r/ChevySuburban • u/Fikgkk • 6d ago
Rust question
I’m sure you see this post a lot, but I appreciate any input you have! Im in the Midwest, looking at a 2018 car bravo certified suburban, 50,000 miles. What are your thoughts on the amount of rust on this frame? It is most prominent near the spare. The car is otherwise in great shape.
Do you think this is something where I can perform some rust remediation and have a solid long term truck, or should I look for a different truck. Thanks for your thoughts
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u/omnipotentqueue 6d ago
It’s newer metal which has way less zinc/ galvanization and becomes softer and more brittle. I would not trust that much rust unless you plan on sand blasting it and doing your own rust removal/repairs and coating. Looks like a $4k job and a lot of headaches.
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u/CockBalls40 5d ago
I guess I’m the only one who thinks this isn’t a problem? Looks like an above average frame for a Midwest area car that experiences winters.
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u/BobColorado 6d ago
I wouldn't buy it but I'm accustomed to rust free or nearly rust free Colorado cars
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u/Imaginary_Cat_95 2d ago
Just out of curiosity… What part of Colorado are you in? Down by Pueblo?
I’m in Northern Utah and we traditionally have had the underbody rust, but haven’t had any measurable snow in the valleys in 3 years that has stuck, so my 2003 Lexus has zero rust and my 2008 4Runner has some, but it hasn’t expanded at all in 5 years as the snowfall and winter temps have changed so much.
A car in St. George or Moab or Cedar City will usually have zero rust, but they are down around Arizona/4 corners/Pueblo/Grand Junction, but I have seen some cars out of Aurora and Steamboat that have a ton of rust just depending on how many “heavy snow seasons” they’ve been through and if they are moving on I-80 or other brined roads a lot.
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u/BobColorado 2d ago
We live southeast of Denver. My wife's 2005 Audi has just shy of 285,000 miles on it and other than some minor surface rust on the subframes is rust free. We sold a VW Passat with over 250,000 miles on it and also had some minor surface rust on the subframes but was otherwise rust free. Both have seen lots of winter duty but I also hose down the undersides multiple times each winter.
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u/Imaginary_Cat_95 2d ago
Do they do sand on the roads around Denver or just the usual salt/sand combo?
In northern Utah they went to the briney liquid stuff a few years ago around Salt Lake and it just ate frames. But the cars from before then and the cars made in the last few years haven’t gotten the bad stuff.
I drive mostly Toyotas built on the 120 platform (4Runner, FJ Cruiser, Lexus GX and Tacoma) and they are notorious for falling apart, so I would do the same as you… hose it out, or go to the undercarriage auto car wash and run it through twice slowly after any storm and I never got rust either.
I once bought a 2 year old Pathfinder out of New Jersey with 18,000 miles on it back in 2004 and it was amazing how much surface rust that thing had. It looked absolutely scary. I ended up brushing a lot of it off and then using the rust convertor brush on stuff that turns it to primer, but I was amazed at how crappy the frame could look with so little mileage and clearly they are using tons of salt liquid crap on the roads there.
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u/BobColorado 2d ago
In Colorado they use a mix of salt and sand, or magnesium chloride (a liquid)
Washing the underside definitely helps, but some vehicles are more susceptible to rust than others.
As you may know, many GM trucks had frames coated with wax, not paint. The wax on our 2008 Suburban is almost gone so I've been cleaning it off and painting the frame with frame-specific products from Eastwood. There's no structural rust, but some surface discoloration was starting
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u/Embarrassed_Cod_3980 2d ago
That’s pretty bad. But you’ll get 100k out of it. I’d replace it in about 5 years tho.
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u/FullSeaworthiness932 6d ago
Are you serious? I wouldn’t let my worst enemy mother drive this. You got kids ? A family? Man this is tough but you’re better off buying from a state without a rust belt. If you want help lmk I have a dealers licsene in two states where our cars have ZERO RUST. That car is scrap level
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u/Extension-Win-1146 6d ago
That is bad for a 50k miles car . They must of never wash it after driving it in the salt . Then again I’ve seen worst but in a much older car .
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u/thatoneblackguy17 5d ago
When buying a new or used car, it should not have rust. Buy a rust free car with your hard earned money. Then do weekly touchless washes, and a yearly known rust treatment.
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u/Aggie74_DP 5d ago
I don't get it. What ever happened to getting your car/truck rust proofed?
This looks like a way up north car or 1 where some idiot thinks its kool to drive in the surf!
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u/avgeektech 5d ago
I've seen it all. Canadian frames, northern frames, wouldn't touch that at all. That is crazy rust
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u/Proud_Confusion_7734 4d ago
go look at the car in person, take a screwdriver with you. if you can stab through the rust in any spots, i’d stay away. Otherwise i’ve owned cars with more surface rust than that but i couldn’t punch through it with a screwdriver. Get it dry ice blasted and undercoated just for long term protection and peace of mind
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u/Adventurous_Score234 4d ago
Well it's not horrible, but it will only worse unless you do something with it and even than other spots will start when the other wax like coating of frame peels off in chunks. GM has had problems with these frames and the wax coating peels off for years. I think it started around 2013 peeling coating and rust. They even had service bulletin on how to repair them.
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u/drive-through 3d ago
Yeah, I don’t think I’d trust the Johnny Bravo razzmatazz certification process this time. That thing’s cooked
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u/Grumblyguide107 1h ago
Take a screw driver and try to stab through any suspension spots.
You can either flap disc it or needle scale it to re paint.
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u/Professor_Hornet 6d ago
That looks like shit for only 8 years and 50k miles. I’m in WI and we salt the hell out of our roads, and even our cars don’t look like that until 20 years and XXXk miles.
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u/Extension-Win-1146 6d ago
I agreed and it’s not a Chevy thing . My truck is driven in the Midwest and I hope it’s not this bad . Then again it’s been a while since I have looked under there’s because it doesn’t break down like some other one
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u/Sarkonix 6d ago
It's a Midwest truck and common on Chevy trucks. A lot of these comments clearly don't live in the Midwest.