02-05 Silverado frame rot

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Originally Posted by 92saturnsl2
Originally Posted by Kibitoshin
You haven't been washing the undercarriage of your truck that's is why it's your fault the frame is rusting. Not my words, it's GM's since they won't issue a recall even on the steel brake lines prone to corrosion due to poor material use.


Tons of vehicles use steel brake lines-- them rotting away is a common occurrence up north, I fail to see how it's a GM problem. Most vehicles get safety inspections and these types of problems get noticed before it becomes a safety issue. In the event a brake line does fail, there is still a failsafe built in such that you will still have two wheels with brakes. Not ideal of course, but owners should be getting these things inspected on a semi-regular basis, especially in the rust belt.


It's not much of a failsafe. When I've had pads delaminate and fall off (it's happened at least once, but I swear I've had it twice), I've had no brakes until the caliper pumps up. I've been told no, the others are doing something--but when the pedal goes to the floor and the car isn't slowing down I have a very different opinion than the mechanic!

[Once my brakes are over 2 years old I inspect the pads at least once a year for rust jacking. By 5 years the pads are either shot or starting to fall off.]
 
Its been an issue up here for a few years. Anyone buying a 99-06 had better inspect the frame carefully. The wax coating that GM uses is trash, it doesnt hold up and once the moisture gets under it youre hit. You can wash and rinse all you want but the brake lines are a weak point, my brother has an 02 2500HD that is spotless and rarely driven in the winter, it got all new lines last year due to a blown line. The only sure way to avoid it is to park it in the garage before Halloween and dont drive it until mid April, its why a lot of us have "winter beaters"
 
Originally Posted by 64bawagon
Its been an issue up here for a few years. Anyone buying a 99-06 had better inspect the frame carefully. The wax coating that GM uses is trash, it doesnt hold up and once the moisture gets under it youre hit. You can wash and rinse all you want but the brake lines are a weak point, my brother has an 02 2500HD that is spotless and rarely driven in the winter, it got all new lines last year due to a blown line. The only sure way to avoid it is to park it in the garage before Halloween and dont drive it until mid April, its why a lot of us have "winter beaters"
If you have a GMT800 that is so nice that you don't drive it in winter, hats off to your sir. We actually use our trucks to work around these parts and I can assure you their susceptibility to corrosion is being vastly exaggerated in this thread.

Winter beater to save your 15 year old truck? Only on BITOG!
 
I've never personally seen the frame rot around here on any of the GM trucks. The cab corners and rockers are a problem spot even when they were fairly young. I don't think the GMT800 is any more susceptible, overall, to corrosion than the other trucks but they do have spots where they are. The brake line corrosion is a well known issue, though. My 01 has had the brake lines replaced more than once due to corrosion, just had a friend with an 03 Yukon go through the same thing with a blowout while towing a boat, and a coworker has had a lot of brake line issues on his 05 Silverado. We do have annual inspections and I'm under my truck more than I care to admit. The brake lines just rot, not just in spots...everywhere, seemingly from the inside out at times even with regular brake fluid changes and we don't get the road treatments/ice/snow very often around here.
 
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Originally Posted by ECUpirate
The cab corners and rockers are a problem spot even when they were fairly young.
50% of trucks that I see over 10 years old have rusty cab corners, that's not model specific at all. Pickup trucks have been rusting there first for 70 years. GMT800s are not rust buckets, that honour belongs to the first gen Tundra. However Toyota trucks are perfect and eternal, so they never corrode ever. Even when they have frame recalls, they never ever corrode ever.
 
Originally Posted by ECUpirate
The cab corners and rockers are a problem spot even when they were fairly young.


The great idea [sarcasm] of foam in the rockers. My S10 has this issue atleast on the passenger side. It took me quite a while to pull that junk outta there through the nice gaping hole.

I'm about to go through brake line replacement after this winter just for preventive measure. Amazingly enough they're the ones that came from the factory.

Never seen too many frames that rot through, mainly the leaf spring shackles like to snap off after a while.
 
Originally Posted by dlundblad
Didn't know GM had this issue. I'd really like to find a 4x4 early to mid 2000's Tahoe.

Usually suv have less corrosion than pickups. Mainly because of what the vehicles are used for and the air flow over the vehicle doesn't have dead zones like a pickup. Usually in the air dead zone behind the cab salt in the air will settle and collect.
 
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