2019 Ram 1500 drive shaft rust

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Apr 30, 2019
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673
Location
kansas
A friend of mine just purchased a 2019 ram 1500 with 5100 miles on it. While we were installing a toolbox in the bed i crawled under it and noticed the driveshaft is starting to rust already along with some brackets underneath where the paint is being replaced with rust. If i can manage to get some pictures soon i will post them here. Every driveshaft I've seen on a driven vehicle is orange but I didn't expect it to take place that quickly. Is this a cause for concern?
 
No. The shaft will out last the truck. Doesn't look good at all. You would think they would make it out of a rust resistant steel.
 
Never seen an orange driveshaft. I wouldn’t worry about it honestly remember most of them have a case around them to protect the actual driveshaft anyway.
 
I'll try to get some pics to show yall but as it is not my truck it may take a couple days I'll keep you updated.
 
It's just surface rust. You can clean it with some WD-40 if it bothers you. Even brake rotors develop some surface rust overnight but don't touch the rotors.
 
Bit odd but everything rusts, eventually. But a driveshaft is too thick to rust through any time soon.
 
A friend of mine just purchased a 2019 ram 1500 with 5100 miles on it. While we were installing a toolbox in the bed i crawled under it and noticed the driveshaft is starting to rust already along with some brackets underneath where the paint is being replaced with rust. If i can manage to get some pictures soon i will post them here. Every driveshaft I've seen on a driven vehicle is orange but I didn't expect it to take place that quickly. Is this a cause for concern?

My 2015 Charger suffered a broken shaft about 2 months ago and they just now got the part in because it was back ordered. I would be willing to bet FCA is having issues with their current supplier and the quality of them.
 
Walk a new car lot and look under RWD or 4WD vehicles in the North East and you'll see rust on driveshafts in vehicles that have been driven from the new car carrier to their parking spots at the dealership. It's no big deal.
 
I have never seen a drive shaft rust through and break. I wouldn’t worry about it.
 
RAM Classic? Pretty sure my wife's NBS truck has an aluminum shaft, but I'll check. I know the Jeep does.

Even some of the 4th gen Ram 1500's had aluminum rear prop shafts. There's like 6 different shafts depending on configuration.

To the OP, don't get me started on underbelly rust on a 2019 Ram 1500. I've got one. There's a ton of totally untreated steel and cast components under there that rust immediately. I also had a thread going some months ago on the inside cab corners on my 2019 classic crew cab 5.7" bed where the paint was blasted and chipped off and rust was starting. I bought the truck used with 15K miles on it. Was an ex-rental.

Wait till you take off the rear brake rotors and get a gander at the parking brake mechanisms that are also untreated steel and will rust to oblivion if left untreated.

You have to treat the underbelly of these beasts with something. Krown, fluid film, woolwax, or even better, go with noxudol, etc.
 
I sprayed mine with cold galvanized coating before last winter.
My main concern with driveshaft rust is the balance weights flying off at some point in the future..
 

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My 2019 Ram isn’t having the rust issues I’m hearing about, and I’m in the northern reaches of Minnesota where the salt flows freely on the roadway.

I’ve been under my Crown Victoria recently (and will be again due to my NOT securing a u-joint snap ring completely 😖). That has a big fat aluminum driveshaft while the rest of it has surface rust typical of a 10 year old car.
 
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