Little background. 2005 G35 60,000 miles. Ive had it since 2007. I don't race just a little spirited driving every now and then. I probably won't have it for more than another 4 years. I am somewhat capable of working on my cars. But my 3 kids make it nearly impossible.

Anyhow I decided to have a go at my brakes in January. I got Hawk pads but opted for just "OEM replacement" from Advanced Auto parts on the rotors(about $200 for all 4). After 1 month this is how great they look.....All 4 of them. According to AA website listing they have a rust resistance coating....My ***.

Is this normal for this grade of rotor? Ive never seen it so bad. They do perform fine though. I'm pissed that I have to now waste another day off to replace these rotors. The manager at Advanced Auto seamed surprised and did say he would return them for me.

I'm not sure how I should feel though.

1. Thats what I get for buying the cheapest replacement part.

2. Pissed but AA is willing to refund them.

3. Pissed that AA is willing to only refund them after wasting my time with such a crappy product...they should do more.

Thoughts please.

Also I am looking at which rotors to get now. I'm looking at the DBA t2 but they seam a little pricey for what i need. I don't really feel the need for upgraded braking but i don't want it to look like crap either. Anyone have a recommendation on a rotor under $100 a piece?

My other thought is to just say F it, get some rustoleum and paint them black. Might actually look good. Thoughts.


Maybe this post will save someone from making the same mistake...

cheers
mike

 

My buddy drills/slots rotors at his independent shop.He uses a high temp paint. Make sure you mask off the rotors surface. use a razor and cut around the circle, itll cut clean cause its a little recessed. paint the centers, let dry, paint once more. let dry and back to your car.

 

I could of told you not to buy those rotors there. I'm the store manager at an AA and for a car like ours they are definitely not worth it. Better off just ordering them from stillen.com like I did if you don't want to go spend crazy and you can get a decent set of slotted and cross drilled rotors with a free set of hawk pads. Best route IMO.

 

I've just used the duralast gold pads n rotors. Lifetime warranty on pads. I've had no issues, noises, etc.

 

I would recommed these:

http://www.r1concepts.com/p-168419-p...nt-rotors.aspx

The price should be for pair of rotors, and if you give them a call you might get better pricing. I personally went with these because I didn't feel like painting the inner rotor surface myself to prevent rust. So far I'm happy with them.

 

Why waste your money on new rotors because of rust? buy a can of paint and call it good.

 

Thats normal, just paint the rotor hats and you'll be fine...

 

Its just surface rust, repaint!!!

 

Yeah, sorry to hear that. How are they performing and lasting though? I sprayed these same brand rotors with several coats of all in 1 primer/black satin finish before installing them on a family friend's old Camry. The "anti rust" coating you're talking about is simply an oily coating to prevent rust while they're sitting in those pretty white boxes on the store shelf lol.

I remember this happened to the Supra rotors on my S13. What I did was remove the wheel, sanded the rotors hats off and sprayed them (no masking tape lol) with some cheap matt finish black I had laying around. Don't worry, the pad wipes away the excess upon the first few applications of braking. I wish I knew what brand of paint because to this day that stuff looks better than any other black paint I've used on my other cars. That was 9 years ago! Even Centric Premiums with the black Ecoat need to be done in this fashion or you get a 5mm ring of rust, dumb right? Anyway, once you go through that once, you learn to always treat bare rotors prior to install!!

 

Thanks guys for the insite. Definitely helps. Brakes feel great they just don't look good. I'm leaning towards just painting them as I think it will look better considering even nicer pads will rust a little on the disc part that doesn't contact the pads. Plus I'm thinking I can paint them without taking them off. I'm really not looking forward to the labor of replacing all four disc. Even though I could do it in a fraction of the time now.

I'll figure it out eventually. Any ideas on the best way to remove rust before I paint them? Sand off or chemical remover.

 

You could use those fancy rust converter sprays after a careful go over with sandpaper and tack cloth. But what I remember doing back in the day was sandpaper followed by a brush and cloth then straight to spraying. I think the trick was using flat black paint. I was not detail oriented back then and did not even mask off the rotor. I was just pissed off there was rust on my big brakes. I just made sure I didn't spray the caliper or overspray the car. It wasn't even high temp and it still looks awesome today. I used a satin or gloss high temp engine paint on my G35 (not garage kept) and it still looks ok since 2007, but not as good as that flat black from like 2004 lol.

 

It sounds like they source Centric Premium high carbon rotors and call them their own, correct? If so, don't you get a couple millimeter ring of rust due to them not painting enough of the hat to cover the unswept area of the rotor? It happened on my sister's Subaru and now I still spray Premium rotors despite them having an E coating already..

 

^ Correct, the E coating does not go up to where the pads make contact with the rotor, so it leaves a small ring of rust. To completely emilinate the surface rust painting is your best bet.

 

Well, I got to painting my back rotors today. here are some pics and steps. Maybe they will help someone in the future.

1. sand the rust off with sandpaper. I used 100 grit.
2. apply rust dissolver. I used naval gelly.
3. Rinse it off. I applied a second coat at parts.
4. let dry. then sand with 320 grit sandpaper.
5. tape off area and caliper for over spray.

 

6. spray paint it. I used black caliper paint form advanced auto. Good for 500 degrees. I debated using non heat resistant rustolem because is specified that it protects from rust where as the caliper paint does not.

7. I put two coats on and leanred I am not very good a spray painting. Drip marks and oversprayed the rotor a lot. Owell, no one will get close enough to see.

8. After an hour I put the wheels back on and took it for a drive using moderate braking to remove the overspray on the rotors. Worked well.