Thread: Rust Pitting?...

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Ok guys, Got a question for ya. I am kinda busy in my life right now and my better half needed new front pads on the family cruizer. It's a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport. Aluminum rims, sport wing, and all the bells and whistles on the inside. 50K on the milage. I told her if I was going to own one...it was going to be sporty one at that.

Anyway I took it in and ran some errands with my wife. ( new house stuff ) Shop called and said the front rotors needed replaced as of the case of rust pitting! Now I looked at the brakes and such when I rotated the tires just 3 days ago. Buddy of mine was with me ( he works for the local Olds dealer) and we both didn't see anything out of the normal besides just normal wear.
So I told the shop NO on the the new rotors and had new pads replaced.
Has anyone heard of this?
DCON

yep...usually on the inboard side of the rotors.
have seen it on ford and nissan and gm too...

apparently as the car companies try to lighten or save money or what not, some say to eliminate brake noise since no more asbestos pad material, the rotor material has changed. construction tto, as you can now find cast iron and steel and other alloys on 1 rotor (hub is different material than rotor surface).

I suppose these odd alloys etc are the cause of all this premature rusting - how bad is it? well, besides pitting, you will find what i call 'rust creep ' the non-swept ares of the rotors (outer and inner edges where the pads don;t touch) get rusty, and then that rust grows into the pad swept area. ihave seen this rust go nearly 1/2 inch, chews up the pads of course and reduces braking.

i have not been able to figure out how a surface that is rubbed by the brake pad multiple times a day can rust away like that!

Go to any nissan car lat and look at most any car that has been sitting a week - you will see rusty rotors. i mean RUSTY rotors.

THANKS SCREAMER and STREETS!!!
I thought I knew enough about brake systems to handle this on my own. Just needed validation I guess
The rotors are still in "spec" range for them. It just pi**ed me off they said they had to be REPLACED! And they wanted an additional $300.00 to do it. Can you imagine what would have happened if my wife just took care of this?
Glad I was off the road to handle it.
Thanks again you guys! Just another reason why this is a good place to hang out at!!
DCON

Sad but true, there are shops that sell a lot of parts and labor to customers that are not needed. It makes me very angry as unfortunatly when people talk about getting ripped off they also end up lumping those of us who run honest shops in with the rest.

Two examples come to mind for me. I had a customer who had just bought a 57 Chevy. He brought it into the shop to get some things straightened out that the previous owner had screwed up and a general check over. Among other things, I checked out the front end. The only thing I could find wrong with the suspension was an idler arm that was starting to get a little loose (not bad yet). I told the customer about it and suggested when he had the time and money we should likely replace it and have the front end aligned. He went into one of the local brake shops for their oil change special and was conned into a $1200 front end rebuild! The main thing that really upset me was that it called MY ability into question.

A few years ago, I had a friend refered a customer to me (a snow bird who was here visiting in his restored 65 Imperial). The car wandered a little and he felt he needed a front end rebuild, he even had all the new parts needed to do it. Now December is a slow month for me, and although I don't necessarly like doing front end work, it pays to good for me to pass up on it. When I got the car in and checked the suspension, all it needed was a new set of wheel bearings and the steering gear adjusted. I explained all this to the customer (even though I could have just gone ahead and rebuilt the front end... he never would have known the difference and I never would have seen him again once he left the area). The labor for the rebuild would have been nice and he could have afforded it, but I WOULD HAVE BEEN STEALING FROM HIM (there is no other way to put it) and I'm not a theif!!!!!!

Decon I'd hunt for a new shop.

(Sorry about that I just had to get it off my chest)

Thanks Mike and Streets! I have a new shop. They just couldn't get my family cruizer in the time frame I had to work with. I took it to them this afternoon and had John look at it. He said I made the correct decision and said the same thing basically what you all did.
Come to find out...these Midas shops around here are a franchies. They probably wanted to get some money back to the shop since I called them on a ad that "corporate " was running, but they were not. Anyway, got a free oil change with it!
Thanks again everyone!!! Around here...word of mouth still "makes or breaks" a business!
DCON