Hello,
New member here looking to buy a Tahoe Hybrid. I've been reading a lot here lately and I'm very grateful to all of the posters with such invaluable information.

I found a very low mileage (27k) 2008 TaHy a long distance from here but for what I think is a great price. I just received some pictures yesterday and one in particular has me concerned. In both of the wheel wells it looks to be quite a bit of surface rust. Does it look like surface rust to you and also is this common for this vehicle?

It is located in Michigan which of course has some mean winters with I'm sure uses plenty of salt.

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

where is the rust? down under the chassis? they don't paint it as much. maybe a new spray once over would be okay.

 

Yup a little oxidation underneath is normal ... but you shouldn't be able to see any of it without the truck being up on jacks.

 

Thank you for the replies. So it seems like nothing to worry about? It does seem to be oxidation.

Yes evois, it seems to be down on the chassis. Here are a couple of cropped pics.

 

Gary,

I went and looked at my truck (09 with 24k miles) and I have no rust/oxidation where those pics are showing. So it has me a little worried on your behalf. I highly recommend having that checked out by a mechanic before committing to purchase.

 

Thank you Serge for checking. I really appreciate it. That was the first thing that jumped out at me when looking over all of the pictures. I am going to have this fully checked out before I go any further.

 

Yeah please do ... i was actually just at the dealership doing some stuff (swapping back to my chrome running boards) and I had the truck up on the lift, so I took an even better look.

Normal oxidation/rust occurs on unpainted/untreated frame elements like the exhaust, bolts, and other parts of the undercarriage. My truck's frame is painted black where that trucks shows rust, and my truck has zero rust there.

Now granted Dc winters don't compare to Michigan winters, still we do get a fair amount of snow/ice and the roads are treated with corrosive elements all the time.

It must be noted that 2008 is a tricky model year for these trucks ... getting the first year of a new model is always chancy and even more so for these highly complex machines.

It may just be that this is something that is normal for the truck and was addressed later in production, or it might indeed be a sign of greater issues. And if it is something that proves innocuous, still make sure that this is covered under what is left of your warranty.

So yeah, short story long, get it thoroughly checked out.

 

Serge, thank you for taking the time to get a better look. They are supposed to send me better pics in the morning before I go any further with it. They said that most of it was dirt but also said that it was rustproofed when new so maybe it could be the color of the rustproofing.

On another note, beautiful Tahoe you've got there! I'm going to use yours as a model for mine when I eventually get it.

 

Thanks bud I appreciate it.

I tried to include a lot of info in the '09 HyHoe' thread, but I am always happy to answer any questions and help if I can. There's a lot more that I still don't know about these trucks, but I love trying to find out.

And keep us updated as to what's going on with your purchase.

 

Ok, sounds good, will do.