2022 4Runner fuel door hinge rivet rusty?

I have a brand new 4Runner and discovered some rust on the lower river that holds the gas door hing to the body. Anyone else have this issue? Wondering how I could fix it or if I should just take it to the dealer. I attached an image of the rusty river head.

 

That’s funny because my brand new 4Runner has exact same condition. Keep us posted.

 

You could take it out and replace it with a new one if it bothers you that much. Or you could use a wire brush to clean to. I’d ignore it personally, but that’s just my opinion. The gas cap door let’s water run in, so I would think the dealer will say it’s normal wear and tear.

 

These trucks get exposed to a little bit of salt air in their early life. Combine that with the water that gets behind the fuel door and you can get a little rust. Wire brush it and put some dielectric grease on it.

 

Mine is the same, as is my 18 Highlander. I’m not totally convinced it’s rust, but it probably is. I’d just hit it with a drop of rust converter, and another drop of paint.

 

Don’t wait on it, my 2017 taco fuel door rusted and now is all screwed up. By the time a realized what was going on, it was past my 3 years.

research has told me I should have used some lithium grease.

 

My buddy has the same issue on his. It’s a bunch of bs is what it is. He and I both got ours in June.

I put fluid film on my rivets just in case. But mine is not an everyday vehicle

 

That would be me, yep same condition. For those who say accept it that's just ridiculous, they should not be rusting like that at such an early point in the vehicles life. Here's how I fixed Toyotas issue.

I took a touch up brush and applied Ospho into the area. I let that sit the appropriate amount of time and then sprayed some eastwood chassis black into a cup and applied it with a small brush.


Do other year 5th gens have this issue? Maybe they changed the supplier of the rivets for the newest trucks if not.

 

My ‘14 has had this for some time and no issues.

 

I noticed the same little rust spots the 1st or 2nd time I put gas in the tank. I was surprised, but have not done anything about it!

 

Mine’s been like that for over 8 years now.

 

I looked at mine just now (21' SR5P got it in July). It still has the paint in there. I'm in the rust belt but I'm a low mileage driver. Do you keep it outdoors?

 

First world problems.

 

Yes indeed a first world problem but when you’re paying the money we pay for the so called quality and reputation of a 4Runner I think it’s ok to have high expectations of the vehicle.

But perhaps like everything else we are being groomed to lower our expectations and expect less. We should expect to get less for our money and also expect to wait a long time to get it.

 

Literally every 5th gen I've looked at has had rust on that little fuel door rivet.

 

Same. '16 here. Had it since I got it and hasn't gotten any worse.

 

18 orp had it day 1 hit it with a glob of touch up paint & holding up great

 

It's a Toyota. Prepare yourself now for finding rusty bits and pieces all over.

 

This is totally unacceptable! Given the newly discovered yet widespread issue of rust-dotted fuel door hinge rivets, I fully expect Toyota Corp. to come to their corporate senses and issue a nationwide recall of all affected vehicles, with new, rust-free hinge rivets to be delivered to dealerships for installation as soon as possible. Letters will be mailed, emails sent, and owners can check their VIN against the list of all affected vehicles that will be posted on the Toyota website in the days and months to come. Although, due to the proliferance of this unexplainably overlooked issue by the factory in Japan, I would expect they will just tell every 5th gen 4R owner to just bring theirs in at their convenience to have this fuel door rivet replaced, at no cost to the owners.

Look for the announcement in the days to come. If they did something as minor as rusty Tacoma frame replacements and trimming accelerator pedals to mitigate unintended acceleration, why should something as critical to the truck's performance as a rusty fuel door hinge rivet go unfixed?

 

Repair procedures are being disseminated to dealers to ensure all service dept are prepared to complete the work quickly and efficiently. The procedure time is 8 minutes.

This repair procedure requires two special tools, that should be ordered by service dept before attempting repair procedure:

-Ice pick: PN 736527-3836

-Flap disc, 7in, 40grit: PN 37737-837

Other tools required should be commonly available to service departments. These include:

-Framing hammer, 32oz wood handle
-Flat bladed screwdriver
-Angle grinder

consumables:
-axle grease

 

Have the same rusty bottom rivet. Got mine in August.

 

Good lord - go buy yourself a rivet gun from Home Depot, learn how to use it and replace the rivet. The gun is $20 and a box of aluminum rivets is $5.

 

On my Higlander, the orange center of rivet almost looks like orange paint, that is why Im not even sure it’s rust were looking at. After 3 years, it looks exactly the same. I bet it’s a high-tech nano coating developed at the japanese space agency.

 

Bolter, brother.

 

Lol. I will
Never understand responses like these.

If you buy a vehicle and there is a problem and it has a bumper to bumper warranty why shouldn’t a person ask questions and expect the manufacture to make it right if it is deemed flawed?

Some of you must have all the time and money in the world. Some of us “lazy morons” dont want to work on a car that has less than 1,000 miles on it.

 

You can go to your dealer, all they will do is scrape it and put some touchup paint on it.

This is not a warranty issue, this is not covered by the corrosion warranty, and the dealer doesn’t have to do anything about it.

 

I get in the grand scheme of life a rusty rivet is not important. Clearly any of us on this site who own one are fortunate and blessed enough to have the financial means to own one.

To me it’s about doing something the wrong way knowingly and taking the easy way out. I was raised and taught if you are going to do something do it to the best of your ability and do not try to take the easy way out.

Sadly Toyota is letting this and who knows what else slip through the cracks and taking the easy way out.

As for me and my conscience I’ll give it 110 percent everyday in what I do. Sadly much of the world is ok with taking the easy way out as we see not only with vehicles, or their work but many other facets of life.

 

Same rust on my 2018. Hasn’t gotten any worse. I think I’m gonna put a dab of Vaseline in the hole and call it good.

 

Good lord, William!! Why are you so dramatic!!! It’s a rivet!!! Someone mentioned that it’s been the same rusty piece for 8 years. I promise….you will be okay…..and so will your vehicle you spent so much money on.