I can't be the only one with this problem. My rotors look like crap because the areas where the brake pads don't rub are rusty. Is there a way to treat this area safely with rustoleum or something? I read somewhere else it's easy to mess up cause if you get anything on the area where the brake pads go it can obviously mess with your quality of braking.

Is this why people paint their calipers (on top of looking nice)? Rust proof paint? Possible to include parts of the rotor safely or not worth the risk?

 

Drive fast and brake should solve your problem

 

I am paranoid about rust, so your post sent me scurrying to check.

I found no rust anywhere on my rotors. My car was built the first week of Oct 2008.

I suspect the difference may be that, living in Maryland, you have no choice but to drive on salt-treated roads. But living south of Atlanta, I leave the Maxima in the garage for a week or so during the very rare times salt is put on the roads around where I live. I only recall once during the past five years we had salt on our local roads, and I drove one of my wife's trucks that week.

I detest rust anywhere on my car. I will be interested in what other drivers are finding on their rotors.

 

The area where my brale pads meet looks fine. Its just the surrounding areas and the center. Should I take the wheels off and clean the rust off? You're right I drive on salt treated roads so I'm sure that's a major contributor.

 

lets see some pics about the problem

 

It is normal for the part of the rotors that is scrubbed by the pads to have rust form when the car is parked outdoors and not driven for an extended period. I used to see this in my dealer's back lot. But a short drive quickly removes this rust. But rust on the rotors in the area where the pads do not scrub (danielevans83's situation) is a more difficult problem.


Rotors take a lot of heat. It may be that it would be possible to sand the rust off and paint the parts of the rotors that are not touched by the pads with a heat-resistant paint, but I have never heard of anyone trying this.

Anyone here have any other ideas?

 

Thats normal especially if it rains and you dont drive the car for a few days. After a nice drive it'll come off, but not all of it. But like they said you can scrub it off manually, but why do that when its going to happen again. Just live with it.

 

I mean if it's going to keep coming back very frequently then no I won't bother with it. Man it looks so ugly though, makes me want to get some brake dust shields to just cover the whole area up behind the rim.



You think brake dust shields is an aight way to go to keep the area clean? Not trying to be particular but damnit that looks awful.

 

Im in Nj and mine look the same way... I am thinking it is the cheap OEM material... I am going to upgrade my rotors when it is time to something more high end and see if that hellps

 

On my 07 I had similar rust towards the middle of the rotors. Not as bad as what I'm seeing in your picture, but enough I wanted to do something about it. I got some High Temp engine paint, and just quick sand, taped off and painted all 4 when I did my brakes...caliper's too. Black makes it much less visible, which was the look I was going for. Of course I could have picked a different color, but why, they're stock brakes.

 

I can use a wire brush to clean off the front part and paint on some high temp paint or something, but doing anything near the surface area of the rotor makes me nervous. When it's time to replace the rotors I'm definitely going with high quality zinc coated, but I don't want to replace them all because they're orange. Maybe I should paint the caliper orange so it all matches. haha...

 

If the rust is light enough, wouldn't brake cleaner do a good job of taking it off? I also have the same problem since I keep my car outside, but as the others said, a good drive usually takes care of it.

 

It does seem to be light rust, just got more noticeable after a recent rain storm. I'll try some brake cleaner and see how that all works.

FYI a good drive won't fix this rust issue, I'm not talking about the surface area of the rotor I'm talking about the part of the rotor the brake pads do not touch.

 

That looks to be fairly normal. its not a problem as long as its just surface like that. You can paint it, however make sure you don't get any on the brake surface. Just do some cleanup and paint with a high temp paint made for brakes, like a caliper paint. Or you can get some more expensive rotors. Not sure what kind would help with that.

Mine looks like that too

 

I ordered a black caliper brush-on paint kit and it just came a few days ago.

Quick question about prepping the rotor/caliper. I just need to brush it off with a steel wire brush removing the rust and then spray it down with brake cleaner right? Or do I do brake cleaner first to degrease it?

 

I was watching this video a few weeks ago. danielevans83 Maybe this would help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v1oGb3yi7w

 

Thanks, that's perfect.

 

I just picked up my new Maxima last Monday & I noticed the same exact thing. I just got done washing my vehicle for the 5th time and it is still there. When my brakes wear down I will probably replace the rotors with Brembo. I think that will help with this issue. I am VERY **** about my vehicles so this drives me nuts!!!

 

get zinc plated rotors

 

Mines look similar as well will be changing my rotors soon so maybe kill 2 birds with one stone.

 

Mine rust up all the time, especially after a wash.

But driving around typically removes the rust.

 

I picked up a caliper brush paint kit and painted the rotor hats and calipers black, looks 1000x better than rust. FYI the areas I'm talking about are where the rotors do NOT touch, so driving around does not clear this rust off

 

I'm looking into getting my calipers painted...

A shop I know is wanting $50 to paint all four. Can we paint more than just the calipers?

I heard that painting anything besides the calipers could ptoentially ruin shoes/pads/etc.

 

Honestly you can do it yourself pretty easily, but $50 for all 4 seems too good even for me to pass up

You just want you paint the outside portion of the caliper and the caliper bracket retainer. Definitely want to avoid painting any of the piston bolts, piston bolt rubber covers, banjo bolts, pads, etc. Also, most of the caliper paints need 12 hours to cure before driving.

 

Yea, that's what I was thinking... I'm just having a hard time trusting others to do it. I'd be PISSED if they painted it in the wrong areas.

I have no stilts for the car, only one jack, and I would prefer to leave on stilts if I did it myself.

Is there a kit you'd recommend? I know the G2 kit gets great reviews...

 

Yeah, with only one jack and no jackstands to do all the calipers at once, gonna be difficult man.

I'm planning on doing mine in the next month or so with a high-temp caliper spray in matte black. The G2 kit is great if you avoid the glossy colors (much easier to see imperfections if you apply the paint uneven). I went with the spray since you get a more even coat... just need to mask off certain areas with blue painters tape to avoid spraying areas that shouldn't be. Friend did this same method to his '03 Mustang GT calipers and they still looked brand new after 5 years.

 

I live in western ny so i know what your talking about. On my Avalon, the same thing happened so when i replaced the rotors, i masked off the part where the pads touch the rotors and paint high temp silver paint on the rotor. I noticed when i removed the masking tape and put the rotor back on the car, there was some paint there the pad touches the rotor. I drove it for a few minutes and the paint came right off where the pad touches the rotor. To this day all 4 rotors still look brand new.

Dont worry about getting some paint on the surface of the rotors. the Pads will remove any of the paint left over

 

$50 for all 4 done isn't bad at all, considering the paint kit is like what $15-20? id do that if the person was reputable, but dont get in a habit of having "boys" do work on your car unless they work at a shop.

like GM said don't paint the bleeder valve or the shoes not only will it negatively affect you down the road it looks ghetto. i went with a brush kit cause i didnt want the hassle of having to tape off everything and dangle it from the brake line to get a nice paint job, and i def didnt wanna take the calipers completely off (which is the best way obviously) so went brush kit. GM's right it will not look as smooth as a spray paint job but you can only see the brush marks from a foot or so away. any color > rust

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

I may have him do it after all, apparently he "knows what he's doing," haha. He has a body and paint shop, so we'll see.

Going for a darker red or black calipers. I think it would make it look bad a$$.

 

If you're going for a Ferrari "Corsa Rossa" deep red, might look out of place on any body color except for dark slate or super black. Just my .02 cents.

Black is just easier to do and works with ANY color, whether its matte or gloss. Plus, never really looks dirty from all the brake dust

 

She's Super Black, lucky for me.

 

I just think of all the body colors of all makes/models with bright red calipers. On most, it sticks out like a sore thumb... You don't want the calipers to be the main thing people notice when they look at your ride from the side.

This is the color I was thinking of as a reference:

 

I dont know.... I think the red that you're referring to in that picture would look perfect on the black Maxima.

Still haven't made my mind up yet, but I'm leaning towards the deep red over black. Those are my only two options, for sure.

 

I have the rusty/dirty looking caliper problem and really want to address it. What kind of paint did you get (dupli-color?) and you painted the rotor black using the same paint? Wouldn't happen to have a picture of the look would you?

My goal is to plastidip my wheels matte black and then add silver metalizer to go for a gunmetal look, then maybe if I'm bold enough paint the calipers red, hence I want clean looking rotors

 

Ghozt - I think its because of the salt since you live up north... i def. do not have that problem at all, both now with the 370z bbk or when I was stock. And I have taken of my rims countless of times and nothing.

 

On my prior car, I painted the replacement rotors with black high temp paint before putting them on the car. The pads scrubbed off the paint on the contact surface and the rest of the rotor stayed black... no rust.

 

I did this as well, although I did it after my rotors were installed and taped off as much of the contact surface as possible. It worked great and looked a whole lot better than the rust!

 

ha i remember this thread.

i ended up brushing the crap out of everything with a metal brush, spraying with brake cleaner, then trying duplicolor (the caliper paint kit) brush-on kit and it faded and chipped after like 8 months. it was really grey looking. i scraped it all off again and did the G2 Caliper paint kit which is like an enamel and that is holding up REALLY well. also i got new rotors that came with the hats (the top part) painted black so everything looks mad clean

 

I really like these rotors you have. I saw on Another post you said they are Alien, I checked them out and defin gonna get em (or something like em) when I need new ones. But for now I should jus paint the rotor hat? What is the part with the drilled holes called? Although mine is factory and doesnt have the holes, I feel that part gets rusty/dirty as well