Help needed on severe corrosion

[Simon Drew]

Hi everyone,

I really need some advice on a pretty bad situation.

 I recently bought a 2010 Lexus RX450h from the UK, the car interior and body is in great condition but there is severe corrosion on the under body.

None of this was declared by the garage and I have gotten the vehicle accessed by Lexus and they cannot even quote to repair it the corrosion is that bad.

Here is the report which also includes a video of the car and effected areas, https://triage-eu.superservice.com/home/en-au/customer-authorisation/#/IZ08yJ&RDjuNJ;SUU=

i was wondering if anyone had any experience in this area or offer any advice?

Appreciate it and thanks in advice.

Simon

[Malc]

looks as if the car's been sat in a wet field for a number of years 

apart from changing the brake pipes and essential peripherals like that might the rest be just very heavy surface rust and if taken to a underbody spray protection business see if they might be able to jet off / wire brush down the areas and then spray / paint protective stuff over it

It might not be quite as bad as you think ................  you can buy a kurust type of product ( for house radiators ) that simply protects the real external metal from further corrosion and converts the existing rust to " good " metal once the loose stuff has been removed

Malc

[rich1068]

Get a second opinion. Surface rust can look horrendous but that might be all it is.

[steve2006]

Difficult to give advice, there is no mention of corrosion on any MOT even as an advisory. Corrosion is very subjective and to be fair it does look bad but not affecting the structure of the vehicle or it would have failed the test. Did it come from a coastal location?

For a 10 year old car on salty UK roads I’ve seen worse.

It depends on what you want to do about it, it has a recent MOT so you can’t really argue it’s not roadworthy as it must have been like that at the recent  MOT and time of purchase, I’m assuming you never inspected the car before buying it and have since discovered this corrosion?

Some Lexus dealers tend to exaggerate problems, at the end of the day they are a business making money, ironic how brake calliper sliding pins are not a Lexus service item so rarely get checked and subsequently seize but get mentioned as a cause when it comes to selling you new callipers, discs and pads.

Again tyres with a minimum of 4mm why are they recommending replacements if an MOT revealed no defects?

Get the rust sorted, a professional job would be around £500-600 and a second opinion on the other “defects”

 

 

[Simon Drew]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Yes, unfortunately I made the silly mistake of buying during lockdown from a reputable dealer who specializes in Lexus but they failed to declare any of the corrosion even after asking about the condition of the car.

I am waiting on some other opinions alright as Lexus are only suggesting to replace parts obviously.
 

Also, no advisories on the MOT is suspicious as there is rust on the brake and fuel lines which should be an advisory at a minimum. I am speaking to the dealer about this but have any of you seen this happen before or have any advice?

thanks and appreciate your help.

Simon

 

[Barry14UK]

2 hours ago, Simon Drew said:

2 hours ago, Simon Drew said:

Thanks everyone for the input.

Yes, unfortunately I made the silly mistake of buying during lockdown from a reputable dealer who specializes in Lexus but they failed to declare any of the corrosion even after asking about the condition of the car.

 

 

 

If I was in the same position and the dealer was indeed reputable and specialized in Lexus cars, I would get the car back to them and ask for my money back. This would be the safest way as dealing with corrosion can be a massive job made even more difficult if trying to do this without removing many components.  It's true that what looks like caked on mud could make this look worse than it is but are you prepared to chance this is the case without perhaps cleaning off and investigating a few sample areas?