Ru5tY

Hi, my mom has a 2008 Lexus ES350 and I recently noticed that there are rust spots/stains around the door handles. It is most obvious on the driver's door, and less on the other doors because my mom is the only one that uses the car. We live in Toronto so we get winter weather for half the year, but still, it seems a bit early for rust like this. The car is normally parked inside a garage. I pulled back the door handle and flipped the black rubber back, and noticed that it is the bolt inside that is rusting, and this is consistent for all 4 doors. Has this happened to anyone else, and how did you fix it? Thanks. Pics attached.

My wife drives a white 2010 RX350 and I checked the same door area, and our car was fine. Looks like the bolts on ours was coated, but it doesn't appear to be the case for the 2008 ES350.

iceblast

Haven't had this issue on my 2007 ES. They salt the roads like mad here in addition to all the moisture, and haven't had an issue. I began doing Krown rust proofing last year. Not a bad idea. I would replace those screws if you can, and coat them with white grease.

I am no expert on this, but it may be just rust embedding itself in your clearcoat from that screw. It may not be actual rust perforation. Do a search on "rail rust" some of the guys here have experienced this during PDI, and it shows heavily on their lighter colour vehicles.

dman00001

Definitely looks unusual to me as well. You didn't mention anything about the history of the car so perhaps there's some clues there. I hear a lot of flood cars are hitting the market lately from the recent hurricanes and floods the last year or two.

Ru5tY

The car was purchased in 2011 as a Certified used vehicle from a Lexus dealer in the GTA. The carproof was clean, and I visually inspected every single panel and there were no signs of repainting or any previous damage. Every panel also had the etching with the serial number, so it doesn't seem like any of the panels were off.

Thanks for the feedback. We've raised the issue with the Lexus dealer, so we are awaiting their response.

mlacomb

Most of that looks like surface rust, perhaps iron particles got trapped in there and rusted on top of the paint? That's what it looks like to me; a majority of it would come off with a good cleaner/polish.

Nicci

I noticed this is an older thread but can anyone provide an update? My 2007 RX350 has developed some minor rust around the doors handles and looks similar to the pictures posted by Rusty. Did changing the bolts and adding white grease as suggested resolve the issue? It was suggested by my local Krown Rust provider who also happens to be an auto detailer that it is safe ti use nail polisher remover to remove the surface rust around the handles. Any thoughts or updates? Thanks.

Ru5tY

You can remove the surface rust around the handle, but the problem will keep coming back until you get rid of that rusted bolt.

Since the rusted bolt is part of the door frame subassembly, they claim they weren't able to just replace that bolt on each door. Instead, they had to replace the subassembly entirely for each door.

The dealer offered to pay 70% of the repair cost, and for us to pay 30% of the repair cost.

This is what we were quoted:
Front door frame handles = $798.80 x 30% = $239.64 plus 13% tax ($31.16) = $270.80
Rear door frame handles = $756.20 x 30% = $226.86 plus 13% tax ($29.50) = $256.36
Total cost for the repair with taxes = $527.16

Here is one of door frame subassembly that they replaced. The rusted bolt is in the middle.


I considered buying the parts on ebay and doing it myself, but it looked too complicated for my skill level. Here are the instructions to take apart the door.
http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/jo...25613_door.pdf


It's been about 1.5 years, but I haven't checked to see if it's rusted again or not. I'll check next time I see my mom.

ipotkonjak

Ru5Ty

Thanks for your post. and detail explanation. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this forum. The dealer has given me the run around. As has the Lexus National Customer service department. I will bring this to the attention of the Service writer, and all the way up up.

ipotkonjak

Can you re post your pictures?.

Ru5tY

Just saw your message in an email notification, sorry for the delay.

Pictures attached.