[jakartakid]

Originally Posted by jakartakid

After a recent 500ml round trip down south on the freshly gritted motorways I parked the car up and didn't drive it for a few days afterwards. When I came to wash the car I couldn't believe the state of my callipers, back plates and worse of all discs! They looked like the car had been layed up for 6 months! No amount of heavy braking has cleaned up the rear discs, rust has taken hold.
Any suggestions as to how I can fix this, the car has only done 6K miles from new.

Decided to pop into the dealers this morning, you know, nothing ventured nothing gained. Spoke to a service person and invited him to have a look at my rusty discs. I had anticipated how the conversation would go, and I wasn't surprised. I got 'it's our damp cold weather,' 'mine on my X6 are the same,' 'if we replaced every bodies rusty discs we'd be out of business,' etc etc etc. I obviously went in with the '£40k 6 month old car with rusty discs,' and 'what about customer satisfaction,' I could go on but you get the idea.
Anyhow he did agree to bring the matter up with his line manager and possibly a phone call to BMW UK. He said I will be contacted on Monday with the possibility, slim or otherwise, of replacement discs.
Interestingly during our discussion he said if they agreed they would only replace the fronts or rears, not both. I got the impression that they have to do this a lot.
I would regard it a result if I got a set of rear discs out of them, time will tell.

[teaston]

If they change the discs they'll have to change the pads as well! So will be a result!

So i'd get them to do fronts as the rears won't wear out for years anyway!

[jakartakid]

The fronts aren't too bad, I can live with them, if they decide not to help out I'll look into getting the discs skimmed on the car.
When the weather warms up I'll tackle the corrosion on the hubs and callipers.

[SpeedTrip]

Pretty much what I anticipate too ...... pathetic really ... altho shows how they watch every penny going into build cost - reminds of that novel .... based on building the 'Edsel' ......

[jakartakid]

I wonder if there are any 19" steel wheels with full plastic wheel trims, that would solve the problem.

[SpeedTrip]

I was looking for 17" or 18" steels last autumn as 'Winters' .... did find some listed in EBaY Germany .... but turned out to be out-of-stock .....

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by SpeedTrip

Pretty much what I anticipate too ...... pathetic really ... altho shows how they watch every penny going into build cost - reminds of that novel .... based on building the 'Edsel' ......

Not sure how you see this as penny pinching... look at other car brands which also have the same issues, including the direct completion like Audi.

BMW do paint some of the callipers, like the performance brake options, I've also noticed 6-series have the standard calipers painted black. But we look at a 6-series and ask why the price hike over a 5-series? Painting calipers is one of the costs which reflect in the retail pricing. Do we want to pay more for painted calipers? I wonder how many would tick say a £200 option, to have them in enamelled black?

Since we moved away from asbestos based brake pads, we've moved to softer iron discs, one reason they rust so easily overnight when there is any moisture in the air. You should see my discs this morning, all shiny Saturday afternoon, now brown with rust in less than 40 hours sat on my drive.

HighlandPete

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by jakartakid

I wonder if there are any 19" steel wheels with full plastic wheel trims, that would solve the problem.

In my experience that could make it worse. I had a Passat with full plastic covers, discs sweated away worse than a Passat with open alloys, which air dried much easier.

HighlandPete

[SpeedTrip]

Not sure how you see this as penny pinching... look at other car brands which also have the same issues, including the direct completion like Audi.

You inferred 'penny pinching' - I said that "they watch every penny going into build cost" ..... a difference !

I'm not talking about expensive painting of callipers, just a treatment to prwevent rust ... they do it on so many other areas of the car ! (including the notorious 3-series disc-hubs)

Iron discs have always rusted - it soon scrubs up with use .... better than the attempts using Stainless, which are less effective in the wet ....

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by SpeedTrip

You inferred 'penny pinching' - I said that "they watch every penny going into build cost" ..... a difference !

I'm not talking about expensive painting of callipers, just a treatment to prwevent rust ... they do it on so many other areas of the car ! (including the notorious 3-series disc-hubs)

Iron discs have always rusted - it soon scrubs up with use .... better than the attempts using Stainless, which are less effective in the wet ....

I apologise, should have read more carefully. Agree there is a difference.

But we do hear the 'penny pinching' comments regarding BMW brakes. You mention the 3-series disc hubs, am I reading you correctly, but that is a case in dispute with many users, as they rust so quickly and look awful?

The problem with surface rusting, it doesn't always "scrub up", can so easily turn to corrosion particularly on the outer edges and requiring premature disc replacement.

See it so often up here, many discs get replaced well before the first set of pads are even half worn down. My local VW dealer commented on the rate of corrosion and lots of warranty claims on discs, particularly since using softer iron material.

My F11 disc at low mileage, the pitting you can see, soon helps generates surface rust overnight.



From my 330d at low mileage, if the disc surfaces don't scrub up, you soon get the corrosion eating in from the outer edges. My F11 front brakes are doing the same, no amount of use corrects that problem.



You soon end up with discs like this, as on my 330d.



HighlandPete

[Piers]

BMW told me, when I had the hubs painted on my E60 prior to the F10, it is something to do with what paint can be used in the factory in any decent quantities. If they painted all the hubs that would require different paint to the body, maybe more oil than water based? and that would upset their credentials.

Could be rubbish but makes sense, hence why dealers will paint them with BM approval outside of the factory, but not in.

[SpeedTrip]

@ HighLand Pete - those discs are pretty shocking !

Strange that your F11 caliper aint too bad - at least the 'inspection plate' isnt rusty like mine!

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by SpeedTrip

@ HighLand Pete - those discs are pretty shocking !

Strange that your F11 caliper aint too bad - at least the 'inspection plate' isnt rusty like mine!

Picture of brake caliper at 8,250 miles. The inspection plates were new by 6k miles. I have the pictures when advertised for sale by BMW at 8-months old, inspection plates were red rusty, so were replaced (without me requesting it) before I had the car at just under 6k miles.

HighlandPete

[Piers]

How bizarre, mine look nothing like them at all at twice the mileage! Must be where we live or something.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Piers

How bizarre, mine look nothing like them at all at twice the mileage! Must be where we live or something.

I know mine are bad due to where I live. In winter roads are gritted and salted a lot more than most. Atmosphere is often damp and/or humid, so parts sweat much more than most. Lot of use in the rain and cars stand wet for much longer than in many places.

I find up here that cars which don't get used every day get much more disc corrosion. Plus being in a rural area, many cars don't have enough heavy braking to clean discs off during use, so corrosion gets a hold.

HighlandPete

[jakartakid]

Still waiting for my dealer to get back to me with a decision about my discs (if they bother), if I have no luck I am considering having the discs skimmed. There is a garage not too far away that does them on the car @ £29 + VAT per disc, just the expense of new pads which is a bit off putting.

[jakartakid]

After a couple of non returned calls I received a message from the service manager, who happily offered to paint my rusty discs. He clearly didn't understand the situation and after I explained the problem to my surprise he immediately offered to replace discs/pads......result!

[gspannu]

Originally Posted by jakartakid

After a couple of non returned calls I received a message from the service manager, who happily offered to paint my rusty discs. He clearly didn't understand the situation and after I explained the problem to my surprise he immediately offered to replace discs/pads......result!

Well done

[jakartakid]

gspannu, I think it was the 400+ mile return trip to see you on the salty gritty motorways and then parking the car up for a week that gave the rust an opportunity to take hold.
In future after a drive on salty roads I will wash down the brakes and drive around the block to dry them out. I will also be coating the hubs as you have done. I really hate the look of rusting corroded metal on an otherwise immaculate vehicle.
Very happy with the eventual response of the dealer though, they could have quite easily sent me away empty handed, perhaps customer satisfaction does still count for something.