inside of the bumper rust covered.

pm26 · April 18, 2006

I already sprayed the bottom door seams and hood edge seams with CRC marine corrosion inhibitor. It is a wax like substance that becomes tacky after it dries. It stays flexible and seals out any moisuture.

Another thing that I did to my truck was undercoating the rear fender wells, and parts of front fender wells not lined with plastic. GM left nothing but painted sheet metal at the mercy of sand and gravel, salt, and dust flying into the wheel wells. I used rubberized professional undercoating for this purpose. This undercoating dries in about ten minutes. You need about three or four coats to get decent coverage. I used up three cans of this stuff. You need to mask off areas you do not want oversprayed when you do this.

Next thing I am going to undercoat is the skid plates. I got a bucket of brush-on undercoating from JC Whitney for this purpose. It is water based, so it will take a little longer to dry. Nobody else seems to sell brush-on undercoating. You can buy a bucket of roof tar from Home Dpot for about $ 6.50, but that stuff is too thick to be practical as undercoating and takes forever to dry.

jhm · April 18, 2006

Hey guys (and gals)...

I washed my truck this weekend, and while I was looking over some stuff, I found a horrible engineering mistake on GM's part.

Open the front doors on either side of your truck. From inside the open door, look "into" the front fender. At the bottom, you'll see a piece of foam rubber. Pull that piece of foam rubber to the side, and if your truck is anything like mine, you'll find a whole mess of wet leaves, sand, grit, mud, etc. I can only guess this stuff finds it's way in there either through the cowl or between the plastic and metal inner-fenders.

I suggest you check this spot and clean it out periodically if it needs it! I found blasting it with a hose was the best way to do this.

Thanks, GM, for not caring about corrosion engineering...I guess maybe they were thinking about profits because if your truck rusts out, you'll probably go buy a new one.

-Steve

(Sorry if this is a well-known issue already and I'm not contributing any new information)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I never noticed the rubber in there before. I checked behind both and mine are clean, not even any dirt. I also noticed there is a drain hole on both sides. I personally do not see how this area would be a problem unless you were driving in swamps.

lrymal · April 18, 2006

...
I never noticed the rubber in there before. I checked behind both and mine are clean, not even any dirt. I also noticed there is a drain hole on both sides. I personally do not see how this area would be a problem unless you were driving in swamps.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mine are clean as well, on both the '03 and the '05. Both trucks are used in pasture and yucky grassy roads with mud. But, admittedly, I'm not sure WHY nothing is there in these cavities. They are fairly wide-open from the hood hinge area. I think a good periodic spraying with high-pressure wash would keep junk from stacking up in there.

Regarding rust... take the truck to the dealer. There is a rust warranty on this stuff. And of course, you guys are going to say that "my dealer won't honor..." yada yada yada. Take it in and raise heck about it, even if the truck is over 100,000 miles. Typically, if you use the right verbage, they'll offer a good-will warranty.

RyanZ71 · April 18, 2006

Not the dealers around here, when they say no, they mean it. And I found out through expierence that a dealer does not have to honor a Warranty. You could have a bad axle at 20,000 miles and take it in and they can say "I'm sorry but we are not going to honor that, have a nice day." You can call up GM or Ford or Toyota or whatever you have and cry like a sick baby and they can very easily blow you off. I heard about it on the radio as well and was shocked but legally a dealer doesn't have to honor the warranty on your truck.

jhm · April 18, 2006

Not the dealers around here, when they say no, they mean it. And I found out through expierence that a dealer does not have to honor a Warranty. You could have a bad axle at 20,000 miles and take it in and they can say "I'm sorry but we are not going to honor that, have a nice day." You can call up GM or Ford or Toyota or whatever you have and cry like a sick baby and they can very easily blow you off. I heard about it on the radio as well and was shocked but legally a dealer doesn't have to honor the warranty on your truck.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That probably is true in some states. Each state has different laws. You can read the warranties you get on anything and they always have that statement about some states not allowing the exceptions in the warranty. If a dealer refused to service your vehicle under warranty, I am sure the corporation would have to accomodate you with another dealer, transportation, etc. I know around here if they refused you service, it would be in the news and they would probably go out of business.

pwall · April 18, 2006

I live in Ontario, Canada where road salt is used heavily.

I have an 'anti-rust electronic thing' on my truck since new and I get it rust proofed each fall. Under the front hood, around the bumpers, a few small spots near the windows....geez, I'd hate to look further.

None of my Chrysler vechicles rusted this fast (not saying they didn't rust, just not as fast as my GM vechicles).