Im new on here so im not sure what im doing. Ive brought a is300 sportcross year 2002. The car is in good condition but the tail gate is going rusty underneath the number plate light and on the under side of the tail gate lip. My dad has been a mechanic for 30 years and he said its never been painted and is orginal.

Is this a comon problem with a sportcross?

Seems very strange for this to happen as theres no signs of damage on the rear of the car.

Hi and welcome to LOC. My 2004 ("54" plate) SportCross is fine - which doesn't really help you at all, because it's a much newer car. News of yours worries me, though!

check the service history on your car you might get it repaired under warranty.

Thanks for your advise guys. Only the last 3 services have not been Lexus, so im guessing it wont be covered in the warrenty. I might try phoning lexus as im 99% sure the tailgate has never been repaired or damaged.
Its a bad advert for them my rusty car so they might do somthink about it.

I don't think it has to serviced at a Lexus dealer, but they must use Lexus approved parts (I think)

In any case, it would still be worth getting it down to a dealer to check

[quote name='Parthiban' post='652147' date='Apr 2 2009, 07:19 PM']I don't think it has to serviced at a Lexus dealer, but they must use Lexus approved parts (I think)

In any case, it would still be worth getting it down to a dealer to check [/quote]
correct matey!!!!!!you dont have to have it serviced at lexus but as parthiban said it does have to be lexus parts oh and the garage must be vat registered.
hope that helps.

Lexus corrosion warranty would be unlikely to cover this. The warranty covers it if it is coming from the inside of a panel to the outside. Your rust sounds as if it is surface rust scabbing up on the outer metal. Hopefully I'm wrong. Nothing to lose by trying Lexus though.

The tailgate is made from aluminum and is not technically rust, i had exactly the same problem on mine just took it to a spray shop and they did the job for me and at very reasonable price.

[quote name='dave1' date='Apr 2 2009, 09:07 PM' post='652199']
Lexus corrosion warranty would be unlikely to cover this. The warranty covers it if it is coming from the inside of a panel to the outside. Your rust sounds as if it is surface rust scabbing up on the outer metal. Hopefully I'm wrong. Nothing to lose by trying Lexus though.

The rust is coming from the inside out as the paint is still ok on the outside of the panel. Ill try and get some pics up tommorow.

[quote name='glennhughes' post='652215' date='Apr 2 2009, 10:17 PM']The tailgate is made from aluminum and is not technically rust, i had exactly the same problem on mine just took it to a spray shop and they did the job for me and at very reasonable price.[/quote]

Ok that is intresting. I never relised it was aluminium as it looks like steel rust.

[quote name='VVC MATT' post='652217' date='Apr 2 2009, 10:21 PM']e rust is coming from the inside out as the paint is still ok on the outside of the panel. Ill try and get some pics up tommorow.[/quote]

If you get a small perforation in the paint on the outer skin water can ingress and cause this as it comes up from under the paint giving the appearance that it is coming through the metal. Glenn says it's aluminium so that would seem to further imply that it is a perforation on the paintwork and is probably just the paint bubbling and the metal discolouring.

I could be wrong, but I think you can get an electrolytic sort of rust on aluminium caused by a chemical reaction. Not sure if this is what you're getting.

Some pictures.

[img]http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii314/kingbooty36/P030409_185103.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii314/kingbooty36/P030409_185102.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii314/kingbooty36/P030409_1851.jpg[/img]

As you can see its in 3 diffrent places and is under the paint and laquer.

I would talk to Lexus about it, that sort of thing coming up from the inside is surely what the corrosion warranty would cover ? And if it's an aluminium tailgate (is that definitely right ?) that that would make it even worse.

I took the car into Lexus last week and they took some photos and sent them to there head office. I got a phone call today asking me to take the car to them and they are going to change the tailgate .
They are doing it under the 12 year warranty so im happy.

But they have given me a 2000 Suzuki hair dresser jeep which is miss firing and the check engine light is on. Was at least expecting a toyota curtisy car or even a Lexus .

Great news. Shame about the courtesy car though !

glad to see you got it all sorted matey!lexus keeps an other customer happy.

Picked my car up from Lexus today and top job.
Nealy wrote the car off outside there showroom as i was getting used to driving the puffs jeep with my foot flat to the floor. Has made me notice just how good the Lexus is and powerful compared to the thing they gave me .