johnny1423

Hi there...every time i wash my car(99 c2 cab 25k) the brakes develop rust or something on the rotors where the caliper sits. i have to drive for 1/2 hour with the brakes feeling like the rotors are warped. i then have to "brake hard" enough times to get "it" off. then all is well.
i have about 50% pad.
i drive the car right after washing and brake to get all condensation off.
it still happens.
not only is it a pain in the a**, i am sure i am prematurely wearing front pads.
any thoughts, comments, suggestions?????????
thanks!!!!!!!!!

ZBlue996Kam

My rotors will rust too if I park my car right after a wash.

However, the rust will be gone with no ill effects after the first drive.

bet

All rotors rust (its just a light surface rust) after a wash. However, the rust should be gone after the first good application of the brakes. The fact that your brakes have "warped" feel to them may indicate you have problems else where as the amount of surface rust caused by washing (and/or good rain shower) should not cause this type of feel.

lexpilot

Ditto to what ZBlue said.

1999Porsche911

Agree! Very normal. If the vibration isn't that great to bother you, just drive it. When you replace the pads, just throw on 2 new roters and you'll be like new.

paneraiwatches

Should not be vibrating. After 1st application of brakes should be nice and shiny again.

The_Phantom

My '03 C4S develops the same type of rust as your car and the rust doesn't come off easily. It usually does take a half an hour of driving before it comes off.

johnny1423

I dont think its "normal"...have owned 15 cars that never did this...the question is ..what could it be??

Itzkirb

Happens on all my cars, when the rotors get wet they rust a bit. Drive and Brake and it's back to normal.

Adrian Fuller

I get this problem quite badly on my 03MY C2 (probably something to do with the British weather).

After washing, all four dics rust within minutes. - Normally a fairly fast drive with some fairly hard breaking cleans them up then they are fine.

The problem is more complicated after rain. - If I am unable to drive the car for several days (as is often the case) the process of removing the rust from the rear discs becomes really difficult. - The fronts clear OK with moderate to hard breaking but, on inspection, the rears look sort of dull - not rusty but not shiny like the fronts. - Also at moderately hard braking, say from 75MPH to rest after a few seconds you hear a sort of droning noise from the rear discs.

The only solution I have found to this is VERY hard braking from VERY high speeds. I have to haul the car to rest from VERY high speed three or four times. - This cures the problem, discs are shiny again (and bloody hot) and droning has gone. -

This is inconveniuent to say the least and I'm sure isn't doing much for my pad wear.

At my first year service I mentioned this to my OPC and they said it is a common problem with the rear discs which are hardly used in normal road conditions. - At that service the skimmed the discs which removed the corrosion. - The technician said the only way to prevent the build up was to 'get some heart in the discs' in the manner I descrobed above.

teflon_jones

if it takes a 1/2 hour of driving to get it off, well, that's strange! normally it goes away very quickly!

i had another weird brake phenomenon on my C4: after parking it sometimes (could be as short as overnight), i would literally have to rev the engine and let the clutch engage kind of hard to get the car going. the brake pads would stick to the rotors that hard! the car would just sit there for a second, then lurch forward. but after that, everything felt normal...

Philip9

Are you using an agressive wheel cleaner? This may be your problem. I use the Griots cleaner and don't have this issue.

deputydog95

i just went to the dealer over this. mine were rusting really bad. i was getting front end shake while braking and it would take a lot longer than 1/2 hour to get it back to normal, more like a half day. dealer checked the rotors and said everything was fine. i drive the car right after i wash it now to avoid this. wish there was way to prevent this from happening. i'd even consider a different brand rotor if they could guarantee it. i really like to wash my car

Brick

My car will actually have the brakes stick hard enoungh I have to break the pads loose to get out of the garage if I haven't dried and applied the brakes immediately after a wash. I generally wash the car and leave it in the garage for at least a week as I don't drive it daily. I have had 3 Porsches, all the same. The same thing happens on my other and past cars, but to lesser degrees to the point with a sedan, it is barely noticable.

I think the situation with the Porsche is worse due the high performance nature of the brakes. The rotors are designed to wear as part of the braking performance. More so than an average street car and thus the shorter life on the rotors than some others. In order to make a "softer" rotor, it is less alloyed and so the iron content is higher as well as a microstuctural change which is more conducive to oxidation. I believe that is why it is such a noticable thing with the Porsche. It's a tradeoff for performance.

Bill

The_Phantom

My C4S also rusts enough I can actually feel and hear the rust break loose the day after washing it.

Thanks for the great explanation Bill, I figured that the rotors had to be different in some way for a performance advantage since no other car I've driven rusts like this.

I have the sport techno wheels which have pretty wide openings, so I am going to dry the rotors off as best I can and then drive it a little after I get the rotors wet to minimize the rust.