Dan3292

I am the original owner of a 1996 XLT which still looks mint. About four years ago, I moved to a house just feet from the Delaware river in Pa. with heavy tree cover where it is constantly damp and humid and the truck is parked outdoors on a gravel driveway. It has 103K miles.

Since moving to this location, I have had these undercarriage rust issues which have all been repaired, but seem to be accelerating:

2005 - brake lines rusted/leaking,
2005 - upper/lower ball joints rusted out,
2006 - brake lines again (different section),
2006 - power steering line rusted/leaking,
2008 - transmission line rusted/leaking,
2008 - oil pan rusted/leaking.

I have ended up having to get towed now three times in the last year as all my fluids leak out of some rusted tubing. My questions are: How am I doing vs. the rest of you? What other rust issues could arise? Is it time for a new truck?

This is my third F150, but the first which has not been totally garage kept. My other two garage-kept F150's had none of these issues and lived well into 15+ yrs. of ownership with almost 200K mi. each on them.

I hate to part with this truck as it still looks great (no body rust) and I'm not that impressed with the 2008's out there.

Kevin O.

With all the moisture around you it's not going to be an easy fight. At least you don't have any body rust though. I live in northern Michigan and i had to replace the brake lines too. It's a 93', I pulled in the driveway and the pedal dropped to the floor and i found a gas tank covered in brake fluid. Except i have body rust I'm repairing. So i wouldn't feel to bad about have an older, year round driven truck that's rusting. it happens. Especially with all the damn salt we have

Fast Hampster

Welcome to the forum! I'm facing the same problems with brake lines- they're very rusty and they can start leaking any moment, even though my truck was mostly sitting instead of driving. I'm about to install custom copper brake lines instead of steel ones - in here they last longer, and we also have some salted roads.

Just call me Sean

iTrader: (1)

It isn't recommended to use copper lines on vehicles, they fatigue and break much easier than steel because of the vehicles vibrations. It would be better to use stainless steel.