Found the source of rust stains on my driveway

[TripleTransAm]

,................

[Bradley G]

No doubt the stock rotors rust to hello.
Mine were one day old and looked all rusty (except the contact area)
I bought a second set, (deal offered) :confused: I promise this is the last.
Brake rotor upgrades offer more corrosion resistant choices.
(Fronts)I have the OEM size, Bear Decelerators for about two months.
no rusty yet!

[TripleTransAm]

So nothing I can do to keep the OEMs clean?
I'll have to think about the aftermarket options, then...
Thanks for the feedback.

At least it now makes sense as to why MM#1 would noisily squeal like a pig every morning when leaving my house (kind of embarrassing for a new car). One look at those grooves on the rotor surfaces and I can see the contact surfaces of the pads just digging in there...
(got the same story from the dealer back then... everything "looks" normal, learn to live with it)

[fastblackmerc]

My rotors get rusty after sitting for awhile..... but not like that :eek: !!

[DEFYANT]

An idea....

Drive the car to normal operating temps. That should clean off the surface of the rotors. Then take the wheels off (Good luck, BTW) and clean the remaining rusty area. After the rotors are clean, paint them with hi-temp paint (black?) The unused area of the rotor will stay black and since it is painted, it may remain free of rust.

[ckadiddle]

Nice driveway!!

[TripleTransAm]

Drive the car to normal operating temps. That should clean off the surface of the rotors. Then take the wheels off (Good luck, BTW) and clean the remaining rusty area. After the rotors are clean, paint them with hi-temp paint (black?) The unused area of the rotor will stay black and since it is painted, it may remain free of rust.

Interesting idea. So the basic idea is to have the initial braking applications wear off the paint on the contact surfaces?

The only drawback is getting the paint inside those vents on the discs, since I guess morning condensation could form on those inside surfaces and eventually dribble out rusty water once again. This would probably best be done on new rotors, and right now I gotta think of whether I want to spend any money whatsoever on this car.

BTW, no problems getting the wheels off. The on/off/on cycle of winter wheel installation seems to do the trick when it comes to keeping the wheels from seizing on (although I think I had to resort to the small-hammer-on-the-tire trick on one wheel the first time I swapped tires on MM#2).

[TripleTransAm]

Nice driveway!!

Not anymore...:(

[rayjay]

and I thought my rotors looked bad after winter. I bought a rust inhibitor from Duluth Trading for some other projects. I am going to try it on the rusted sections of my rotors and see what happens. Flat black will certainly look better than rust.

[TripleTransAm]

That's after 2 weeks of sitting in the driveway with temperatures dropping to freezing every night.

[phroe]

This will raise a brow for most of you but...
I've spent a lot of time in a dealership 'cleanup' dept. and detailing shops and......

http://www.carbrite.com/servlet/com.ebiz.ecom.search.ResultsPu blic?st=SUB&catcd=tcwc&loc=Tire%20Cleaners,%20WheelCl eaners%20and%20Metal%20Polishe s

www.carbrite.com (http://www.carbrite.com)
Wheel/tire section.

We used the acid based solutions to fix this problem. If you guys haven't seen this stuff at work then take a seat because it is incredible! Now most of you are thinking "ACID, on my car, are you mad?" Well, read the link and understand what the products are designed to do.

I have seen a factory Ford wheel with 3 years of that nasty break dust ( a trade in ) it ain't pretty. We spray the acid/water mix on the wheel, rotor, caliper etc, wait a min, hose off with high pressure and *poof. Brand frick'n new. It was the single most impressive thing we did to a vehicle to raise curb appeal. It never cased damage or issues. Here's the rub, I never used these products on a weekly basis (routine cleaning) for MORE THAN a year. I don't have PERSONAL experience of long term use on a wheel. I'll bet though that if it was going to cause damage, it would have done it with that year. Also, I used it for months at a time on several of my demos - several different kinds of wheels - while at the dealership. Again, no problems.

[TripleTransAm]

Brake dust is one thing, but will it do a number on rust like what's on the rotors?

[phroe]

rust will hose off just as well as the brake dust. We liked it so much because we could put the product in a spray bottle, get it in all the little 'uncleanable' places and it would hose off.
Even that space behind the spokes that you can't really clean, no problem. Just hose it off there too.

[metroplex]

Who made/sold those rotors? I've never seen so much rust on OEM rotors and AC Delco rotors. My new Raybestos rotors seem to fare pretty well. That's quite a bit of rust...

[TripleTransAm]

I've never seen so much rust on OEM rotors and AC Delco rotors.

Neither had I. However, I've had pretty much the same results on both MMs. Makes for excellent conversation topics whenever I have guests over... even my non-car-savvy buddies will comment on them. :(

[ctrcbob]

You are lucky they only rusted. One year, when I was younger and stupider, I left a Buick outside for about four months in the winter. The pads rusted to the roters. Had a h377 of a time breaking them free. Had to buy pads and rotors for all four wheels. Never did that again.

[TripleTransAm]

You brought up an interesting memory for me... my first winter after buying my GTA, I had no place to store it so it had to stay put in my parents' driveway. Initially intended to be only for a brief period, some -40 degree ignition-wire related problems forced the car to remain stuck outdoors for 3 months, in some cases buried up to its windshield in snow.

13 years later, I still have the same original front rotors on the car (although I'm on my 3rd set of pads) and they are the same rotors that I had on the car during my trophy-winning car show craze of 1996-1998. (and until that point, the car was also driven in rain and shine, everyday).

So the more I think about it, the more I believe the metal on these Ford OEM is just crap.

[barrytuneup]

since my 04 MM sits alot (11000 mi) i just noticed all the rotors are rusted. The brakes work ok, but it sits outside in snow and rain and am dew(we have had lots of snow and rain and ice for the last few months). If they work ok, should i do anything about it ?? I am not a mechanic and have 2 jobs so i don't have much time. But should i show this to the dealer??? thanks. The warranty expired in August, but i could argue

[Richy04]

Dont knock the rust.. I bought a Saturn new in 1998 and every 25k I had to change the front rotors as they notoriously warp.. I had OEM, Stillen (garbage IMHO), and finally settled for NAPA cheap chinese rotors and Raybestos Pads (a match made in heaven). The funny thing is they last 40+k miles with no warping and are made from pure garbage I suppose. There is something to the material they use as they get rusty like the Marauder but they never fail.. Something to think about..