22' ES 350 Ultra Luxury - Rust Proofing
 

All, I just purchased a 22' ES 350 Ultra Luxury that was returned to the Lexus dealer after a lease ended. The car has 21,065 km. Perfect condition cosmetically and mechanically. All service records are up to date.

I'm in Ontario, Canada. Winter with salt...etc.
I'm looking into rust protection. Any suggestions?

I know Lexus offers some sort of rust protection, I haven't gathered the details on Lexus rust protection yet. In Ontario, Krown rust protection is popular. However, Krown uses a process where they drill holes in the car and then spray it down with an anti-rust solution. This needs to be completed yearly. (the spray need yearly application...drilling only happens at initial appointment)

What have you done for rust protection? Suggestions, advice?

I have been doing Krown on all my cars for over 25 years. The drill holes have never been an issue. I bought my 22 300h UL last fall and had it Krowned before winter started. I also own a 2012 ISF which I did not want holes drilled (it is a collector car) so they only sprayed underneath and wherever they could reach through accessible openings like drain holes in the car. The ISF doesn't see winter so the Krown is mostly to deter surface rust. A couple of things to watch out for though. On my ISF there is rubber door weather stripping at the bottom of the doors. This rubber got damaged from excess oil dripping out of the bottom of the doors on to the rubber. Rubber starts swelling when exposed to excess oil. Another thing about oil spray is that the oil will continue to seep out of drain holes and body panel edges. This oil will attract dirt causing a rather unsightly look. This will happen during wamer temperatures and will continue for several weeks until most of the excess oil has drained. If you wash your car regularly its not a big deal. On the ES I notice that even now in June, the trunk lid is still draining excess oil that flows down on to the back bumper. This leaves some dirt streats where oil is flowing and does not look good so I try and wash it off as soon as I can. The upside to this however, is that I know the trunk lid will likely not rust for a very long time.

my 0.02, you don't need to rust proof a modern car. Honestly I didn't even know that was a thing any more, I'm 55 and remember the era of rusted out cars, but not in quite a while.

where do you live? Do you have winter with snow, and road salt?

What's your age? Just curious. Not a sarcastic question, but these cars skew old and rustproofing seems like something someone in their senior years would be doing because of their life experience before galvanized steel with zinc coatings, right around 2006 or so for Toyota. I don't think location matters much with a car in 2024. Locations are listed under people's user names on their posts.

I'm 41...I live in Canada...your profile says you live in CA...is that California? If you live in California, then you really don't know anything about Winter time and how it affects "modern cars". If you're basing your "rust experience" on living in California, then you're clueless.

Then I would say carry on with rust-proofing, you're right I live in California and honestly have not seen a rusty car of any age in quite a long time and figured rust proofing had gone the way of horsepower additives and nitrogen filled tires, at least that's how it's viewed here. The biggest environmental hazard my car faces is dust.

right on...one day I will move to a place with no Winter!!

have a great day...😀

It is true that modern cars are so much better than the cars of several decades ago. I rememeber my father bought a brand new 1974 Dodge Dart. Within six years, all the body panels had significant sized rust holes. I had a Dodge Aspen and in 1989 while it was being hoisted up by a mechanic I could see the whole car start sagging because it was so badly rusted that it had hardly any structural integrity left. It was barely 12 years old at the time. I suspect California cars rarely had rust issues to that extent. Over the last 25 years I have been rusting proofing my cars regularly and most are surprised when I inform how old my cars are because they have hardly any rust at all. I routinely keep well past 15 years age. That's 15 years of Candian winter salt. Although modern cars use galvanized steel and incorporate many features to mitigate exposure to the elements, they remain susceptible to rust. An important consideration is the environmental impact on brake and fuel lines, gas tanks and other undercarriage components. Rustproofing indeed makes a difference. I would agree however that with modern cars, if you routinely change the cars within ten years of new, there is not much gained in rust proofing, except in resale value.

I agree with everything you have written...What options do you feel are good for rust proofing my 22 ES 350? I've thought about a rust inhibiting module installed by the dealer...8 years coverage...I'm not into Krown or any similar service...I don't want holes drilled or liquid sprayed and dripping

My son-in-law got one of those electronic modules installed in his brand new 2017 Hyundai. His car was rusting around the wheel wells after only five years. If understand correctly, the claim for those modules is that they cause electricity to circulate through all metal parts of the car and thus prevent oxidation, hence no rust. Well the reality is that the metal parts are already tied to ground so what does the module do to get the electricity to flow through all parts of the car. Typically electricity follows the path of least resistance. I think the modules are just electronic snake oil.( I don't mean the type of oil that prevents rust!).

If you don't want holes and you dont want oil drips there are some rust proofing outfits that apply a gel like coating. They are ok, but they are harder to cover the car as completely as oil which can creep into areas that the gel type coating sometimes cannot. This is especially true with some of the modern cars like the ES that have large plastic sheaths all allong the undercarriage. This sheathing already provides a measure of protection from the elements but the sheathing is comprised of panels so salt spray and moisture can still get behind it. This is where a competent oil sprayer can get the oil behind the panels onto to the vulnerable parts of the car.

Regardless of which rust proofing you end up with, the best thing you can do for your car is to keep it clean. Before winter starts apply good wax to the paint, preferrably a few time in late summer and fall. Then throughout the winter wash it regularily to remove salt and dirt from the car. Avoid automatic car washes that have spinning brushes or floppy cloth strips. Self serve car wash bays are the best followed by touchless spray washers. It takes a lot of effort to keep a car rust free in our winters.. . .

Salt spares no vehicles maybe with the exception of aluminum parts. During my search for my ES, countless ES with as little as 10k miles on the odo had rust on the undercarriage. With that said, I've been applying Fluid Film religiously on all my previous trucks (Lexus SUVs). FF has done a phenomenal job keeping rust in check here in the salt belt. One draw back is the initial dripping after application, then after that it's a mess whenever you go to work on your car. With my current ES, I tried cosmoline. Got the idea from my 30 year old Porsche. These arrived to our shores protected with cosmoline on the engine case, transmission, to all suspension components. This stuff is a wax. After application it dries to a slightly tacky, matte finish. Nothing drips and no mess when you're working underneath your car. Maybe you should look into this. Cosmoline is completely DIY.