Rusty brakes ...

hi guys,

I just got my X5 4.8i 2010 (sport package, wide tires, ... all included) , pretty darn happy.
The only concern that I have are the brakes. They are pretty rusty. See the attached images (especially #1). I was at the dealer ship and they say that's normal. This doesn't look normal to me at all
Well anyway, I think dealer won't replace them on maintenance plan anyway, so I thought to replace myself. What do you recommend?
How do you actually call the rusty part from picture 1? I tried to find here http://www.koperformance.com/BMW/brakes/index.htm but didn't find anything similar to that part.

Thank you for any suggestions.

What was the previous owner doing- driving it through saltwater???

Originally Posted by Me530

What was the previous owner doing- driving it through saltwater???

No idea, but I bought it from a Californian dealer

it appears to be the backing plates on the pads that are rusty. but picture #1 seems odd as the caliper itself seems to be rusted. pull the wheels and take a wire brush to the caliper.

quite possibly someone used something caustic to clean the brake dust off the wheels and it has pitted the calipers. obsessive behavior generally has a negative effect on something. my wheels are dirty, but my calipers ain't rusty.

guys, what online store do you recommend to buy some calipers and rotors for my X5? And what brand shall I look?
Thx

That's pretty nasty looking stuff, but it could just be cosmetic. That is very unusual to see the caliper so rusty on a two year old car. If the calipers are working ok, give it a good wire brushing, clean it up with brake clean, mask off the other parts and the wheel well and spray it with some caliper paint. Do the same with the rotors-- remove them, clean off the rust and then paint with a good high heat resistant paint. I would check the caliper piston and the brake pad backing plates to see just how much rust crept into everything. Maybe this was a car that was parked near a beach for a long time?

If you decide to get new calipers and rotors, board sponsor tirerack has the rotors at least.

Your model is too new for there to be too many aftermarket calipers around (except for big brake conversions like Brembo) so you may have to get OEM. All the regular places are good, Tischer, ECS Tuning, etc.

Originally Posted by soldmystang

it appears to be the backing plates on the pads that are rusty. but picture #1 seems odd as the caliper itself seems to be rusted. pull the wheels and take a wire brush to the caliper.

quite possibly someone used something caustic to clean the brake dust off the wheels and it has pitted the calipers. obsessive behavior generally has a negative effect on something. my wheels are dirty, but my calipers ain't rusty.

Agreed, it looks like someone used etching/caustic cleaner that damaged the calipers/pad/rotor.

Originally Posted by MadHolms

guys, what online store do you recommend to buy some calipers and rotors for my X5? And what brand shall I look?
Thx

Really??? You want to spend $3000 to fix this????

By OE parts (ie BMW rotors, BMW calipers and BMW pads) you can consider aftermarket pads and rotors, but don't mess with the calipers.

Could this one have been in a "storm surge" or was beach driving and gotten salt water over the wheels? Put it on a rack and see how much other rust you find besides the calipers. If nothing more, then the wire brush and high temp paint would make a much nicer appearance if that is important for you. $3K for a total brake caliper replacemet (unless you are getting Brembos) makes no sense at all as long as the brakes are working fine. If they are not, then your maintentance plan/CPO should cover the replacement. I would be asking the Service Center to check where this car came from and what repair was done on it before you got it.

My calipers and hub faces were rusty when I purchased my CPO '08 (from socal). My local dealer tried to clean off the rust, but only got about 50% of it. In the Spring, I'll take off the wheels for lowering springs. At that time, I'll try some CLR with a wire brush, then possibly some hi-temp engine enamel to prevent future rust.

It's not unusual to find rust, as if I let a vehicle sit for a week or two, and it rains/is humid, the braks are often rusty and noise for the first few applications.

That said, the rusting appears excessive. Since it was a CA vehicle, I wonder if it was owned by someone who lived near the beach and/or drove it on the beach a lot. I know motorcycles parked near the ocean often have much more rust after a couple of years due to the salt and humidity in the air.

P.S. If you do a web search, there are many caliper painting kits available.

http://www.google.com/search?q=brake...w=1760&bih=907

Originally Posted by Penguin

It's not unusual to find rust, as if I let a vehicle sit for a week or two, and it rains/is humid, the braks are often rusty and noise for the first few applications.

That said, the rusting appears excessive. Since it was a CA vehicle, I wonder if it was owned by someone who lived near the beach and/or drove it on the beach a lot. I know motorcycles parked near the ocean often have much more rust after a couple of years due to the salt and humidity in the air.

P.S. If you do a web search, there are many caliper painting kits available.

http://www.google.com/search?q=brake...w=1760&bih=907

Its not unusual for rotors to rust, as they are freshly surfaced metal exposed to water/oxygen. Calipers on the other hand are cast (aluminum or iron) and are painted to protect them from rust, they should not look like that under normal circumstances.

I agree with the above posts that either someone used a very abrasive cleaner on it, or like you said, way too much salt water.

Jay

Originally Posted by jashearer

I agree with the above posts that either someone used a very abrasive cleaner on it, or like you said, way too much salt water.

Jay

I agree, good chance of both.

Sometimes there's a bad paint-prep on the caliper and the paint peels-off, but the pattern in the one picture shows the paint missing suspiciously from the areas what would be impacted the most if someone used a wire brush or something with an inappropriately aggressive cleaner. (including what are likely steel clips and bits that were likely galvanized or plated with something else for protection).

Look at the carfax see where the car was first registered at,maybe was a car in a area with alot of snow.
that does seem to be excessive.