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Rust on rear hatch handle

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by Flaming, Aug 28, 2018.

  1. Flaming

    Flaming Active Member

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    Through a Facebook group, several Prius Prime owners ( Québec , CA ) have noticed the same problem on their cars: Rust develops on a small piece of metal just below the handle of the rear hatch. The picture below is my car and here is the result after just 1 year of ownership. To my knowledge, Two owners here have sent thier entire rear hatch assembly shipped back to Japan for analysis(requested by Toyota). I suppose the wrong part was installed on several cars .. who knows.

    I went to the dealer last week for my service #2 appointement , they took pictures and all .. at the end of the day , they simply said to me : we will call you back , we have ordered a '' plastic part '' .. so im not worried , i know it's going to be fixed. The rust can't go further because the rest of the trunk is in carbon fiber.

    I know this car was out in the U.S way before we got it in June 2017. But i want to know how the handle look like on your car ? it is made of metal or plastic ?


    [​IMG]
     
    #1 Flaming, Aug 28, 2018
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2018
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  2. Washingtonian

    Washingtonian Senior Member

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    Just checked mine. The car was manufactured in March, 2017. It is black painted steel. I stuck a magnet to it to verify. However, it is pristine, not a spot of rust.
     
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    wow, that looks like it has been sitting in a junk yard for 10 years.
     
  4. Flaming

    Flaming Active Member

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    Black painted steel ? ok .. that's wierd .. humm ..

    The picture below is from the first owner i know of who reported the issue , his entire hatch was shipped back in Japan for analysis. Just like me , his car is 1 year old.



    handle.jpg handle.jpg
     
  5. Gaëtan Lafrance

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    Merci pour l'information, je vais vérifier et revenir sur ce.

    Thanks, I will check that.
     
  6. schja01

    schja01 One of very few in Chicagoland

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    My Prime here in USA was manufactured 6/2018 and the part is Black Magnetic material.
     
  7. Flaming

    Flaming Active Member

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    thx for your input , maybe it's a regional issue . perhaps it gets eaten by road salt and our type of weather.
    But still , this is unacceptable for 1 year old cars.
     
  8. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Road salt and a part not properly rust proofed are the likely cause.
    Things can go wrong during manufacturing, which is why we have warranties.
     
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  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Toyota is very remiss in their rust-preventing efforts. On our third gen, any of the small bolts and screws on the underside quickly rusted up, same for larger suspension bolts. Suspension frames appear to have just a thin application of (cosmetic) black paint: they quickly rust up, in particular at the welds.
     
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  10. Gaëtan Lafrance

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    Hypothèses valable. D'accord avec vous.

    Effectively!
     
  11. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    After reading this thread, I went out and checked mine. Yap, mine is rusted. It's not somewhere anyone will see it, unless the hatch is open and high up and happens to be looking right at it. Still not acceptable for barely 1 year old car. I guess, a trip to a dealership is in order.:(

    If up-high in body part is rusted like this, I wonder what the underbody of this car looks like??? After all, I may have to do the underbody rust protection treatment. Question is, which one and how much it's going to cost.:mad:

    DSC03576.JPG
     
    #11 Salamander_King, Aug 28, 2018
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  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    maybe toyota thought they could cheap out there. who would notice?
     
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  13. Washingtonian

    Washingtonian Senior Member

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    I wouldn't go so far as to call it a Toyota problem. I have a 1999 Tacoma that has never seen the inside of a garage. It has virtually no rust anywhere on it including the frame and exhaust system. My wife has a 2000 Lexus that still looks like it just left the showroom. I suspect this is an anomaly where a small part was not properly painted.
     
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  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i thought tacoma had a rusted frame problem at some point?
     
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  15. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    My Sienna was rust bucket underbody after 10 years. It had only 100K, but went to a junk yard since repair cost was more than the value of the car. Same with my first Civic after 12 years. It doesn't matter what car they are. Road salt kill any car in NE.
     
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  16. dbf

    dbf Member

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    I'll agree that NE road salt does take a toll on whatever car you have, but in my experience it definately matters what kind of car it is. I have a 2000 Dodge Ram that rusted out its fenders within a few years, but I also have a 2001 Corolla that never saw more than a few days in a garage and is still solid. I also had a 2006 Corolla with a solid body and over 200,000 miles that I traded in on the Prius this summer. All of those cars lived their lives in NE Ohio.
     
  17. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    To be fair, I have owned only 3 cars (Honda and Toyota) longer than 10 years. So, I admit that my sample is too small to make a general statement. However, all other cars, and there were 7 of them (Nissan, Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota) that I owned less than 10 years while living in New England did not develop major rust problems, though some developed other mechanical issues.
     
  18. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    But how much road salt has your cars seen?

    The first Tacoma(was it Hilux back then?) in the us suffered from the bed rusting out because Toyota never had to make a truck for a market that uses road salt before. The bed had weld points where the domestics used stamped steel, and these became starting points for rust. The rest of the truck was solid though.

    Later models had issues with frame rust, which is blamed on the third party frame supplier, but its Toyota's name on the tailgate.
    It appears some type of frame rust issue could hit a Tacoma through model years 1995 to 2010, and I spotted some comments from people with newer ones.
    Toyota Recalls 690,000 Tacoma Pickups for Snapping Leaf Springs – News – Car and Driver
    Toyota frame rust settlement could cost the company $3.4 billion | Autoweek
    There's a Dakota on my block which appears to have not had a replacement fender painted, and now it is just surface rust, but not rotted through. I've seen the effect done on one of those tiny home shows, and it could be neat for an art car. An old F100(not a typo) does have the cancer around the wheels though.

    The only personal car with rust issues was the Sable. It had just 76k miles, but was over 16 years old. The A/C failed because the compressor pulley bearing had rusted out.
     
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i haven't seen a rusty car around here since my daughters swiss cheese '99 accord.
     
  20. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    They could do a lot better, with hot-dip galvanizing, rust-proofing coatings, better bolt coating specs, some use of stainless, plastic coating. It takes consumer resistance, publicity to wake them up.