I'd like to share this info and see what the community has to say about it. My box, purchased new a couple months ago, has rust on every panel of the car (even the mirrors which appear to be plastic!) despite being washed and waxed several times since purchase. The rust looks like light flakes of orange pebbles, but cannot be removed by soap and light scrub with a microfiber cloth.

The most significant rust is on the roof, where part of the rust has now eaten through the paint and left an obvious tiny black hole. The car has been pretty much babied, has had one oil change at the dealership, and has seen nothing but daily driving.

My poor box is going to the dealership where purchased for an inspection immediately...as well, I'm getting an estimate for repairs (private auto detail shop) and a run-down of what steps have to be taken to restore/repair the vehicle and insure this never happens again.

What do you folks think of all this? I'm going to insist the dealership repairs the damage and treats the new paint job (or fresh coat and clearcoat, I'm no expert in auto painting so have no idea what's needed) with a treatment of Zaino or similar top-coat protectent.

Cheers and enjoy!

 

Wow sorry to hear that do you have pics?

 

yes pics please, thats just crazy if it is rust. Are you sure you didnt get sprayed with road department paint or somehting?

 

Sorry no pics at this time...it seems to be rust as it has begun to eat through the paint on the biggest spot (roof). My initial thought is that there was no clearcoat applied to the car. Which is very bad. Don't want to get rid of the box because of this, but...well will have to wait and find out this week what Scion wants to do to about it. Seriously could not be any worse for me right now, want my baby fixed!

 

I'd take it back to the dealership and file a claim. Your xB was purchased New and it is under warranty. Good luck and please post some pics for us to see also.

 

Sounds more like fallout to me.

When I lived in the Midwest with white cars (and I've had three of them in a row), you'd get these little-tiny rusty flakes all over the car. What it is is fallout (rail dust, metal particulates in the air) that fall on your car and kind of embed themselves into the paint. A claybar system (e.g. Mother's California Claybar System) will remove these. Most likely it is not the sheet metal rusting, rather the metal fallout.

Do you live near railroad tracks, a factory that deals with metal, or such?

 

Sounds like chemical or metallic contamination to me also. You can get little rusty spots all over a white car (is yours Polar White by chance?) By simply using steel wool on the glass and not cleaning off the steel wool dust. Hopefully it is what we think it is and it isn't too advanced. Often contamination damage can be removed with buffing and polishing. You can prevent further damage perhaps by using a high quality protectant (wax) regularly (maybe every 6-8 weeks or less) to keep things from getting thru to the paint. Here in Atlanta it is acidic rain that pits the surface like little water spots. I have been places that are more industrial where I have gotten little rusty spots from industrial pollution.

 

I park the car in a garage, but at work the car sits outside, though nowhere near a train station. Will post pictures when possible (well, hopefully Scion fixes the problem and I can post up some beautiful flawless paint! Fingers crossed in anticipation!) I haven't claybarred the car but wax it at least once a month. The longest road trip it went on was a few miles away to Point Reyes it's a big bummer. What else could I possibly replace this car with?! Nothing. If Scion refuses to fix this obvious warranty issue, I've decided to keep the car, get the rust fixed and have the car repainted in bright red with clearcoat and Zaino for longevity.

Will keep updates about this, seems I'm one of the few who have experienced this.

 

Sounds like fall out or rail dust. It is actually small particles of metal that are rusting on the surface of the paint.....providing this is an original paint job and the car was bought new. Just get Mguires clay bar or Mothers brand clay bar. Spray the provided lubricant on one panel at a time and rub with the clay bar. You will hear a shushing sound as the contaminants are lifted off the surface. When its all smooth wipe down with a soft terry cloth towel and then apply a high quality carnuba wax like Mguires or a synthetic like Zymol. Repeat for each panel one at a time. This should help.

 

This is a very common problem -- whether your car is parked in a garage or not. It's also most evident on white cars. I'd be willing to bet this is what's happening. It's happend on all of my white cars, and it's not anything to worry about.

 

clay. followed by wax. dealers will screw it up even more.

 

Could be acid rain

 

OK here's an update: Thursday, brought the car to the local reputable paint shop where my family's taken cars before. Estimate of around $300 to remove whatever is on the car and apply a coat of wax. Not only does this seem too expensive, but there's no guarantee the problem would not happen again. The cost of putting an additional clearcoat on the car, which would give me a better piece of mind, is $4000, definitely not happening due to price. The body shop estimate guy has never seen this on such a new car (a bit over five months old) and thinks it might be from parking underneath a construction site (never happened) or from parking near a site where industrial fallout would occur (never happened, at least not to my knowledge).

The car is in to the dealership of original purchase to begin the evaluation of the problem. This box, despite the rust, is truly a great car...no need for a ride to work from the dealership, just pulled my bicycle out of the back and took off. Really don't want to give up this great car but hoo boy, I'm not happy with the quality of this paint job.

The last car I claybar'd was a Subaru WRX, the paint on that thing was much worse than the Toyota (major evident swirls in the black paint from the factory!). Actually, when we picked up the Subaru, we insisted the dealership detail the car again, and they claybar'd it since the paint looked so horrible (in hindsight we should have just declined delivery due to bad paint, but hindsight is 20/20). The Subaru looked better and felt smooth after a self-claybar a year after purchase, and it never rusted upon the same treatment I give the xb.

OK will post an update today when Toyota gets back to me...really want them to treat me right or this is my last Toyota product.

 

The cost of removal at the body shop is certainly not particluarly expensive. It is all about time. To do this you start by carefully washing the whole car then drying it so you can see well. Then you buff and possibly wet sand and buff the entire car where the problem is till you can no longer see any spots. Then you completely washt he car again and then redry it. You once again buff the spots you didn't ctahc the first time...to do a thorough job you have to do this kinda of buffing cleanup up at least 2 times usually. If everything looks good you buff with a finishing glaze. Then you wash the car again including all the jambs (compounds got in there) and completely dry the car again (must be very thorough this time we want no water spots). And lastly you apply a high quality wax or polimer coating. How much time is this....we washed the car at least 3 times including drying at least 3 hours there. We spent at least 3 hours buffing (and very likely more). We spent maybe 1 hour waxing. This totals to a minimum of around 6 hours work. Shop rates by the book here in Atlanta are $40 per hour so that comes to $240. BOOK RATES are generally 1/2 the time a good technician takes to complete the given job so actual per hour gain is more like $75-80 per hour. These kind of numbers are neccessary to keep a shops overhead paid and a little food on the table (not steaks either). So if we put your little job at a more realistic number it should be more like $400 perhaps. $300 sounds like a pretty fair guess of what it would take.

There is nothing that can guarantee that you wont get fallout again. Additional clearcoats will not help. The onlt thing that will help (and maybe stop it), besides never getting fallout on the car is to frequently clean the car and coating it regularly with a high quality wax or polymer coating. I have had very good results from polymers over the years. I use a product called Vitreo (not sold retail here), Zymol seems good, major manufacturers polimer coatings should be ok. top quality waxes should work also but the aren't as resistant to this kind of thing as much as polymers are.

 

There were posts quite awhile ago about rusting under the rubber around the doors--but nothing like this. Keep us informed as to what the dealer says.......

Aha--here is the old post:
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...highlight=rust

 

That pricing seems right. As far as it happening again once you clay it and apply a good polymer or carnuba wax it should not come back. You must keep up the wax though. This problem is very common here in Florida because of the high content of iron in the ground water and the rain. The water dries so fast that it leaves mineral deposits on the car that rust. I work for a Toyota/Scion Dealer in Merritt Island and we deal with this regularly.So I strongly recommend getting the clay job done or doing it yourself for the experience and satisfaction if you have the time to dedicate to it. Then just keep it up. Also you may want to try a product called Dry Wash N Gaurd...a waterless wash with a ion repellent technology....DWG international I think is the online company to search for. They sell it here locally at an automotive accessories store and I have been very pleased with its performance on the Scionpro Taxi.

 

Get the decontamination kit from kk1usa.com. Fk1 makes great products. Follow the directions on the kit and apply a quality wax. That should fix the problem.

 

OK Toyota dealership called me back and stated that the rust was either dirt or particles from the air. Obviously it's not dirt as it didn't come off upon normal washing. They said they have thoroughly cleaned the car and gotten the particles off (wow!) and have used touch-up paint on the small hole in the roof, which they say was a rock chip. While I'm not sure how you get a rock chip on the roof of a tall car like the box, it's a positive sign that Toyota helped me out in fixing it and has me back on the road. The rep at the dealership said that a coat of Zylon (similar to Zaino brand which I'm familiar with) could help to prevent this in the future, but it's not for certain. It sure couldn't help, and I want to keep this car for the long haul so...will probably get it done, if nothing more than peace of mind.

Anywho, will have to go get the car today and see how it looks.

Cheers and thanks for the advice!

 

So basically you had no idea what you were looking at. It also sounds like the car never got waxed since the day you picked it up. (that's how that fallout crap gets stuck to the paint). Never heard of a rockchip on top? Alrighty then!!!! What goes up must come down. Just be glad it was on the roof instead of the middle of the hood.

Keep it waxed once a month and this stuff wouldn't be able to adhear to the paint. Plus be happy you have a white one. I could only imagine how bad it would look if it were one of the darker colors.

 

Hold up brother, I'm no newb to car care. The box got washed and waxed as soon as it came home, and I've washed it once ever two weeks and waxed once a month since new. I did the same to my WRX (actually moreso, babied that thing much more) which needed to be hit up with a thorough claybar straight off the dealership lot and my buddy and I claybar'd our cars together once every two years when we had our previous cars.

Here's the (hopefully) final update: San Francisco Toyota did me good! Huge big thanks to them for doing a great job and covering this damage under warranty and making me 110% satisfied with their customer service and detail work.

Upon picking up my car, the work was covered under warranty with no charge to me. The rep recommended I wash and wax the car once ever 6 to 8 weeks (already had been doing it twice as often as that), but the damage should never have happened. They used "claybar and acid" to remove the particles on the car, applied touch-up paint to the hole on the roof as well as removed the rust around the edges of it, and generally left my car looking better than the day I picked it up. Even a few minor black marks from the foam of my bicycle rack were gone, as was a spot where a cabbie hit me with his mirror! Toyota of San Francisco really know how to treat their customers right, I'm glad to have bought the car their and will be recommending their dealership from now on. Beautiful work!

Upon taking the car home, I did a complete paste wax of the car (they said it was waxed, but it can always be smoother). After the wax, the car's paint feels like sheer butter to the back of your hand, I'd forgotten how smooth it gets after a good detail.

Thanks for all the help...looks like the borderline obsessive SL box owners know how to keep their toasters clean!