scottonfire

The guy I bought the FRONT rotors from said I didn't need them 'coated'. The guy who installed the FRONT rotors/akebono ceramic brake pads seemed to know what he was doing, but then again he was a mobile indy mechanic. Are the brake pads installed wrong (check out the groove being etched into the inner part of the rotor) or would coated rotors have stopped this? Also, the rust is ONLY driver side, passenger side pic. I'll include 2nd so you can get a better look at the groove being etched into both rotors.

cm60k

As i see, this is an ordinary corrosion, water/dust/humidity,,

this area doesn't contact to anything, you can clean & paint them...

ZAYED,,

Glyn M Ruck

Something is wrong with pad movement (fitment or wrong pad). It is allowing material to be scuffed off of the rotor hat creating a groove.

scottonfire

Thx, Glyn. I thought it looked weird towards the inside of the rotors. Those front brake pads are Akebono 1121 and I double checked that they'd be compatible. Is it possible the rotors are wrong? All I really know about the rotors is they're cross drilled and not coated.

What should I do???

cm60k

You have cross drilled Rotors, that reflects your C230 is sport isn't..?,

do you know if your Rotors are OEM...?, bad aftermarket Rotors may cause that strange grooves...!!



ZAYED,,

Glyn M Ruck

I suggest you drive past a dealer's used lot & go & have a look at a Sport & see if you can see any difference in pad protrusion or rotor hat size/shape/fitment.

Boom vang

They look pretty normal to me, once the pads bed in you will have even coverage and will eliminate the cross-hatching

LILBENZ230

Looks pretty normal to me, as well IIRC on 4 brake jobs on my 05 Sport.

Glyn M Ruck

The cross hatched braking surface of the rotor looks fine.

I thought the OP was talking about THIS (red) which looks like something is touching. Might just be finished that way. If this is worrying you put some black marker over it & see if it scuffs off.

Boom vang

I think it was just made that way. If something was touching it to grind out a grove (red arrow), you would hear the noise immediately and would be very loud, think the owner would know something is wrong right away,

scottonfire

Okay, I'm feeling better now. Especially since the back rotors are looking like this too! phew! So now I'm back to my rust situation. Any type of spray I can put on without taking off the wheels?

Glyn M Ruck

I suggest you do a bed in procedure as explained on the Stoptech website here.

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-su...and-procedures

To prevent rusting you need to take the wheels off & spray the hats etc. with a cold zinc spray such as the Wurth product:

ncmudbug

Somebody mentioned he was painting the hats of his brake disks and I replied that he was being a bit **** as I had never worried about it before nor knew anybody else who did. Then I saw the rust on my hats! The open spoke pattern of the wheels makes it really easy to see. I did paint my wife's with silver spray paint and it looks better but it isn't particularly good against rust so it's showing through a little. If I had used a good primer, it probably would have worked better.

Glyn's suggestion is probably much better.

Glyn M Ruck

I would far rather have this which is durable & looks OE:





Than this:

ncmudbug

Looks great, Glyn! That's the stuff to get!

tommy

Get por15 to stop the rust, then paint caliper paint over top of that. I'd have to say that those things glyn posted look like they belong on a delorian.

Glyn M Ruck

You are full of crap That is Vic Viper's W204 wagon.

Boom vang

oh to have a salt free climate, no amount of zinc spray will prevent rusting in my climate. My new rotors from MB came looking like that and after a couple months in the snow and salt spray they look like your 3rd picture

looks like the tires are severely undersized for the rims

Glyn M Ruck

Yes ~ Vic has got a big stretch going there. The Wurth spray provides far better corrosion resistance than the Benz original finish.

Vic is in Sweden so not a dissimilar climate. I have done a salt spray test in our lab & the Wurth material is quite impressive. The Zinc becomes a galvanic anode.

tommy

I couldn't trust myself with that much metal exposed, just waiting for curbs.

Do they not have potholes in Sweden?

scottonfire

So I plan to paint the inner (rusted) part of the rotor with gray engine enamel (works in high heat). HERE'S THE PROBLEM (I think)- If I take off the calipers to have access to the whole rotor (to paint), will it be easy to reinstall them in the same position or will they shift slightly and not fall into the groove??? I feel like that could be bad, but I'm just not sure and don't wanna take a risk with brake power.
Thx,

Boom vang

if you are asking a question like this then you should not be doing work on your brakes yourself, besides you probably don't have the correct tools to do the job and the proper set up to do it safely.

Those in the know, know; those that don't, guess. So what I am saying unless you know what you are doing, have the tools and mechanical ability then the job is simple, but based on the question that you posed obviously you don't have the experience in working on cars and really should not attempt it unless you have some supervision from someone that has experience. While brakes are fundamentally one of the simplest components to work on it is without reason that you have to know what you are doing as the consequences are so great if you get it wrong

Boom vang

the potholes in Toronto would make mincemeat of those rims in a 3km drive. Even with 40 series it is killer on the tires and rims here

scottonfire

Thanks, but I'm not accepting applications for an overprotective parent. If anyone has answers and not pontificating in place of an answer, I'm all ears.

Glyn M Ruck

I would use zinc spray ahead of engine enamel. Yes it is expensive. You dont have to remove the calipers to paint. Just mask the caliper & spin/turn the rotor to paint. Don't worry about getting a little bit of zinc on the rotor braking surface. It will be scuffed off the first time you brake.