ggebhardt

I think the 30K is a BIG service and the $950 is not out of line!

thronson

With all due respect, the likely culprit for the corrosion you experienced is probably lack of adequate care by you. It is certainly not a "lemon-law" or litigation issue.

I have owned 3 LX 470's, (along with a large number of other foreign and domestic SUVs and pickup trucks, starting with a 1970 Ford Bronco (a rust magnet if there ever was one) up to a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, and have put thousands of miles on them in severe, salt-laden conditions (the most recent LX spent 5 years in 4-5 month long Utah winters and the salt-filled West Desert over 55,000 miles). I have never had any corrosion on any of them (including the Bronco but especially the LXs) because once a month each winter I go to the 25 cent car wash and hose off the undercarriage for about $3 of quarters each time. Salt will corrode any ferrous metal over time, whether steel or iron, if it is left on the surface of that metal. You can't expect undercarriage parts on any vehicle to survive in those conditions if they are not periodically rinsed off. In the summer, when it is warm, I get under the vehicle on a Saturday morning with a garden hose and make sure the entire undercarriage is thoroughly hosed down and rinsed off, in case there were any places I missed during the winter.

This may seem excessive, but when I plunk down $70,000 or more for a vehicle, especially one that I rely on to get me into and out of remote off-road locations with my family like the LXs, I want to make sure that it stays reliable and lasts as long as possible.

The other common mistake people make is keeping a salt-laden vehicle in a heated garage. This will do nothing but accelerate the corrosion process.

One other comment regarding some of the posts here: There is nothing "retro" about the LX, if you keep in mind what it is and what it is designed to do. I frankly want a driveline that is tried and tested, and if it is 40 years old, fine by me, because it has passed the test of time. It is not a unibody "soft-roader," an unreliable "bling" wagon like a lot of Range Rovers, nor is it a Suburban in a Halloween costume like a Hummer H2. There is a reason Landcruisers dominate Africa and Australia, and when I am 150 miles out in the middle of nowhere, in 118-degree heat, I appreciate a vehicle that can get me home, especially in the comfort and relative luxury of the LX. It is not perfect, including the lack of dual temp controls, and some expensive service issues, but it is the best all-around vehicle I have yet owned.

pagemaster

What an angry rant...

The LX470 is no doubt a great SUV...however it was designed in the 1990's

tigmd99

Pagemaster, i hate to break it to you, but there are more than a few stories of FJ Cruisers and 4runners rusting to hell too. (You make it seem like the newer Toyota SUVs are immune to this problem...they are NOT.) The FJ frame was supposedly coated with an electro-blah-blah thingy to prevent rusting...according to some (many?) FJ owners, this is BS technology. So, the LX470 being an "old" design does NOT explain the rust issue. Example? See: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forum...ce-needed.html

So, a GX, 4runner, FJ, or LX can rust just as bad as the next car.

thronson

My post, Pagemaster, while lengthy was hardly an "angry rant." Rather, it was an observation based on many years of experience over many thousands of miles in over a dozen SUVs including 3 LXs, and my training in mechanical engineering. No manufacturer that I am aware of would cover damage like this, because it is frankly evidence of neglect, pure and simple. As I said, these vehicles are not perfect, but neither are they "rustbuckets."

These vehicles are not cheap, and not cheaply made. The disc brakes are cast iron, and the calipers are high-strength ductile iron. Think about it, how is it possible for this material to be so corroded after just a few years and 25,000 miles if they had received proper care? The rest of the undercarriage is mostly steel with steel components. Same question.

Your explanation that these vehicles were built with 1990's rustproofing technology assumes that there has been some change in the last 15-20 years in the science of rust prevention in motor vehicles. There hasn't. Porsche was the first manufacturer to fully galvanize their vehicles (at the time, only the 911) and that was in the 1970's. Mercedes and some other higher end manufacturers "hot dipped" their vehicles, and that was in the 1980's. If anything, with the price competition in the market, vehlcle decontenting and the push toward lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles (with thinner-guage steel and lighter-weight components) less attention has been placed on rust prevention in the last decade.

So it is unfortunate if my post offended you, but it seems to me that to sugar coat the likely cause of this problem is a disservice to the readers of this forum, who might be unaware of the need to pay some brief periodic attention to the underside of their LX.

One final note: Undercoating is almost never recommended anymore, because the undercoating eventually peels, forming pockets for salt to accumulate, accelerating the corrosion process. In addition, none of the corroded components complained about are ever undercoated anyway. Plain old fresh water every once in a while is all that is needed.

goozer

Pretty scary. Corrosion is the enemy.....I can live with just about anything else. A new LX470 lists for about $80K. At that price they should be covered from head to toe for life.

SC400slide

iTrader: (11)

Whoa, old thread bump!

V8_Fan

A friend of mine who lives along the coast in CA had the tailgate on his 01 Landcruiser corrode, tried to file a corrosion warranty claim, but Toyota says it has to rust all the way through. You don't have a Ziebarts there? I used to own a 84 Toyota pickup, and those were known to be rust buckets. When I moved to NY, I had it coated by Ziebarts. I subsequently drove it for 6 yrs in Upstate NY (heavy road salt, like PA), and only the tailgate rusted. The side panel seams that seemingly fall apart on non-coated trucks were rust-free. You are supposed to power hose the undercarriage every once in a while. A DIY solution is that spray tar that you buy for pruning tree branches. You can spray that on the undercarriage after you've power-washed and scrubbed the undercarriage very well. I would get everything on the bottom minus the exhaust (nothin' you can do about that other than to get stainless=$$$$). The equivalent is that spray on oil/tar the put on roads during the summer before they chip-seal them. If you drive on them, your entire underbody will become coated & sealed.