New Truck - Undercoating ?

[LIforrelaxin]

Originally Posted by songkrai

But the bottom line is that steel rusts. The rust begins while sitting on the new car lot. Clamps, bolts, brake lines, etc. may be of ordinary cheep unpainted steel that does begin to rust right away.

Ding Ding Ding.... yes that is the truth. And the beginning and end of the story...

While you may feel good about spraying the underside of your truck with oil, and you may think it looks as good as new, it is not. I know people that have done this for years, some who even still do it.

Living in Vermont for 10 years I heard it all...... But I watched vehicles of the same age, go through the same issues regardless of under coating... The biggest thing you can do is to make sure you wash the undercarriage of you vehicle through out the winter months.....

Eventually brake lines go, if you look at them weeks after your oil treatment, you will find not much oil remains... Same thing goes for bushings, rubber boots, etc. These are things that people that keeps cars long term expect to replace..... Oil Treatement or no oil treatment, weather, salt grime etc. all eventually brake these components down....

What you fear replacing is the frame of the vehicle.... Which are hollow steel on trucks.... the best protection for them is provided at where they are produced..... when they get a nice paint bath... Your right the fear is rotting from the inside out.... Companies used to only paint the outside of frames.... and yep the oil would help some what as it would get up in side, through the various wholes in the frame, and protect the inside.... if the frames have been dip coated this simply isn't as big of a problem anymore....

[Woodsy]

While I do agree that modern cars are somewhat protected.. the use of brine on the roads as a deicer changes the game. Brine solution use magnesium chloride instead of sodium chloride (rock salt). It eats metal like nobody's business!

As an Mech Engineer, I did a lot of research and ultimately went with NH Oil Undercoating for my 2017 F-150..... its essentially mineral oil mixed with graphite. It works amazingly well! It cost approx $200 for first app, and they get you $100 for a reapply every other year or so. They pulled off all the frame plugs and sprayed inside the nooks and crannies, rocker panels etc etc.

Woodsy

[MAXUM]

Originally Posted by LIforrelaxin

Ding Ding Ding.... yes that is the truth. And the beginning and end of the story...

While you may feel good about spraying the underside of your truck with oil, and you may think it looks as good as new, it is not. I know people that have done this for years, some who even still do it.

Living in Vermont for 10 years I heard it all...... But I watched vehicles of the same age, go through the same issues regardless of under coating... The biggest thing you can do is to make sure you wash the undercarriage of you vehicle through out the winter months.....

Eventually brake lines go, if you look at them weeks after your oil treatment, you will find not much oil remains... Same thing goes for bushings, rubber boots, etc. These are things that people that keeps cars long term expect to replace..... Oil Treatement or no oil treatment, weather, salt grime etc. all eventually brake these components down....

What you fear replacing is the frame of the vehicle.... Which are hollow steel on trucks.... the best protection for them is provided at where they are produced..... when they get a nice paint bath... Your right the fear is rotting from the inside out.... Companies used to only paint the outside of frames.... and yep the oil would help some what as it would get up in side, through the various wholes in the frame, and protect the inside.... if the frames have been dip coated this simply isn't as big of a problem anymore....

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. I drive probably one of only a few Toyota Tacomas that is still sitting on it's original factory frame and if you wipe away the oil buildup the paint on the frame is bright and shiny black. There is zero corrosion under it at all - and that includes the door seams, inside of the fenders, bed and rear bumper - all original and all as new. It does work but what is used does make a difference. I do it myself and apply straight 90 weight gear oil that is heated at the time of application. Once it cools it gets thick and sticky, then I run it up and down a dry dusty dirt road a few times. That lasts a long time, after 10 years there is enough build up that I just have to touch up the wheel wells a little bit here and there every year the rest of the bottom is soaked with oil. I also use that oil because it does not attack the plastic or rubber in fact it helps preserve the rubber from dry rot.

Been doing it on all my vehicles and it's awesome. In fact the guys that inspect my truck love it because everything is mint and just comes apart no rust to screw around with. The one thing it does not help with is the exhaust because the oil burns off that after application.

I've posted pics of the under side of my truck in another thread as proof of it's effectiveness.