Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra Forum banner

Another Frame Rust Thread

10K views 54 replies 24 participants last post by  MPSilverado 
#1 ·
Sooooooo,

...frame rust, yep. Like many out there are experiencing, i am also experiencing it. The sole purpose of this thread is for progress of my case and hopefully to help others with similar cases. I've seen many people get theirs fixed/resprayed under warranty. Some seem to have more issues than others but some get lucky. Personally, as i think many feel also, if its under warranty this should be repaired since its defective basically out the box.

The Story... (its short to start)

Bought the truck pre-owned, its a 2013 Silverado LTZ Z71. Excellent shape, clean in and out. 21077 miles on it now. No reported mechanical issues or damage, service all performed on time. Originally buyer bought it in November of 12, i bought it a year later, turns out i know who owned it first and they wanted a 14 when they came out for the body style. I keep it clean, even through the intensely negative temperature winters. I routinely rinse the underbody with a power washer and clean everything.

The Issue....
As we already know, is the frame rust. The coating is peeling in many locations and showing a decent amount of frame rust for a car that is only a year and a half old. My 03 Escalade had virtually no frame rust, even as a North East car. So, I went to my local Chevy dealer, where i purchased the car and had my first service done (second service coming up soon). Great people there, they were great through the purchase process, excellent for the first service, I'm sure they'll be excellent for the second. However, not so excellent for the frame rust. When I went in, I went straight to service, spoke to them briefly, they said they had never heard of this issue (hard to believe but what ever). He looked up the TSB number I gave him and briefly read through it. He said they could do it, but they'd have to order the stuff and that they've never done one before. He printed the TSB out and sent me down to the in house body shop to consult with them. The body shop guys are good people too, they did my Husky Liner mud flaps for me on the truck during my first service appointment. They had informed me that they don't think the stuff from the TSB will be worth it. I've seen varying things about having it redone from people on here. He suggested I go to a custom shop and have Fluid Film applied. I know Fluid Film is good stuff but it seems silly considering my originally $44K truck is still under all its warranties (6 different ones according to mygm.com). I also don't care to have it reapplied once a year at a cost to me. Basically what I got from that is they didn't feel like doing it.

Well, this was about a month ago and the rust issue has been eating away at the back of my mind since then. I decided I wanted to go a step further and see if GM Customer Care could help me out here. I have only contacted them a few hours ago and feel I've gotten more out of them from just 2 communications than I did from my dealer. They've taken my info and opened a case for me. Lightning fast reply from them too. Hopefully this will get resolved for me and many others experiencing this issue. We can also hope that they will just go back to hard coating the frames instead of using the junky rubbery plastic stuff they're using now.

I'll update this as I hear more from GM CC and i'll throw some pics up of my rust shortly just for comparison to others.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I feel your pain. My 2013 we bought new in Oct 2011 started getting frame rust within months even though my truck is ALWAYS in the garage - even now after 3.5 years only has 7,000 miles. Dealership said there was nothing they could do. I am going to take care of it myself. I bought some spray rust inhibitor and a case of spray rubber undercoating. Going to clean the frame, brush off loose rust, spray inhibitor, wait for drying and then spray on undercoating. Will probably have to repeat every spring.
 
#4 ·
Keep in mind that while the GM Customer Service reps on here are very good about contacting dealers, they have no authority to make the dealer provide warranty work. If the dealer tells a customer service rep they don't recommend doing the repair outlined in the TSB, the rep can't force them to do it.
 
#5 ·
Honestly, just listening and creating a case for me is a step in the right direction. I like American vehicles, before the Escalade I traded fort his I haven't had an American made vehicle since 2004 when i had a 95 Grand Cherokee and a 89 Merc Sable. My family just gave away that Grand Cherokee to my just licensed cousin a few months back. strong piece of machinery. The sable we donated to my fire house, crashed it and cut up, tons of fun! Everything else was Jap or Korean, 370Z, G37, Civic and an Elantra. I'd like to support our own economy a little more and support the roots of this country it self. So if GM is willing to step up and stand behind their product, i'm happy to let them resolve this for me.

Here's a few shots of my peeling/rust just for an idea.
 

Attachments

#6 ·
Silvery13 said:
Keep in mind that while the GM Customer Service reps on here are very good about contacting dealers, they have no authority to make the dealer provide warranty work. If the dealer tells a customer service rep they don't recommend doing the repair outlined in the TSB, the rep can't force them to do it.
its really a "get the ball rollin" kind of thing. there's always someone higher up you can contact but if they can help out here, i'll be pleased
 
#7 ·
Going threw this now with my 2013. Truck was bought brand new last august and only has 5k miles on it and the frame is rusting and chunks of the factory coating are falling off. My frame isn't as bad as yours yet but, with my truck lifted 9" the frame is very visible threw the wheel wells and it looks bad and is the first thing my eyes are drawn to. Friday I'm taking it to the dealer to see if they will correct it. If not, I'll be striping it down and coating it in por15 in the next few weeks.
 
#8 ·
GM Customer Care is still looking into the issue for me. Really the dealers should be fixing this because its CLEARLY an issue FROM THE FACTORY and they are also CLEARLY aware of this SINCE 2007. Its a little ridiculous really
 
#9 ·
I couldn't agree more, This is a known issue for years now why would they not at some point spend a few extra dollars at the factory to fix the issue and coat them with something that'll last? These aren't cheap trucks and when after only 6 months to a yr of owning it or less in some cases and they already start to show rust, It really doesn't leave you with a good feeling about the quality of GM/Chevy. But, That's the day and age we live in, Build it good enough to get threw warranty and after that doesn't matter cause it's no longer on them.
 
#10 ·
Probably even more ridiculous is the fact that this has been an issue since 2007 and is still to this day an issue. Now I have to crawl under my 2013 and check it out to see if I am in the same boat with a one year old truck and one Wisconsin winter behind me.
 
#11 ·
GottWhat said:
I feel your pain. My 2013 we bought new in Oct 2011 started getting frame rust within months even though my truck is ALWAYS in the garage - even now after 3.5 years only has 7,000 miles. Dealership said there was nothing they could do. I am going to take care of it myself. I bought some spray rust inhibitor and a case of spray rubber undercoating. Going to clean the frame, brush off loose rust, spray inhibitor, wait for drying and then spray on undercoating. Will probably have to repeat every spring.
The garage might seem like a good thing at first thought, but what happens is you drive your truck through all that snow and slush and crap and it collects and freezes under your truck. Then you pull into the garage and it slowly melts all night long due to being warmer than outside. The salt sand and other crap becomes reactivated and starts it's metal eating again all night long. It is generally better to leave the stuff frozen until you can wash it out completely. The garage is a great help for the other parts of the truck though like the paint and interior.
 
#12 ·
esox07 said:
GottWhat said:
I feel your pain. My 2013 we bought new in Oct 2011 started getting frame rust within months even though my truck is ALWAYS in the garage - even now after 3.5 years only has 7,000 miles. Dealership said there was nothing they could do. I am going to take care of it myself. I bought some spray rust inhibitor and a case of spray rubber undercoating. Going to clean the frame, brush off loose rust, spray inhibitor, wait for drying and then spray on undercoating. Will probably have to repeat every spring.
The garage might seem like a good thing at first thought, but what happens is you drive your truck through all that snow and slush and crap and it collects and freezes under your truck. Then you pull into the garage and it slowly melts all night long due to being warmer than outside. The salt sand and other crap becomes reactivated and starts it's metal eating again all night long. It is generally better to leave the stuff frozen until you can wash it out completely. The garage is a great help for the other parts of the truck though like the paint and interior.
I would agree for most people but I work from home and have had the truck for 3.5 years and only have 7,000 miles on it. We typically drive our other car around since it is a lease (2014 Chrysler 300 AWD Hemi). My truck typically is not dirty for more than a couple days in a row.

Overall, I am really unhappy with the frame rust issue and this might sway me away from buying another new GM truck.
 
#13 ·
For the do-it-yourself owner, just purchase a can or two of the GM part number 12346501 wax, and touch up the frame. It is a excellent match. It may take a couple of hours to properly repair the bad areas.
 
#16 ·
Wakko ... if you're close to the water, keep an eye on your chrome parts. I left my truck stored in ft lauderdale for my deployment. Put it away sparkling clean and had a cover over it. When I got back, I had oxidation spots forming in the chrome mesh and on the door/tailgate badges.
 
#17 ·
The north eastern winters is what really does it to stuff like the frame. My Escalade was an 03. CT to NY to ME and it have almost no rust what so ever. The truck has just been a ME truck and for less than 2 years now (sold to the original owner in Nov. 2012) and has about 3-4x more rust than my Escalade did. What ever was coating my Escalade frame was way better than this stuff on the Silverado.
 
#18 ·
AFmac4 said:
Wakko ... if you're close to the water, keep an eye on your chrome parts. I left my truck stored in ft lauderdale for my deployment. Put it away sparkling clean and had a cover over it. When I got back, I had oxidation spots forming in the chrome mesh and on the door/tailgate badges.
Weird. The guy I bought my truck from was right on the intracoastal, but the truck is immaculate. He did tell me he waxed it every other week with boat wax though.
 
#19 ·
Update- So Customer Care got back to me yesterday and was in touch with the dealer and their body shop and i'm still at a stand still. They body shop told them the same thing, obviously remembered who i was (maybe i am the only person in maine to express concern over this). Now they said they'd be happy to do it though instead of just trying to refer me else where. Again, I understand fluid film is a good product. I dont want to pay for it yearly, thats ridiculous. I get that our roads are treated someone strange compared to other roads across the country. My Escalade was in Maine for the same duration of winter that my Silverado was (except the Escalade had 9 more winters behind it too) but had 90% less peeling and rusting on the frame. I feel like enough people have been making noise about this that GM knows its an issue since they have a TSB out about it. It must not be classified under safety concerns so they wont recall it. I'm seeking a higher up or maybe contacting corporate to get it resolved. Maybe if i stir up enough noise they'll do something for me and others can follow suite. At least if we have some form of an approach there's some hope. I know its beating a dead horse but with all the other issues on GM's plate right now, you'd think fixing one more would be top priority to clean up the rep they're getting. We'll see what happens when they get back to me or if i'll go directly to corporate myself
 
#20 ·
Frame rust is normal up here, usually before the vehicle even leaves the lot it has frame rust starting. By two years old there isn't any paint left on the frame. The rust will take decades to become a problem, but it is ugly to look at.

I get my trucks rust proofed once a year at Krown.
 
#21 ·
Just bought a 2013 Crew 4wd Friday from Car Max. When I got the truck home I decided to do an oil change, I run Mobil 1 in every thing. While I was under the truck I noticed that the under coating was already pealing and flaking off, I was like WTH. I had a 10 modle that I bought in North East PA and never had an issue. I will be very interested in seeing how GM handles this.
 
#22 ·
it may be common but it shouldn't be normal. Its basically a defect. The coating they put on it is to protect it from this stuff. Regardless of whether its an issue or not for 10 years it doesnt matter. Its deterioration of the vehicles frame from day one due to shotty work.
 
#23 ·
swervin36 said:
Just bought a 2013 Crew 4wd Friday from Car Max. When I got the truck home I decided to do an oil change, I run Mobil 1 in every thing. While I was under the truck I noticed that the under coating was already pealing and flaking off, I was like WTH. I had a 10 modle that I bought in North East PA and never had an issue. I will be very interested in seeing how GM handles this.
Hello swervin36,

Our apologies to hear that you are also experiencing this concern. If any assistance is needed reaching out to your dealership, you are welcome to private message us with your contact info and VIN.

Andraya
GM Customer Care
 
#24 ·
I had one more communication and I'll probably be setting up an appointment to get it done sometime soon. My local dealer has to order the stuff first but if they're willing to take care of my concern, then I would be happy to bring it in. I'll keep it posted if anything else comes out of it.
 
#25 ·
Can someone please give me the TSb number about this issue,I have have been to two dealers and both tell me there's no TSb.both dealers tell me there's nothing they can do for me.this is a one year old truck with frame rust all over the place.total bull shit,I have called gm and have not heard a thing in weeks,I'm so damm mad right now I just want to trade it in for a dodge or ford or toy.i just want my dealer to do there jobs and fix my truck under warranty .i have 11000 miles on it,I mean come on gm if this issue is not fixed this summer sometime,I'm never buying a gm product again
 
#26 ·
gmLogoFlat.gif Service Information
Document ID: 3611659
#PI0564D: Wax Coating on Frame Peeling, Metal Shows Corrosion/Rusting - (Sep 5, 2013)

Subject: Wax Coating on Frame Peeling, Metal Shows Corrosion/Rusting

999999995.gif Models: 2011-2014 Cadillac Escalade Models 2011-2014 Chevrolet Avalanche, Express, Silverado (All Series), Suburban, Tahoe 2011-2014 GMC Savana, Sierra (All Series), Yukon, Yukon XL

This PI is being revised to add the 2014 model year, update the Recommendation/Instructions, Parts information and update the Labor Operation to the Global Labor Code (GLC). Please discard PI0564C.
Condition/Concern

Some customers may comment that areas of the frame wax coating are peeling off and rust/corrosion is visible on the metal in these areas. Several examples of this condition are shown in each group of graphics below.
Truck Example Photos
2708901.giftif.gif

tif.gif

2708908.giftif.gif
Van Example Photos
3396076.giftif.gif

3396078.giftif.gif

3396079.giftif.gif

3396080.giftif.gif Recommendation/Instructions

A combination of specialized metal coating products manufactured by Lloyds and Daubert have been found to be the most suitable products to provide corrosion control and protection to address this type of repair. Our recommendation is to prep the metal surface using *Lloyd's Pure Prep™ Metal Surface Preparation P/N 25418, then topcoat with both *Lloyds Kryptonite Metal Treatment P/N 36502 Life Long Rust Protection and *Daubert Non-Rust® P/N X-121B One Coat Rust Preventative Coating. It is strongly recommended they be applied according to the manufacturer's procedures.

*We believe this source and their products to be reliable. There may be additional manufacturers of such products/materials. General Motors does not endorse, indicate any preference for, or assume any responsibility for the products or material from this firm or for any such items that may be available from other sources.

Important: To ensure proper coating performance, all of the manufacturer's "Applications Guidelines" MUST be followed.

Prep the frame and apply the Lloyds and Daubert coatings following the steps below:

Important: Any corrosion damage noted to the extent of weakening the component will require component replacement.

Important: Lloyds Kryptonite is designed to apply directly onto brown rust or clean surfaces; however any loose flakes/scale of rust need to be removed prior to application.

Important: The frame must be dry and free of wax/oily substances prior to application of the new coating.

Raise and suitably support the vehicle. Refer to Lifting and Jacking the Vehicle in SI.

If labels are in the area to be reworked, remove any of the visible white labels on the frame (usually one per side).
Remove any components as required to gain access to the corroded component or area.
Determine a start and finish point on each side for the section/area of the frame to be repaired.

Using a rag and wax/grease removing solvent, remove the wax coating and any grease, oil, or undercoating from the truck frame in the affected repair area. The graphic above shows an example of a small portion of the wax coating removed.
Any loose rust or loose flakes should be scraped, wire brushed or ground off.
Remove any residual wax, oil or rust by wiping the frame down with a towel or Scotch-Brite™ (3M) pad soaked with wax/grease remover.

Using Lloyd's Pure Prep™ Metal Surface Preparation P/N 25418 (10 fluid ounce bottle), or equivalent, saturate a towel or Scotch-Brite™ (3M) pad with the pre-diluted solution and scrub the area well, rendering a foaming of the Pure Prep.™ This will greatly improve adhesion and corrosion resistance in the repair areas.
Using a water dampened clean towel, remove any residue and dry the affected area. Dry the repair area completely using an air hose to blow dry the frame.
Check the repair area for phosphate treatment by wiping it to see if any corrosion residue can be picked up. Correctly treated areas will not have any residue on the surface.

Apply a light flash-coat of Lloyds Kryptonite Metal Treatment P/N 36502 Life Long Rust Protection (14 ounce aerosol), or equivalent, to all rusted and bare areas of the frame where the wax coating was removed. This first coat should flash in approximately 3-5 minutes.

Apply a second coat of Lloyds Kryptonite. This can be a heavy coat; double and triple passes with this product, over a light first coat, are not a problem.

Note: Dried Lloyds Kryptonite will perform beautifully over time and actually get harder and more durable as it experiences heat.

We suggest top coating the Lloyds Kryptonite with Daubert Nox-Rust® P/N X-121B "One Coat Rust Preventative Coating" (aerosol), or equivalent.

Note: As shown in the graphic below, besides adding a corrosion resistant layer, it dries to firm, wax-like film which will more closely resemble the appearance of the unrepaired areas of the frame.
3611143.giftif.gif
Lower the vehicle and allow the final coat to dry as recommended by the manufacturer.

Parts Information

Dealers should obtain 25418 and 36502 by contacting Lloyds by e-mail at sales@lloydslaboratories.com, or by calling 1-800-361-6766.

U.S. Dealers can obtain the X-121B topcoat by contacting the Daubert website at www.daubertchemical.com or inside the U.S. only, by calling 1-800-914-0034.

Canadian dealers must contact the Daubert distributor in Canada, Corrosion Control Coatings Ltd, by faxing the form below to 519-881-2309.

Important: ONLY Canadian Dealers should use this form.
Warranty Information

For vehicles repaired under warranty, use Labor Operation below and include material cost.

GM bulletins are intended for use by professional technicians, NOT a "do-it-yourselfer". They are written to inform these technicians of conditions that may occur on some vehicles, or to provide information that could assist in the proper service of a vehicle. Properly trained technicians have the equipment, tools, safety instructions, and know-how to do a job properly and safely. If a condition is described, DO NOT assume that the bulletin applies to your vehicle, or that your vehicle will have that condition. See your GM dealer for information on whether your vehicle may benefit from the information.

___________________________

Does anyone have this is legit PDF form?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top