Rust on bottom driver door on 16 mo. old Prius

i think the warranty is 12 months, but check with the dealer. i don't think it would cover road rash anyway.
best to sand it downuntil it is gone, prime it and paint. spring time is fine.

non diy would be an auto body shop.

you might want to report your post and ask that it be moved to gen4. gen 5 is not available until next year.

 

I don't know about warranty coverage at 16 months, but dealing with door scrapes on curbs is a fact of life, it will keep happening past any warranty. The salt just makes it worse.

You can diy some repairs- essentially you want to clean it, remove existing rust and replace paint to seal it. Plenty of youtubes and reddit threads with all the gory details so I don't have to type them.

Some people put plastic or vinyl beading on there to reduce scrapes, but that's a double-edged sword: Now it scrapes even lower because of the thickness of the vinyl, and that beading will hold rain and other moisture right there, which can make rust problems worse.

That's not to say it is a bad idea, you just have to decide which problem you want to work to stay caught up with.

 

Door frame most likely encountered a curb or similar obstruction upon opening breaking thru the paint=corrosion=wear&tear=no warranty.

 

I had to wonder who has a 16 months old Gen5?
LOL

 

Consolation: bottom edges like that are the easiest places to repair seamlessly, paint just flows to where it's needed, and cures without looking like touch up.

Abrasive glass fiber "pens" are good for clean up, down to bare metal, and cleans out the pits/grooves. Then spritz a little spray can primer into its lid, apply it with a small water colour brush, and when it's cured top coat with a Toyota colour-matched touch-up pen or brush.

If the colour-matched pen, with colour coat at one end and clear coat at the other, maybe forgo the clear coat. Or at least test somewhere first: I found the clear tended to lift the previous coat.

 

Toyota offers 12 years warranty for no rust in my country, I would certainly contact your local dealer and find out your terms of warranty.

 

I am guessing you don't have road salt in your country? Around where I live, no car will last longer than a few years without rust developping on the unprotected surface. The painted body parts usually fare well, but in my experience, no car lasts longer than 10 years without developing major rust-related issues, usually underbody parts, but can be anywhere on the vehicle.

 

The rust warranty is for rusting from the inside out. Road salt, natural conditions (living near salt water), etc is rusting from the outside in.

Example: Certain Pacifica owners are having hood rust issues that start in the same area due to a manufacturing issue during the application process not from road chips (wear & tear). Those are being covered.

 

Looks like it's done. For next time: click the "report" button on the first post, note that you've posted in wrong forum.

 

The Touch Up paint you get from the dealer have that fiberglsss included. Very carefully, "scrap" the rust, the use the touch up paint to touch up the missing pant. Wait a couple of minutes, add a second coat, wait a couple of minutes add the clear.

 

Not ours, purchased from Canadian dealership, but I have some "Dupli-Color Scratch Fix All In One" aftermarket that have that. I find them to be miracle workers on rim curb-rash (have 17" OEM Touring rims), much more seamless than sand paper or filing: the individual fibres ride up/down into crevises in the damage, and abrade the edges very smoothly.

 

Check your Maintenance and Warranty guide, pages 14 & 15, for the warranty question.

 

Yeah that would do. Or just get a fiberglas brush pen without paint, and the touch up paint through dealership. Paint code can be found on driver's door decal.

 

With door bottom edge scrape I’ve skipped primer, just clean it out good with abrasive brush, then wipe with isopropyl alcohol on cloth, then a couple of coats with touch up pen or brush. Follow up with wax, say a week later.

it’s very easy to do a seamless job at that lower edge; gravity flows the paint around bottom edge.