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Rusted Rotors

6642 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Botnik
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Do these Rotors need to go? :|

I am replacing my brake pads this week and wanted to ask the experts:wink2: on the forum if my front and rear rotors need to be replaced. I've read on this forum that these OEM rotors are notorious for rusting, but there’s significant amount of rust around the edges and some parts of the metal are flaking off.

The calipers are rusted as well. Just wondering what you guys think.

I have no issues with breaking (no pulsation issues etc).

Any recommendations on brake pads brands in particular? My Forester is a daily driver and I am NOT looking for high end performance (ie. Power stop Z26). I am checking out the rockauto website for rotor+pads combo. Any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

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Rotors and calipers rust. That's what they do. Those look fine.

Though, I usually replace the rotors with the pads.
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That huge lip i can see on the rotor face leads me to believe that these are at/below minimum thickness.
If so, replace. If not, roll on.

Anything from Rock Auto listed under the Daily Driver sections would be a fine choice for pads/rotors.
Rotors and calipers rust. That's what they do. Those look fine.

Though, I usually replace the rotors with the pads.
Good idea. I guess I can't go wrong replacing both at the same time.
The car only has 44,000km so I was a little surprised to see so much rust.
I always got my rotors resurfaced. But then again my mechanic did the whole job. If you are DIYing probably best to go with new.
That huge lip i can see on the rotor face leads me to believe that these are at/below minimum thickness.
If so, replace. If not, roll on.

Anything from Rock Auto listed under the Daily Driver sections would be a fine choice for pads/rotors.
Thanks for the useful info. This is why I love the members in this forum!
I'll most likely go with Power Stop rotor + brakes combo from rockauto.com. :thumbsup:
Looks normal to me. No point in replacing them. You can scrape off the rust with a file easily.
As long as they don't pulsate when braking, I'd just knock the rust off the edge and run them for a few more years.

It may be worth flushing the brake fluid and greasing up the sliders as preventive maintenance, though.
Looks like a bit of a lip. On another vehicle I've filed/ground the raised rusty area smooth enough to get vernier calipers on to measure the thickness. Keep in mind that the it's not healthy to breath the contamination and brake dust in the whole job, including cleaning up the rotors. If replacements are not expensive (sometimes so, sometimes not) I just go ahead and replace the rotors. If not replaced and within spec I think removing contamination is a good thing to do.
Just my opinion.
For the last 1-2 sets of pads on my 2007 I switched to the Raybestos pads that had a mixture of metal and ceramic and I really liked them. They have specialised pads for police cars, racing, etc (I don't remember the name of the pads I got but they were for passenger cars) but the Raybestos guy I talked to at a trade show explained a lot to me.

https://www.brakepartsinc.com/dam/j...52/31R052 Friction Brochure_PGS_Lowrez[2].pdf

If you do take the rotors off, make sure you use a wire brush and get rid of all the rust on all the mating surfaces before you put any rotors back on, and torque everything evenly, because if the rotors aren't straight you will end up with pulsation in the brakes.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pulsation+in+brakes
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