I have this orange gunk on my rotors, and am wondering if this is rust or brake dust? Forgive me if the answer is obvious - I don't know much about brakes.

Thanks.

 

That should be rust. When you apply the brakes, the pads don't grip that small area of the brakes, so that it's free to rust. That's normal though.

 

yeah, its nothing to worry about......its normal.

 

/ignore

 

OK, so all I have to worry about is it looking crappy? Any tips on polishing them? Is there a solution that removes the stuff safely? Am I being too ****?

 

itll come back *** soon as u polish it. since nothing is rubbing against it to scrap the rust off, rust is free to form there.

 

You can use some high temp semi ceramic paint (engine paint) around the areas that the pad does not touch. Just use some brake cleaner and wire brush to clean everything out. Tape up the areas that you do not want painted and spray away. Not only will it prevent rust but look a lot better then the old rusty rotor look you currently have. I went with black for my rotor hubs and a metallic silver for my calipers. I will have some pics up next week when I get a chance to clean the Z up. I will keep you posted so you get an idea of what I am talking about

 

In some cases, when you use semi-metallic pads that creat a lot of dust, you may notice more surface rust spots on the rotor, but as your drive the car daily they will wear off.

 

One thing that I left off was that I have only experienced this since I replaced the front brakes. Never noticed it when I had the stock ones. When these are ready to go, I will probably replace them with performance brakes. Any recommendations for some sweet looking, well performing, and reasonably priced brake kits? Are there any particular aspects of a brake brand that I should ask about when replacing them in the future? In other words, why did this particular brand collect so much rust and the stock ones didn't? With these rims, you can really see it, and it is quite ugly. Any advice?

 

Say Rusty Rotors ten times fast. Bet you can’t do it.

 

Do you use any special wheel cleaner? Once when I was at the dealer my tech wanted to show me this stuff. It was amazing and made my rims shine like crazy. But then I noticed that the rotors turned orange-ish (i.e., a rust color) for a while. They eventually went back to normal but it was definitely the cleaning solution and it made me nervous.

Also, can you take a straight-on shot of the rims for me?

 

I got to 7 then totally fell apart.

 

 

Damn, those look nice!

Sorry, I meant a pic of the discolored rotors straight-on.

<-- Please excuse the idiot.

 

I will try to take some more shots this afternoon - I think I am going to try to brush them off a bit today.

 

 

Oh, I see now. Hmmm. I'll try to take a pic of mine...it's somewhat similar but not quite.

It's nothing to worry about...it's just aesthetically displeasing. I don't know how you can undo that rust though.

As for replacement performance brakes, I think StopTech has the best bang-for-the-buck. The Brembo's from Nissan are like $4k or something ridiculous.

 

Buy some new rotors with coated hubs. Problem solved.

 

Is that what happened? I guess the brake shop that sold me the brakes (after assuring me that they were real good ones - they certainly charged me enough) forgot to mention that they would do this. The stock brakes certainly didn't.

 

Simple enough, your pads a chewing up your rotors...
Metalic pads will do that too...