Is anyone else's truck rusting on the under side of the truck? I wasn't expecting things to rust so fast with it only being a year and half old and 15k miles. As it sits its just surface rust but once this stuff starts, its hard to control. My truck is only a lease but was planning on making a long term purchase once the lease was up on another new Ram but kinda thinking twice about it now.

 

My '04 didn't have a spot of rust when I sold it in August. Lost all the original boots around the ball joints, CVs, etc. due to my salt water fishing habits, but no rust...

 

When you say "underside" are you referring to the back of the body panels? or do you mean the frame, suspension and driveline?

If you are talking about the latter it's nothing to worry about. It's surface rust and harmless to the structural integrity of the underside. I traded my 06' in with 150k+ miles on it earlier this year the rust looked the same as it did 6 months after i bought the truck. It happens to all brands on exposed metal. If it bothers you pick up some cans of FluidFilm and spray the underside of your truck every few months or if you are ambitious get a few cans of undercoat but it's really not necessary. The underside of trucks and cars does not typically rust badly because it's rinsed by rain and then drys quickly by the airflow under the truck. The places you will find bad rust areas are where moisture gets trapped and there is no airflow. Like between body panels (The rear wheel wells on Ram's are notorious for this). But the undercarriage is not a problem.

If you plan on keeping a truck for 10+ years and spend a lot of time near the ocean or live in a winter climate then it might be worth more frequent washes on the underside.

 

Not all vehicles are built equally - even from the same manufacturer, you do get an occasional lemon. I live in a rust prone area, in what's called the Greater Toronto Area. We get lots of cold, snow, road chemicals, etc., and over the years I've settled on an approach that works for me. Once the snow starts and road chemicals are used, washing is very important, but to set up the initial protection umbrella, I like to have a cathodic protection system installed (this won't help much if rust has already taken hold), and on top of that, I have all my vehicles treated yearly with a rust protection oil spray. My choice is the T-40 oil spray from Krown (not widely available in the US, but similar products are available from companies like Ziebart). I've found the best time for the oil spray is before the end of September when the outside air temps are 20C + to allow the oil to creep properly.

A bit of surface rust wouldn't be a challenge for the rust preventative oil sprays, but if it's already starting to get flaky and as you say it's leased, I'd seriously consider turning it in on another and add the rust protection before you use it much. Around here, many untreated RAMs have rust showing around the wheel wells.

 

And the tailgates.


Despite all my best efforts my 08 still started to rust at the lower tailgate lip and the rear wheel wells.

 

That area above the rear wheels is a real good place for rust to get started as these trucks have rear inner liners and it is difficult for the moisture to escape hence you get rust over the rear wheels starting around the centre of the rear panels , best thing to do is drill a half inch hole into the top centre of the liner above the rear wheels as this will let the moisture drain from the area, don't plug the hole after you drill it.

 

I agree this is an epidemic on these trucks. I have three coworkers i work with who have an 05', 06' and 08' Ram's and all three have rust coming through the paint above the rear wheel wells. And i pay attention to other Ram's i see around town and it's amazing to see either visible rust or you see paint bubbling which means the rust is already there. I can count on one hand how many 3rd gen and back Ram's i see up here in New England that don't have rust issues in rear fender areas. The bottoms of all my doors (behind that rubber strip) on my 06' had big chunks of rust.

My 06' had it bad at the wheel wells too and i did not have the factory plastic wheel well liners. My new truck does. I too had though about putting drain holes in somewhere but the question is where? While adding any holes in the inner fender area will i'm sure help drain out trapped water, it also will serve as another point for water to enter. And if you are talking about drilling holes in sheet metal anywhere then you create a whole new issue. Drilling a hole means exposing bare metal. Despite it being a drain hole it will not rust twice as fast as painted metal. As this as this sheet metal is painting the edges of a drilled whole effectively is not easy to do.

 

The inner liner is plastic that was what I was referring to about drilling a hole thru , as it is above the wheel any water that enters it will drain away , never drill a hole into the sheet metal.

 

My 2014 has rust on the entire driveshaft, muffler, some motor parts and other small parts. It also has small rust particles all over the body paint that i just noticed as well.

 

Door seams under the rubber strip on the doors are still evil on dodge trucks, adding mud flaps trap dirt and salt and rust out the fenders were the screw holes are..

Pl 400 fixed all my rust issues on my 06, front fenders and door seams ( totally rusted out) but in time rust will all ways get ya... Boats and your hot water heater use charged anodes to stop rust.