I found this thread with google, after I noticed rust underneath my 2016 F150, which has not been driven in salt yet (not nearly as bad as O.P.'s truck though). There were spots on my frame rusting, and the rear axle was terrible, like it hadn't even been painted. The axle is just cosmetic, but the frame is a serious issue. Since they went to a thinner steel, it won't take as long to rust out. I can see E-coat inside the frame, so they probably E-coated the entire frame, then threw a half-***, thin coat of paint over the outside. Some of the welds were really crappy, too. Ford needs to get their engineers into the frame vendor's plant and straighten them out. There is also a spot in the frame where they welded on an extra layer of steel to reinforce it (right above the rear axle), but didn't weld it completely around the edges, and left it open on top. This is going to trap salt water between the two layers. Between that engineering flaw, the thin steel, and the inadequate coatings, I wouldn't be surprised if Ford ends up with a frame recall on these trucks (for northern states).

It's obvious that many of the posters in this thread have never been in the salt belt. It's not all sodium chloride (which is bad enough on it's own). Some of the salts are even more corrosive, especially the liquid magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. All it would take (for the corrosion in the O.P.'s pictures) is for someone to take that truck on a test drive, right after the road was sprayed with magnesium chloride, then park it on the lot without an underbody flush.

I spent an entire day under mine, putting POR15 on the rust spots, and then covering the entire frame and rear axle in Eastwood's chassis black 2K (catalyzed two-part paint). It pisses me off that I need to do this on a brand new truck. I wish they would outlaw the road salts and use nothing but sand, but we all know that won't happen any time soon. So all of the manufacturers need to do a better job of corrosion protection, but they probably won't. They don't want your vehicle to last that long, because they want to sell you a new one in 8 or 10 years.

 

Colorado exclusively uses Mag Chloride and it doesn't eat away at steel. Plastic chrome gets destroyed quite handily, but painted steel is ok.

Josh

 

My 2012 had way less rust! Unbelievable.

 

Colorado does not "exclusively" use magnesium chloride. They also use some sodium chloride and sand. https://www.wired.com/2014/12/colora...ay-clear-snow/ Your DOT also performed a study comparing the corrosiveness of those two, and they found that under the most common conditions, the magnesium chloride was worse, but in some conditions the sodium was worse. But magnesium chloride is most certainly corrosive to steel. https://codot.gov/programs/research/...magautocor.pdf


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...dd2_story.html


"In most states, brine is a mix of rock salt (sodium chloride) and magnesium chloride, dissolved in water so they can be sprayed on the road. “That’s a very important point, because magnesium chloride is much more corrosive than sodium chloride, the rock salt,” said Bob Baboian, an auto industry consultant and a fellow at the National Association of Corrosion Engineers."

 

That is not normal and I doubt it came from factory like that.

That looks like storm /water damage - look how even the aluminium is corroding. Pretty sure you can have the dealer prosecuted for fraud if he claimed that truck was new and did not disclose all that water damage. Check with your AG and you can probably get your money back.

 

That does NOT look like storm/water damage. You can see salt crystals in some of the pics. It looks like exactly what I said, further up this page: someone test drove it right after the road was sprayed with liquid salts (MgCl, NaCl, CaCl2, etc), and then they didn't wash it. Those salts just sit there, and every time it gets a bit humid and warms up a little, it starts corroding some more. The MgCl is especially bad for that, because it corrodes at lower humidity than the others do. FWIW, this is also why you shouldn't park a salty vehicle in the garage at night (especially a heated garage, but even an unheated garage is normally warmer than outside). There will be less corrosion if it's sitting out in the cold, dry air.

 

Looks like lot rot. The truck was probably sitting on gravel or dirt for a long time. I wouldn't even give it a second thought. If you are worried about it, paint it and be done with it.

 

Regardless of the cause, truck should not have been sold as a new vehicle when it is clearly not.

 

"new" is defined as a vehicle that hasn't been previously titled. It's a normal thing for cars and trucks to be driven while still owned by the selling dealer, mostly on test drives. If the truck was test driven through salt and not purchased, it's still new in every sense of the word.

 

No way I would accept that as new ..and I doubt the law would ether.

 

Surface rust who cares can't see it anyway

 

Surface rust on the axle is cosmetic. It's thick enough that it will likely never rust through or substantially weaken. The frames are another story, because these are the thinnest frames every put on a pickup truck. I've seen 20 year old Fords with the frame rusted through, and those were at least twice as thick. The "high strength steel" (that Ford talks about in every brochure) doesn't mean it won't rust through like weaker steel alloys.

And you can actually see it from above, especially in the wheel wells. But at least you can add more paint, which is much better than the wax coating that Chevy uses. It peels off gradually, rusting as it goes, and you can't paint over it. All you can do is try to touch up the bare spots as the wax peels, which is a never ending battle.

I realize that this isn't as issue for people who live outside of the salt belt. But for people there, it's a huge issue.

 

Ill throw my thoughts into this thread, over the years, ive been to many boat/outdoor shows. Boat manufacturers showing off there new models and such, what i also see is that local truck dealers, regardless of manufacturer, ive seen toyo/chev/dodge all bringing there latest fleet to get some free advertising and easy sales. Having said that, ive also seen some of these trucks, new, used over the course of the show to launch boats in/out of the water. If by any chance the OP lives near salt water or the dealer he bought from is located near salt water and sent some trucks to such an event, this could have happened. I did not see any mileage posted by the OP when he picked up his new truck, but if it had some miles, id be looking for nearby marina's and getting some proof that perhaps this dealer was present. Either way, yes the truck is new, never titled but this is not in anyway fair at all, hope this works out in the way the the OP wants but dang, thats just not right!!!

 

Very normal. Many of those surfaces are NOT painted, but bare metal. One drive on a rainy day then sit out for a couple weeks will duplicate. I never understand why people get so bent about this. I like a perfect truck as much as the next guy, but this is unavoidable unless your truck will never see rain, snow, sleet or high humidity EVER, and even that is a stretch.

 

Exactly. All manufacturers are going to have issues. It's how they deal with them that matters. When was the last time Ford wrote a five digit check to owners to correct something? You can save your time googling it because the answer is NEVER.

In fact they have a history of doing the exact opposite. Not acknowledging there is a problem and then doing the least they can get away with to fix it. Toyota cut $15,000 checks and in some instances replaced entire frames on trucks that were OUT OF WARRANTY. Ford cares about its potential customers. Not its current owners.