John00

Looks similar to my 2012 with about 90k. Midwest vehicle since new, winter road salt can do that.

coolsaber

not an expert on rust, but once I see rust on a BOF, its smart to just move on. For example the skid plate is removable, but with such rusty bolts, I bet any torque will sheer those bolts right off, and present its own set of problems. Dealers can be asked to fix the rust, but knowing that this vehicle is on the NE, they`ll probably state that almost all vehicles here have some level of rust as normal. But cannot say the dealer might fix it, worst is you can try.

John00

did happen on mine. sheared 2 of the bolts removing the plate to do the oil change. then had to cut the bolts, grind the nuts, reweld, paint, etc.
wasnt a big deal for me since i have the tools, but made me wonder about the shop actually removing the oil filter in the past.

care when fixing rust. some approaches can actually make it worse with trapped moisture under a coating, chemical reaction to certain coatings, etc.

coolsaber

Side note:
It happens when you dont understand rust, but are in a rush to cure it. If you see it visibly, wire wheel it off or use a rust converter. Once there you can apply a film of rust inhibitor. Worst thing you can do is just spray paint ontop of rust, effectively sealing in the moisture to continue to do more damage or use bedliner to cover up the rust.

ivy

Thanks. It's good to know that it's not an outlier for the model/year/region combo. That would make it a bit tougher to pressure the dealer though but also lower my expectations on what I should expect to find.

ivy

I came to a similar conclusion after reading as much as possible about rust, since I have 0 real world experience. Unfortunately, many of the body shop web pages I visited focus on covering the problem (with various plastic coats, paints, etc). On the contrary, most of the car enthusiasts and DIYers go the rust converter way, which seems quite more logical.
That said, there are also DIYers that don't seem to be doing it properly imho but they are usually the minority
The cost for the DIY way is also quite low. Needs a bit of time to do it properly (clean, wheel/converter, etc) but the cost is not a big deal.
Unfortunately, lifting the car might be a roadblock for me. So DIY is probably not feasible.
So the question is, should I buy, and if the dealer doesn't accept to do anything, how much would you expect it to cost to get the rust treated properly?

tecman

ivy

That's a good question.
This is the situation:
There are not that many available in ~150M radius. A new one shows up every 10-20 days, which is not half bad.
There is no rush.
All I've seen had something serious until now.
E.g. no service records (or with huge gaps), serious interior issues or problems during the test drive/visit.
I didn't really care about this one (it has more miles than my target, which was 80-90 and it's base trim), until the visit.
It's 110K miles but quite meticulously serviced in Lexus dealerships, was certified by Lexus at around 60K miles. The exterior is almost mint and interior is one of the best I've seen.
Price-wise is below 20K, which is also less than what I've expected to pay.
So, if rust wasn't there I would consider it a rather nice one. As I mentioned, I'm not familiar with rust.
I'm trying to understand if this is a no-go, something fixable or something negligible.
If I have to fix it, is it something expensive? Will it change the budget significantly?
I don't have the skills to assess it.
That's why I've asked for help from the Lexus family.
I'm really grateful to you and everyone here for taking the time to share your experience.

Romanova

Say you buy a TX rig that is rust free... it's going to rust up there in a few years anyways. I guess you have to look at how long you plan on keeping the vehicle. Perhaps if you got a rust free southern rig, you could try and use a rust inhibitor to slow things down and prolong your use of the vehicle?

ivy

That was my original plan but I canceled after seeing a few vehicles from up close. The photos were amazing but the difference vs real life was massive, so I decided no to buy a car I haven't personally seen up close. So this adds e.g. 500$ for a round-trip and ~1K to ship the car to NE + paperwork. Furthermore, if the car you see doesn't not meet your expectations, you'll have to repeat the trip, which introduces the time component. I thought of using these companies that go check the car for you but it seemed to increase cost, time, effort, etc. I was aiming mostly for SC and TX.
I would like to keep the car for a few years if possible.

CanadaGX

coolsaber

-In the great words of scotty kilmer, folks come down to texas to buy our rust free cars and drive em back up lol

-Another great source of info for vehicles, and true rust experts is to ask the folks on a GX community facebook group that some here use or IH8mud, the dudes who are crazy about rust.

ivy

Thanks! I'll check them out.

Acrad

Don't some use Kroil or Fluid Film?

https://www.fluid-film.com/automotive-applications/

coolsaber

Yup Kroils got a couple of youtube videos as well with some popular Youtuber mechanics. While I dont personally know the outcomes, its probably the less messiest solution compared to the old shade tree mechanic of spraying used engine oil on frames lol.