How much do your rotors rust when washing?

[marquez93]

I'm curious how much people's rotors rust when washing the wheels? I know that rotors will rust immediately when they get wet, but on my 2015 GTI, they get so much rust on them from washing the wheels and doing a thorough rinse that when I drive the car later, I get orange dust all over the wheels and I feel like I need to clean them all over again. Does anyone else have this problem?

[oski83]

Yes, I have had similar issues and commented on another thread about this. I've now adjusted my washing method to washing tires/rims first, then blowing them dry immediately, detailing them dry with MF towel, then I actually cover the wheels afterwards. This way I can wash rest of car and not have to worry about wetting them again after detailing them (pre-tire dressing). After the car is washed and dried, I remove wheel covers and drive down the block slowly (luckily I live on a very quiet one-way) just to get the top layer or rust off. Then I use hand blower again with mf towel to dust off. Key is creeping slowly just so dust doesn't go everywhere and stays inside barrel which I can access easily through open wheel spokes.

[Beemer]

Yep.  My brakes even bind and pop the next day if I forget to blow them dry with the Blaster Sidekick.

 

It gave me quite a fright the first time that happened.

[The Guz]

Google hydes rust stopper.

[marquez93]

Google hydes rust stopper.

Interesting. Maybe I'll try that sometime. At least I'm not alone. I've never had such a problem with past cars. At least it's less noticeable with my gunmetal wheels. If they were silver, it would probably look really bad.

 

I try to do more rinseless washes these days and I use a rinseless soaked towel to wipe down the wheels as well, but it sucks that when I want the thorough cleaning with soap and water, they actually end up looking worse.

[red94chev]

My blue truck has EBC rotors which are great (barely any rust).  My red truck has Powerstop rotors which are terrible, they'll drip rusty water from the middle part of the rotor for a half an hour.

[SYMAWD]

VWs seem to have excessive amounts of surface rust on their rotors after getting wet. I work at a VW dealer and on every test drive someone comments on how loud the brakes are and then I have to explain it's just surface rust that all cars get, but the "issue" seems worse on VWs.

[Ricky Bobby]

Rustopper is a good product, but honestly, its just surface rust anyway so I don't really fret about it.  After my initial drive after a wash I just let the wheels cool down and just take a black MF towel and wipe down the wheel faces of any "rust dust" with some diluted rinseless product and then the wheels stay clean much longer.

 

I find that if the rust dust is allowed to settle on the wheels it seems to attract brake dust more quickly than if it was cleaned off after the first drive.

[BrianT]

Mine rust as well, so before ever wash I take the rotors off to keep them rust free!! Not!

[Adam]

Using a blower on the wheels massively reduces the rust on my rotors.   More water= more rust...

[PT3]

The beauty of carbon ceramics....no dust...no RUST!

[Rich]

Always.  I just drive back and forth in the driveway several times and it comes off. Doesn't really bother me.

[CadillaChick]

My ATS came with FNC rotors so no rust, One of the only pro's consistent with my car haha

http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Nov/1130_fnc.html

Edited September 25, 2015 by CadillaChick

[Sicoupe]

Google hydes rust stopper.

I have this and it does not work, I was disappointed.

[The Guz]

I have this and it does not work, I was disappointed.

Worked fine for me.

[TheBurninator]

VWs seem to have excessive amounts of surface rust on their rotors after getting wet. I work at a VW dealer and on every test drive someone comments on how loud the brakes are and then I have to explain it's just surface rust that all cars get, but the "issue" seems worse on VWs.

 

Brembo rotors in general (VW's OEM for rotors) tend to rust very quickly and are uncoated rotors.

 

You could swap to a zimmerman rotor. I've noticed less surface rust issues with them, but they don't have the bite that Brembo's do.

 

VW pads don't help the situation. They are almost as bad as BMW pads.

[marquez93]

When I washed my car yesterday, they looked pretty rusted by the time I had washed and dried the car.  But before I dried off the wheels, I drove slowly down the street, gently applying the brakes.  Then I came back and dried them with a towel and it looks much better than usual.  I didn't even see anything on the barrels.  So I don't know if it's the fact that I braked gently or just that I didn't wait until the next day before driving it.

[DieselDude]

I have not had rust on rotors that bad (except when the rotors have been turned in which that is a different story).  

[MaverickC2]

Worked fine for me.

 

Same, works on my ZL1 Brembo rotors.

[BRZN]

Yea, I know I'm late to the party, but just haven't had the time to add my $.02 until now.

Here's several pics of my wife's 2005 Volvo XC70 rotors (still the ones that came with the car) after I finished washing it yesterday. I'd cleaned the wheels, including the barrels and calipers, so the rotors got wet. I also dry the vehicle with a Master Blaster, including the wheels, calipers and rotors.

LF:

 

LF:

 

LF:

 

RF:

 

LR:

 

RR:

 

The fronts seem to get more rust than the rears, don't know why. Here's my trick to keeping the rust dust off the wheels after they're nice and clean.

Make sure the wheel barrels and brake and suspension components are completely dry before driving, that way any rust dust that comes off won't be able to stick in any water. Secondly, I remove my wheels twice a year and apply QS to the barrels making it much harder for the rust, or anything else to really get a good hold on the wheel. Liquid Paint Sealant should work just as well since the QS has now been discontinued.

Edited October 25, 2015 by BRZN