I wash my car and dry it off good. But when I go to drive it, rust from the rotors splash all over my rims. I get pissed off as hell because the dam rust is starting to stain my rim up. Now I have to rub until my arm falls off to get it off. Can anyone tell me a way to keep the rust from getting on the rims? Can it be taken off without getting the rims dirty again and without using water? Dam things are really pissing me off because it looks ugly with my car being washed and shiney, but having rust colored brake rotors. Thanks.

 

Still no answer to this thread. Does anyone have this trouble other then me. It just sucks to have to live with rust stains always on my rims.

 

thats the problem with not having coated rotors. i dont get rust splashed on my wheels but my aftermarket wheels have small holes around the lug holes that go all the way through the rotor hat surface. rust water makes it through these holes from the rotor & can be seen on the face of the wheel. this drives me crazy. i took my wheels off, cleaned out all the small holes then shot a small dab of silicon inside the holes. i wiped the silicon from the back & remounted them. no more rust showing!

your easiest(not most affordable) option is to replace the factory rotors with aftermarket slotted/dimpled rotors with a protective coating such as zinc or cadmium plating. this will keep the rotors from rusting. plus it adds a nice look to your wheels...shop around, they do make some affordable ones that are stock sized. i believe i ran across a set on ebay a short while back for around $300.00......best of luck!

-justin

 

You have 2 choices:

Drive the car after you wash it.

use a wet rag and dry the rotors.

 

wax your rims....

 

that doesn't work. That makes cleaning easier though.

This is what he is talking about. The reason this happened, is it sat and dried.

 

wax being the sacrificial layer between rim and rotor/brake dust...does work... which I believe she is talking about...hence wax you rims....not your rotors...du-oh

 

I find this only happens when I wash my car and the brakes are hot. If they are cool I don't get the rust problem.

 

When the car is dried, go for a quick 5 minute drive around your neighborhood. Come home, wipe off anything that spit up from the rim, done.

 

My rotors where not hot the other day because it has been sitting in the garage all month. I have Volk SF Challengers and since they are so big (19"), they just hold water puddles and the lip and on the back side of the rim. It takes like two good towels to soak it up. I tryed rubbing the rotors of the rust, but does not seem to work very well. I guess my only thing to do is to get a set of aftermaket big brake kit upgrade from Evolution.

 

Doing it this way though leaves you with a chance of scratching the rim right. It sounds good though. Maybe I will try it and try to wipe off easy so I don't mess up the rim.

 

If you lube the wheel up a little more you shouldn't worry about scratching them up

 

a full aftermarket kit isnt necessary, cadmium plated or zinc plated rotors will suffice just fine & safe you a ton of money over a full big brake upgrade kit! unless your looking to upgrade anyways id just go with the coated rotors & be done with it.........its the water that gets trapped in the rotor cooling vents around the circumference of the rotor that spits the rusty water out......

heck if you want a real cheap fix, pull the rotors, sanblast all the rusted areas, coat with high temp clearcoat or high temp paint(be sure to get down in the cooling vents), take to autoparts house & have them skimmed like .002 or .003 just to get the paint off the disc surface & smooth the pitting from the sand blasting! total cost= $20-$25 for hightemp paint & rotor turning.........

-justin

 

Ductile iron rotors have their pros, but they do rust given water and about 30 seconds. Personally, I took mine off, and painted the vanes, and both sides of the hat area. The look is good imo, and leaves only the brake surface virgin iron. I would not put anything at all on that surface. Period. I don't know much about plated rotors, mainly whether the plating wears off or not. I think plating, and I think very thin layer over just the surface of the metal, but like I said, I don't know. However, I have not experienced the problems with my stock rotors that you describe. By the time I'm done detailing, the rotors are rusted and dry, and a slow drive down and back up the driveway cleans them just fine without throwing liquid crud everywhere.

 

Plated rotors last a long time. The only place the coating wears off is the brake pad contact surace of the rotor. The plating stays on the rest of the surfaces for life I would suspect. There's nothing to rub the plating off. There's no scraping off the plating like paint. Its a different process of adhering to the rotor. This way there's no bare iron exposed except for the pad surface wich will not allow for rust water to be jousted onto the wheels........I've had experience with painting a set & the plated type in the past. The plated were perfect......I wanted to share my experiences so those who were dealing with rust wouldn't spend big money on brake upgrades if they didn't need them especially for reason like this......best of luck!
-justin

 

after a wash, i always drive my car for atleast a couple of minutes to get the rotors looking "normal"