03 and 09, neither with rust....but then again my car wash always has an undercarriage sprayer, keeps the salt off in the winter

To revive an older thread. I was having the GX serviced at a Toyota dealer here in NJ. I walked around back and there were two piles of truck frames sitting out there, one pile all rusted frames another with brand new frames stacked on pallets....the rusted ones looked just like the underside of my truck. Live here in NJ... not a lot of salt, but truck gets washed more than regularly in the winter and undercarriage is also sprayed down at car wash. I have covered most of the welds with rustolieum and rubberized undercoating....rust just keeps on rearing its ugly head....

I Unfortunately I purchased A 2008 Lexus Gx470 a few years ago with under 30,000 miles on it and I noticed some noise from underneath after the purchase. Discovered the heat shields fell off and were riding on top of the driveshaft, a tremendous amount of rust everywhere and one of the rear axle housing brackets look like it rusted through and was welded back in place.
Two years later I was driving from the airport and noticed a sound from underneath the car so I pulled over Only to see my driver side rear tire was sticking outside of the wheel well and my passenger side Was pulled all the way in. The noise was caused by the driveshaft rubbing against the side of the gas tank. I replaced the entire rear end myself... couldn’t afford to have the dealer do it. I also reported it to the NHTSA with NOREPLY.
Then I neutralized the rust and put some rust protection on all of the places I could reach at that time.

Now just a few weeks ago my air suspension pump failed. When I went to make the repair it was evident the rust had gotten much worse. The sensors were completely rusted and the air pump was extremely loose because portions of its Mounting brackets were completely rusted off.

It’s a total nightmare and I recommend that nobody purchases a used Lexus GX 470... Plus I am almost afraid of driving it because it’s going to fall apart somewhere else. It’s amazing there is not a recall on this vehicle! Actually there should be a voluntary recall from Toyota Lexus on this issue... it’s probably worse than the recall on the truck frames a while back.
If anybody else out there wants to start a class action lawsuit please contact me because this is total BS. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post my email address on this forum so I’m suggesting you go to my company’s website to contact me. Allyfinishing.com
Shame shame shame on Toyota/Lexus
best regards,
Jon B.

ALet’s see… why did I purchase this low mileage SUV?
1. I guess I should have not trusted the CarFax report?
2.) So you would purchase a vehicle that requires $1,300+ service soon after you purchase it?

Most used vehicles for sale when I was shopping we’re just shy of the timing belt replacement interval. Have you priced that lately? Service also recommends replacing the water pump.

The vehicle had a perfect Carfax report showing it was serviced every 5000 miles at a Lexus dealer.

A low mileage vehicle with an absolute perfect Carfax report showing serviced like clockwork at a Lexus dealership. And absolutely no reference to the patch welding on the axle housing mounts and fallen heat shields.

How could a Lexus dealer’s Service Shop not see multiple heat shields hanging loose from missing fasteners, large chunks of rust hanging loosely from the frame, a failed rear axle bracket... plus more... and not report it?
Has anybody ever heard of a Carfax report being doctored? Because this was extremely suspect after finding these problems.

Where are you located? Mine is a northeast GX and it’s got a decent amount of undercarriage rust (bought with 49k miles). Like others have said, comes with the territory. I’ve been slowly replacing rusted parts and applying rust converter. My rear upper control arm, height sensor, and entire exhaust needed replaced within the first year. My rear diff has seen better days too. I put rust converter on it last year and it seems fine though.

Carfax only reports what is reported to it, so it misses a LOT. Never rely on Carfax. Dealers aren’t going to report shoddy welds or rust or anything they didn’t do to Carfax. The PO may have been diligent about servicing the vehicle, but must have left it outside and never cleaned the undercarriage.

Not to add insult to injury, but at 10 years old, you should replace that timing belt anyway, regardless of mileage.

Tacoma, Tundra, and Sequioa frames under recall were made by Dana. Poor quality materials and finishing was blamed.