Rusty Rotor Syndrome

[Iboc_C64]

Just looking for come quick advice guys. My car sits outside all year long, I don't own a garage. I have tried before to buy brake rotors that would not rust up so bad under the corrosive new england outdoor conditions with my last car. I know that VIP cheepo rotors, OEM and Brembo slotted (gold colored) rotors do not last. My biggest dissapointment was the Brembo rotors. They claim to be rust resistant, and I talked to a company rep that told me they should hold up to the corrosive conditions here everywhere but along the "Fire Path", which is the part that sees surface abrasion, and I didn't expect anything to help that. Anyway, I bought the Brembos for my last car and to my dismay, they went from a shiny Gold or Brass color to a mottled brown in less than 2 weeks. When I complained, all I got for response was "It is natural for rotors to rust along the fire path, other than that, our rotors do not rust." Then they stopped responding to my e-mails, A-Holes. What I want to know, is what brand of rotor starts out looking good, and will stay looking good for a year or 2 in the maine climate. Is there anything that wont get a mottled brown/orange discusting looking coating to the Rim and center of the rotor or worse yet, get all brown and flakier than a pillsbury biscuit like the OEM and VIP cheepies do? Also what pads would you guys recommend for a 2009 WRX with the stock brake layout?

 

[Pedro]

paint 'em. but my rotors are a yearly thing it seems these days. so they don't get too rusty before I change them.

 

[Matt]

There's nothing out there that'll fix your issue. You're letting exposed metal sit in the elements and it's natural for it to rust from lack of use. I'd just suggest taking it fir a quick spin every once in awhile to take off any build up.

 

[Iboc_C64]

Well I am at 41,500 miles or so now, and I have been thinking about my brakes. I am told I have about 50% to 70% pad life left, I don't drive with one foot on brake and one on gas like some people, lol. But now it seems that I will get sick of looking at rusty rotor disks before I ever NEED to change the damn things.

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

about all you can realistically expect to do is slow down the return of the rusty rotor syndrome

take your used rotos, wire wheel the center areas and mask the calipers/hardware and actual braking surface. shoot the rotor with rattlecan hi-temp paint like gas-grill paint or caliper paint or similar. note that many hi temp paints need to be 'baked' on or heat-tempered...do you need instructions on how to do that too?

just paint the suckers and bake em with a spirited backroads drive, OK.

I've done this on several cars and it actually works pretty well.

 

[Iboc_C64]

So am I to assume that all the cars with Shiny Chrome or Polished looking rotors that I see are kept in a garage at night? The problem that I have is not with the contact surface (fire path) rusting. Its that the vents on the edges of the rotors under the calipers get all flaky and filled with with rust flakes, after a while I no longer have vented rotors, then might as well be solid. The Brembro did not flake up, they just got a scaley mottled brown orange surface. Also, trust me, the problem is not that the car is not driven enough. Both of my cars are used daily. My Subaru, which is the car in question, is a 2009 driven daily at least 57 miles every day, 24/7/365.

Also, the stock brakes on my 2009 came painted. The rotors where flat black in the center, the calipers were painted silver. The rotors still rusted up anyway.

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

So am I to assume that all the cars with Shiny Chrome or Polished looking rotors that I see are kept in a garage at night? ...

Also, the stock brakes on my 2009 came painted. The rotors where flat black in the center, the calipers were painted silver. The rotors still rusted up anyway.

show cars don't lead a normal life, yes they are prepped to look like thay' ain't actually, um, used.

paint on stock rotors is not intended to keep em black indefinitely.

owner applied heat resistant paint will work ok for a year or so on the rotor centers

nothing will keep outer edges around vents free of rust scaling (unless you obsessively go at em with a wire wheel) since that is not a corrosion related issue, it's due to endlessly repeated heat cycling. that particular issue might have something to do with your right foot?

 

[Iboc_C64]

Well if Im braking excessivly, then why would I still have 50%+ pad life at 41,000 miles? Also, how do you guys feel about Zinc plating. I just read on some Nissan forums that a few guys had success with that. They said you can even take stock rotors and have them plated for around $70 for 4. It lasts for about a year or 2. They also said that it works about as well as painting, but will need to be redone when resurfaced, or when replaced, obviously. I will probably just paint them, but for the sake of argument, anyone here try zinc plated rotors?