Tesla Cybertrucks Are Rusting Despite Being Made Of Stainless Steel
Tesla Cybertrucks Are Rusting Despite Being Made Of Stainless Steel
Owners say they are noticing orange stains on the stainless steel panels of their new Cybertrucks.
Despite the recent release of these Tesla EVs — and the little road time they’ve been subjected to — Cybertrucks are already developing imperfections on their body panels, leading owners to debate what’s causing the early signs of rust on forums. From Futurism:
One Cybertruck Owners Club forum member says they started noticing small orange flecks appearing on his truck after driving it in the rain for just two days.
“Just picked up my Cybertruck today,” they wrote. “The advisor specifically mentioned the cybertrucks develop orange rust marks in the rain and that required the vehicle to be buffed out.”
The Cybertruck owner posted followup photos after washing the vehicle down with soap, and they didn’t inspire much confidence, showing body panels already pockmarked with small orange spots.
Cross post from https://lemmy.world/comment/7544395
Yet another example proving that having more money is no indication of intellect or critical thinking skills.
Teslas have always been junk. Junk the manufacturer doesn't even bother stocking adequate replacement parts for because you already bought it, suckers.
Tesla agrees ...
Owners say the EVs are not actually stain proof, and even the Tesla Cybertruck manual confirms the steel panels are susceptible to such corrosive substances as grease, oil, tree resin, dead insects, etc., which should be washed off quickly to prevent corrosion.
There's a bunch of Deloreans out there still rustless. Meanwhile at Tesla...
Wow, up until today I thought the DeLorean body panels were aluminum. TIL DeLorean body panels are stainless steel. I've had the opportunity to view them up close several times (auto auctions, car shows, etc.), and never noticed any signs of rust or discoloration.
Delorean body panels are made out of 304 stainless steel.
It’s more expensive, but highly corrosion resistant.
Cyber truck uses 301 stainless, which is meant more for industrial and commercial environments where the steel is kept out of the elements or will be painted with a weather resistant coating.
Why does Tesla use 301? Probably because Starship uses 301 steel body panels for the skin on the booster and vehicle. Bulk purchasing material like that will drive down the cost for them and make a little more profit. 301 is also very strong, and one of the design points of Cyber truck was that it with be bulletproof, for some reason. I’ve yet to see anyone actually shoot their cyber truck, but I doubt those body panels are stopping anything more energetic than a .32 ACP.
Now why is a spacecraft covered in steel? I have no idea. Rockets should be as light as possible to maximize the amount of energy you get out of the fuel.
And if memory serves the manual told you to clean the steel with gasoline.
Doc Brown specifically brings up the stainless steel construction early in Back to the Future as part of why the DeLorean was chosen. That and style.
Waiting for a back to the future reboot using a Tesla truck where it breaks down in the past because of no electricity.
They need a bolt of lightning to get the car going, but the time machine runs on unleaded gas, which hasn't been invented yet.
These are, and forever will be, talismans of stupidity. Anyone seen driving one should be mocked until they feel the appropriate amount of shame for having bought one.
I’d prefer to not pay them any attention at all. Shaming people is too much effort.
There are different stainless alloys comprising of various level of iron. Nickel-based stainless, for instance, will not rust. Lots of surgical stainless steels will not rust.
This is just Tesla choosing the wrong alloy to save dollars.
But apparently this one isn't stainless at all...? So....it's not stainless steel, then. Because it stains.
It's stain-less not stain-free. Stainless steel stains less relative to steel. The amount it stains less is relative to its additional alloys added like chromium. The more chromium the less stain, it also increases its price considerably.
The amount of stainless steel used on these vehicles is considerable. So there will be a lot of money to be saved by using a low grade stainless steel.
Even Tesla's own manual says to clean the car immediately of bird poop, bug splatter, tree sap, salt water, oil, grease, chemicals. That should be the red flag right there. Tesla cheaped out on painting the truck, not even a transparent lacquer and now owners will be perpetually washing their trucks or watch them rust. These things really are just a fail on so many levels.
Talking about cars in the UK, one Aussie chimed in with "it's like driving your car on the beach at low tide while it's high tide"
Best reason I could find for this is related to the DeLorean since it also uses stainless steel. Apparently, the reason it doesn't rust easily is because of a high chromium content in the steel, so maybe tesla used cheaper stainless steel.
Is Elon doing coke and playing in a wedding band too? John Deloreon played my mom and dad’s wedding.
Fairly certain he's doing coke.
Tesla cutting costs and using inferior materials? Just another day.
Maybe the owners should stop using Firefox then.
For what it's worth you don't have to spend much time around stainless steel to realize the word 'stainless' isn't literal. I bet you exactly 0 knife nerds actually believed this thing wasn't going to rust.
Stainless doesn't rust. Stainless alloys do. Knives are an alloy because they need certain properties to be able to sharpen them properly and hold an edge.
Medical stainless doesn't rust and whatever the hell my kitchen sink is doesn't either.
"Surgical" stainless - a marketing term - will rust simply because it's still an alloy of chromium and steels - it just takes far longer than the higher carbon steel alloys because of the lower carbon content. And yes, scalpel blades are made from high carbon stainless alloys that WILL rust if not properly stored - they are single use items and tossed when done being used once.
Your stainless sink is probably made from some 304 stainless alloy due to it's deep draw properties thanks to the extra nickle content. Things marked "Surgical" stainless would fall into this type of alloy. But 300 series stainless steels still contain about .05% carbon which is still enough to cause eventual rusting or staining.
Knifes are different though, as that is a different stainless steel alloy. I don't remember the specifics, but something about higher carbon content so it can be hardened? This is why you shouldn't put knifes into a dishwasher, they don't like the salt and will get pitted over time.
Nevertheless, no "normal" stainless is actually immune to rust or general corrosion anyway. It also depends on the environment (ask boat folks about this one), specifically if oxygen can get to it. And salt just makes everything 100x worse, too.
Closest you get to real rust proof steel is nitrogen steels, which are used for diving knives. Super super hard though, doubt it'd make a good auto body, I'd imagine such a thing would be prone to cracking. Expensive too. I'm gonna say Daddy Elon's best bet is to slap regular painted body panels on it and take the hit. I think we all know what he's not going to do though.
Ah yes rusted down cybertrucks on the road. That's more like the dystopian future I imagined.
It’s stain-less, not stain-never.
It’s
stainquality-less. FTFY
Some Cybertruck owners say their fellow Cybertruckers are blowing things out of proportion,
and one said it’s a good idea to not “...drive it in the rain, or get it wet.”Others expressed anger that Tesla’s options for protecting the steel panels cost thousands of dollars.
😂😂😂 just incredible,
having a car that rusts in the rain clearly is just haters blowing things out of proportion.and of course the solution only costs 5 grand.
pretty sure you could get another car that doesnt rust in the rain for less than that.Well, if you were stupid enough to buy a joke truck, you deserve joke consequences
Let's spread a rumor that elon pisses on each and every cybertruck before it leaves factory to mark dominance and his drug induced piss is the reason of rust.
You mean it somehow gets uglier? Given their history, I'm guessing Tesla will charge a fortune for special buffing pads and will void warranties for use of non-Tesla anti-rust measures.
No you just use the flame thrower to re-smelt your vehicle every 2-3 days, obviously. And only drive in Tesla-approved holes. Why can’t you people see the future?
This was inane from the start and calling rust a “patina”…
I swear, if this doesn’t certify them as a cult, I don’t know what will.
What is often referred to as "patina" is a form of rust/corrosion layer that provides a natural protection from active rust/corrosion that will ruin whatever steel alloy it forms on and is actively applied to many steel alloy surfaces. And even metals like aluminum and titanium naturally form a "patina" to prevent corrosion also.
See: Blued/browned gun barrels or case colored steels. All forms of protecting patina that can be quite striking to look at. Particularly case colored steels.
This is just fitting for people who were so afraid of other people damaging their cars that they go stainless steel cars, only for them to rust in every day rain. Hahaha cyber truck is a gift that keeps giving
Grift that keeps on grifting
There's a reason unpainted metal bicycle frames tend to be the titanium ones, and not steel.
professional metallurgists feel free to chime in and back me up on this, but i think rusting at the first sign of rain is an indication those panels are made of junk
It’s stain**less** steel, not no-rust steel. All stainless oxidizes, faster or slower depending on the chromium percentage. Normally we call it “tarnish” and it comes right off, but if you cheap out with a low grade stainless steel and/or inferior coating, stainless steel will rust like carbon steel, just slower and less completely
thanks for that explanation
just slower and less completely
so their post-apocalyptic survival trucks will sport the look a little early
$81,000 and go up to $101,000 depending on the trim and options
And they cheap out on the steel?
Um.. where do you think they get the steel from? Cheap stainless from China. They lied like most of their pre-sales promises
Tesla could be sourcing the materials from Outokumpu’s plant in Calvert, Alabama, and may be using more than one supplier
may be using more than one supplier
uh oh!
It’s Musk. He cheaps out on everything.
They probably uses a ferritic type of stainless, you can pick sheets up with magnets making manufacturing much easier but they are less corrosion resistant than 304 or 316.
stainless ≠ rust free
That's literally why it's called stainless instead of rust free. All stainless isn't made equal and actual rust free steel is expensive.
In Dutch stainless steel is actually translated to rust free steel. Guess that's a misnomer.
It is in Swedish as well. But "rostfritt stål" isn't necessarily rust free, which many products make clear on their packaging if they're products that come into contact with water a lot, especially salt water. There are high end knives (as an example) actually sold as rust free that do not rust (generally) under the most brutal conditions. Those steels are much more expensive than regular stainless you'd find in most things.
The more rust resistant a steel is, the more brittle it tends to be and harder to work with. Elon has already discussed the problems of working with the steel they're using. It's a choice you have to make when making a product and we do know that Tesla tends to be iffy on quality control.
Wait, there isn't any protective coating on those plates?
I don't think so, no. It's just plain stainless steel.
It’s not rust, it’s patina.
Yeah, a patina of iron oxide.
one said it’s a good idea to not “...drive it in the rain, or get it wet.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Came full circle back to teslas breaking down in rain jokes lol
It rained every day for two weeks here recently, do we just not drive to work?
Work? Don't you have slave owning fathers to just give you money?
-Elon
"Looking forward to the patina" HAHA whatever you fools gotta tell yourselves...
I find patina pretty cool. I have brass stationary and stuff that looks pretty neat. I'm genuinely interested in seeing the rusted cybertrucks.
It's just the gpu adding the realistic textures.
The Ford Pinto finally has a worthy rival for the title of shittiest car ever produced.
Oh no...
...anyway
How about them Chiefs?
I don't know, looks like what they wanted, dystopian by design.
Here's a picture of a Cybertruck Model 2 from 2050:
I'm impressed that you managed to get an image that specific out of an art generator.
Goes hard af
the double-s was introduced when the remnants of twitter were integrated into the onboard AI
Stuck in the dirt, how realistic
It's stainless steel, not rustless steel! /s
In all honesty, stainless steel is just that: it stains less.
Stainproof steel is steel that would not stain.
It's a painless lesson to learn.
Right. To be clear though, the name is early 20th century marketing wank. It just happens that it's also a pun that is more accurate.
I would like to see some pictures. It's hard to judge what the magnitude of the problem is without seeing.
My wife and I saw our first cyber truck last weekend, it looked like it had just driven through a mud puddle, except evenly over the entire vehicle, it had been raining the prior week, I wonder if it was parked outside. Also thought maybe it was reflecting maybe some dirt from below it, but it wasn't because it was from every angle.
"It's like a Pontiac Aztec fucked a delorean, redefined the definition of ugly car, took the title from the i3 (Aztec handed it off to pt cruiser handed it off to i3 (which is looking quite a bit better these days) cyber truck is the crown holder for the foreseeable future, hopefully we won't see too many of them)
"Weathered steel" was all the rage on brand new buildings a few years ago, why not on a "truck"? 😏
StainLESS, not stainPROOF.
Tesla likely uses an incorrect grade/family for the truck. Think bare minimum to be classified as stainless steel. Quality stainless steel is not cheap. A good example is surgical equipment and the DeLorean pointed out earlier in this thread.
https://www.unifiedalloys.com/blog/stainless-grades-families
Do you not understand what "less" means in this context? It's pretty basic English.
Yes, I understand exactly what it means. It means that the steel is less prone to corrosion but it does not mean that it won't corrode. It's pretty basic metallurgy.
Stain, less steel
Why the fuck would anyone buy this shit? You could get much much more quality truck for fraction of what this shit cost. 😂 Seriously!
Gullibility. As long as you don't verify, his words sound great.
Man, who would have thought that it would be garbage
It's called "stainless" because you can remove the rust without leaving stains. Where's the problem? Just rub down your useless, horribly expensive pile of crap with steel wool every few days. And oil it. There are several kinds of"stainless" steel, too. We can safely assume, they took the cheapest. Ah the 2020s, the apex decade of scams. And like always, the scammers are not the problem, they were here at any time and they will be. The stupidity that falls for it is. Is all evolving so painfully slow...
I doubt you can really buff that thing properly. The panels are under tension and if the clips give, the bumper just flies off.
Imagine buffing that car.
Had this issue with kitchen knives; having the components properly mixed is apparently hard. At least that's what the supporter said, he said nothing to the life-long warranty.
FYI, lifetime warranty usually means the lifetime of the product, not yours. What the manufacturer deems to be expected lifetime of the product under general use is arbitrary.
Wait, inflammable means flammable?
It can mean either flammable or not flammable (although the latter meaning is less common and it's often prescribed not to use it). You have Latin to thank for the confusion between "in-" for "in/on/within" as in "incinerate" or "involve" or "imbue", and "in-" for "not" as in "incapable" or "imbalance" or "individual"/"indivisible".
Although in English the word "flammable" actually originated from removing the "in-" from "inflammable", specifically for the purpose of avoiding confusion with "non-flammable". I guess that happened enough for "flammable" to become the common one. Ha!
Generally though "inflammable" still means the same as "flammable" if it's on a label or something. You could use "unflammable" to mean non-flammable to remove any ambiguity.
Imagine a world where we say "flammatory" and "unflammatory" instead of "inflammatory" and "non-inflammatory"...
Agreed on all counts.
What a country!
In b4 elon musks dicksuckers say they like the look and want it to rust.
They already did, in the article.
Others are in favor of their Cybertrucks developing orange stains, saying that they’re looking forward to the patina the stainless steel may develop.
These Cybertruck owners driving through the Timefall chiral rain from Death Stranding, perhaps?
🦀must rewrite cybertruck🦀
Shoulda paid the extra 6 grand for the paint.
Half the joke is how the paint also corrodes the metal, just from the underside so it isn't quite as obvious until it starts flaking off in big chunks.
idk if there's any other slobs here but stainless still will absolutely rust in certain conditions. Its usually easy to clean but sometimes difficult to remove.
These vehicles will 100% rust and will probably permanently discolor with prolonged exposure to certain acids.
How did they not foresee this? I mean, leave a body panel out for a few months and see what happens to it.
It really depends on the type of stainless. My stainless grill which I leave out in the elements year round has not rusted, it's made of 304 stainless which is corrosion resistant but not as much at Marine grade 316. There are thousands of slightly different alloys under the stainless umbrella some are better than others as far as rust goes.
Many manufacturers use ferritic types of stainless as sheets can be moved with magnets, many of these are cheaper and less corrosion resistant.
Already?
Yup. One response said this ...
“They documented the corrosion, and told me they’ll give me a call next month when the tools have arrived and they can perform the service/repair,” the user wrote after taking their vehicle to their local service center. “The Cybertruck has 381 miles on it, and has spent much of the 11 days in my custody parked in front of my house.”
Bro got the “stainless” steel.
My question would be, why didn’t Tesla clear coat the body. Did they not learn anything from the Delorean?
My brain just jumped straight to back to the future
So where's the photo of this rust?
https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/rust-spots-corrosion-is-the-norm.11988/page-2
Looks like pollen or other road crap. Some people are saying rail dust from train transport
Looks like this pics got removed.
I love that some guy suggested tho just cover the car while transporting via rail. And then? Never get vlose to a railway ever again? I used to work next to a railway, and the white cars were super dusty from the breaking dust. Everything rusts like crazy that gets in contact with it.
Who tf thought this is a good buy?
Someone who thought taking out an $81k loan for a car was a good idea.
Lol. Musk keeps showing that he's a moron and if you're still a fan of Tesla and buying their cars then it's on you for throwing your money away.
I assumed they'd be clear coated, expect that to be a big aftermarket service.
Jesus Christ!
Blue the truck steel! It'd almost look really cool except for it still looking structurally dumb as shit!
I looked up blue steel to get an idea of what it might look like, and it was all Zoolander.
If anyone else is curious, look up "blued" steel, the d is important.
The scammers always were here and always will be. The stupidity falling for it is the problem. It's all evolving so painfully slow.
I'm quite disappointed how rabid, mischievous and ill-wishing people have become. Really, what's going on here on lemmy?
Anyhoo, have a read at these two posts about owners having rust marks on their cars and how they are easily removed. They seem to be rusting particles from train transportation or other environmental stuff:
No, I don't own one and don't plan to.
That can’t be all it is though. All new cars have train rust debris. This isn’t a new phenomenon. If you care how your car looks, never let the dealer “wash” it and always have it professionally detailed immediately. Then add PPF while it’s still mint
Yeah sometimes you can tell people were waiting for a negative article to justify their personal opinion. Even if it's a low effort slightly misleading article people are just too excited to say they were right to actually look deeper than the surface level 😮💨
Lemmy is full of miserable people
