Rust on chassis leg

[Jayw13702]

Cleaning the engine bay this morning and I notice this

 

 

 

The car has done 94,000 miles and tbh I’m quite disappointed that there is rust that is this bad.

 

Anyone else found anything similar?

 

 

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[Malc]

that certainly looks rather more than simply surface rust 

best get into that pronto and clean it up proper and treat it before it sets in fully and eats away at everything else attached

just terrible for a 5 year old car, let alone a Lexus

Malc

[200h]

Hi Jason

looking at your location do you live by the sea ???

cars that live by the sea or more prone to rust

due to the enviroment .

still go and get it checked out at lexus.

[Jayw13702]

Hi Jason
looking at your location do you live by the sea ???
cars that live by the sea or more prone to rust
due to the enviroment .
still go and get it checked out at lexus.

Yes, but I’ve only had the car 6 month and it came from Leicestershire.

I may pop over to my dealers and let them have a look at it


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[cadman2k]

Whatever has gone on, it looks as though that particular area has either been pooling water or capturing a lot of moisture. You can see from your picture, the bolt at the top left of the picture has surface rusted also which kind of suggests the area is a moisture trap. It will be interesting to know once investigated what has been happening. I know that toyota, lexus bolts can be prone to rusting in general although your issue is a bit more than bolt rust. Irrespective of the mileage as you say its a bit worrying for a 2014 car to do this. The only other reason I suspect could be a manufacturing defect. It would be good to compare another members similar picture in the same area on a similar age car. May be worth a shout out on the forum for someone to to that. 

[Malc]

wonder ....  did your car come originally with the 12 year rust warranty  ?  ( this seems to have been standard on the Ls430 if i remember )

Malc

[matt8]

11 hours ago, Malc said:

wonder ....  did your car come originally with the 12 year rust warranty  ?  ( this seems to have been standard on the Ls430 if i remember )

Malc

That's a great call...

12 year anti-corrosion, but only 3 years for surface rust. This is more than just surface rust!

https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/warranty/

[ganzoom]

2015 car, owned from new, engine bay not cleaned ever, also based in Leicester.

Had a look at the same area, clearly a dirt/moisture trap, but a quick wipe with my fingers shows all is fine. The brown bits are just bits of mud/dirt.

 

[[

[rayaans]

Would suspect it may be due to cleaning of the engine bay and the water just pooling there afterwards.

[matt8]

Isn't OP a taxi driver?

I'd have thought the running of engine at such lengths would have taken care of any moisture through evaporation...

Maybe washing of engine bay prior to ownership...

[rayaans]

11 minutes ago, matt8 said:

Isn't OP a taxi driver?

I'd have thought the running of engine at such lengths would have taken care of any moisture through evaporation...

Maybe washing of engine bay prior to ownership...

Yes most likely. I know that Lexus do clean the engine bay before sale but they always use damp rags and an air blower, no free water goes anywhere near there. 

However, independent valeters have a nasty habit of putting the pressure washer in the engine bay so possibly

 

[Jayw13702]

Isn't OP a taxi driver?

I'd have thought the running of engine at such lengths would have taken care of any moisture through evaporation...

Maybe washing of engine bay prior to ownership...

 

 

Yes I’m a taxi driver [emoji1303] the car is working for 8-10 hours a day 5 days a week.

 

If/ when I clean the engine bay it is always done using all purpose cleaner and then washed down with water, and then dried off afterwards. I’m a bit OCD about my cars.

 

Given that the opposite side isn’t like this I am of the belief this is just a product of substandard protection being applied at the factory, and sadly my expectations with Lexus are that they will not do anything with it as the warranty is now “corrosion perforation” rather than surface rust which is the first 3 years.

 

I will see that the dealers say about this though

 

 

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[Steve44]

Pretty much impossible for new cars these days to have incorrectly applied rust protection. Virtually all body in whites are dipped while electro-statically charged, so    all the metal work is coated to a specific depth. 

Sure it hasn’t ever been repaired post accident damage?

[Jayw13702]

Pretty much impossible for new cars these days to have incorrectly applied rust protection. Virtually all body in whites are dipped while electro-statically charged, so    all the metal work is coated to a specific depth. 
Sure it hasn’t ever been repaired post accident damage?

That was my first thought but then I’ve check all the date stamps on all the parts in that area and they’re all 2013 dates, also there’s no evidence of overspray and all the panels still have their chassis number stickers on them


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[sheamus]

Mine is the same if not worse - 115K 2013

[matt8]

Where are you taking these photos? Right side of the engine?

[Jayw13702]

Where are you taking these photos? Right side of the engine?

Mine is drivers side of the car (rhd)


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[Jayw13702]

Mine is the same if not worse - 115K 2013

That’s quite worrying, mines only about 20k less miles than yours


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[Jayw13702]

Today is the first chance I’ve had to pop into the Lexus dealers, what an experience that was!!

So I explained what I felt the problem was and immediately they became very defensive, when I mentioned that it was the chassis leg their first reaction was that I was maybe being a bit unreasonable as the underside of the vehicle is susceptible to stone chips. I then pointed out that the chassis leg was in the engine bay and whilst I appreciate it would be exposed to moisture, heat, some road debris it wasn’t frequently being attacked by stones.

They then enquired about the Vehicles history, mine has full history up to 60,000 miles and then I have it serviced by a specialist and have done for the last 40,000 miles. At this point they commented that Lexus would most probably reject my claim as the vehicle doesn’t have full Lexus history and things like the hybrid Battery haven’t been checked on annual basis. When I asked them what the relevance of the hybrid Battery was on a bodywork warranty claim they tried to tell me that it was all linked in together.

To cut a long story short the car is due in for inspection next Tuesday afternoon, the truth be told I am expecting Lexus to reject the claim and leave me to rectify the excessive rust on the chassis leg.

 

If this does happen then this will be the last Lexus that I ever buy, a five-year-old car with this much corrosion to me is unacceptable, my oldest Toyota prius which is now 14 years old and has close to 400,000 miles on it still doesn’t have the level of corrosion that a five-year-old Lexus with 95,000 miles has on it

 

 

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[wharfhouse]

Having read this thread managed to have a look at my car in that area today. I have a 64 reg with 71K miles on it. When I looked I initially thought it was rusty too but on closer examination I wiped it with a wet finger (access it very tight just there) and like Ganzoom found that it was brown sandy dust that was stuck there. The black painted bracket that is bolted on there did have a bit of rust on it (the paint had peeled a bit) but the actual chassis leg was not rusty but just sandy/dirty.

[olliesgrandad]

4 hours ago, Jayw13702 said:

Today is the first chance I’ve had to pop into the Lexus dealers, what an experience that was!!

So I explained what I felt the problem was and immediately they became very defensive, when I mentioned that it was the chassis leg their first reaction was that I was maybe being a bit unreasonable as the underside of the vehicle is susceptible to stone chips. I then pointed out that the chassis leg was in the engine bay and whilst I appreciate it would be exposed to moisture, heat, some road debris it wasn’t frequently being attacked by stones.

They then enquired about the Vehicles history, mine has full history up to 60,000 miles and then I have it serviced by a specialist and have done for the last 40,000 miles. At this point they commented that Lexus would most probably reject my claim as the vehicle doesn’t have full Lexus history and things like the hybrid battery haven’t been checked on annual basis. When I asked them what the relevance of the hybrid battery was on a bodywork warranty claim they tried to tell me that it was all linked in together.

To cut a long story short the car is due in for inspection next Tuesday afternoon, the truth be told I am expecting Lexus to reject the claim and leave me to rectify the excessive rust on the chassis leg.

 

If this does happen then this will be the last Lexus that I ever buy, a five-year-old car with this much corrosion to me is unacceptable, my oldest Toyota prius which is now 14 years old and has close to 400,000 miles on it still doesn’t have the level of corrosion that a five-year-old Lexus with 95,000 miles has on it

 

 

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My corroded alloy wheel claim was rejected by Lexus Warranty,  ( car out of 3 year warranty)but then the matter was referred by the Dealer to Lexus Customer Service who authorised repair, so its worth pushing that aspect if you don't get any joy initially.

[Thackeray]

On 2/23/2019 at 9:55 AM, Jayw13702 said:

The car has done 94,000 miles and tbh I’m quite disappointed that there is rust that is this bad.

 

Anyone else found anything similar?

 

On 2/26/2019 at 7:58 PM, sheamus said:

Mine is the same if not worse - 115K 2013

I had a look at my 64 reg car and found that the metal looks clean and the paintwork undamaged. The bolthead is showing a bit of corrosion but the main structure looks ok.

However, the benefit of a forum like this is that you might be able to find others who do have the same problem. For a start it might be worth joining forces with sheamus to make a joint complaint.

As there are at least two cars that have this problem, it could be helpful to start a new thread to attract the attention of others who may have skipped over this topic. For example, you could head it "Joint complaint to Lexus - Please check for rust in engine bay". 

You could also put a poll at the top of the thread asking people to vote yes or no if they have rust in this location in the engine bay. That would help give an overview of how widespread the problem is.

[cadman2k]

This potentially appears to be a common problem. It may be series/age specific so the more members that check the more data will be available to bottom out this issue. 

[wharfhouse]

Could also try posting on any US forums as such a problem would affect all IS cars not just hybrids and there are many more IS sold over there than here.

[reeac]

I'm still not sure of the location. Is it below and slightly in front of the air filter?