35is Rusty so soon?!!?

[JustCruzin]

Hey JC,
Any chance of posting up pics of the rusty bits?

Cheers

Hey Miles, pics below. Apologies, the alloys are not spotless due to all this blasted rain. Incidentally the car is garaged. Front wheel first then rear:





Doesn't sit right for me for a £50K car after 2200 miles. The rear calipers look 10 years old! Must admit I think the dealers were a little shocked and have been very sympathetic (surprising I know) and arranging a date for me drop the car into their bodyshop.

 

[Maniac]

TBH that's much worse than mine looked at 2.5 years old. Do you live near the coast or have roads salted a lot?

 

[JustCruzin]

TBH that's much worse than mine looked at 2.5 years old. Do you live near the coast or have roads salted a lot?

No sadly not. I am in a quiet lazy suburb in SE Kent. I do get the feeling that BMW USA (I believe this is where the car was assembled) didn't apply any coating to these components. Dare I say it but our workhorse Volvo which is many years older is doing way better!

 

[Miles]

TBH that's much worse than mine looked at 2.5 years old. Do you live near the coast or have roads salted a lot?

No sadly not. I am in a quiet lazy suburb in SE Kent. I do get the feeling that BMW USA (I believe this is where the car was assembled) didn't apply any coating to these components. Dare I say it but our workhorse Volvo which is many years older is doing way better!

They make mine look almost spotless! And it's my daily drive with 3000 miles on it! The rear hubs look like a smooth finish whereas mine are a little rough which I think is stopping a lot of rusting. The car will have been assembled in Regensburg, SE Germany. Perhaps it spent a lot of time outside on the docks before getting to your dealer? Very strange

 

[tomscott]

Its always been the case, best thing to do is paint them, the Ms come with painted callipers but the discs oxidise very quick take a look at the pics below third one is a day later being up on the stands and the disc is orange although a quick drive down the road and its sorted. Nothing to worry about.

I painted mine, took the black oem matt pant off the callipers with a dremmel drill and painted them orange.. a marmite colour but I like them and i used a wire brush on the bremmel to remove the crap off the hubs and used hammeraite a stove paint on the hubs, best solution to bare metal.

BMW Z4M CSL wheel strobist by TomScottPhoto, on Flickr

Also the problem is accelerated by being in a garage, if your garage is attached to the house and has been put in wet the garage is humid, and air doesn't circulate the same so rusting is quicker. The garage will absorb heat from the house then if it has a boiler/fridge/freezer that can make it worse. Mine is up the road and is cold so doesn't happen so much.

 

[GuidoK]

Rear calipers always corrode the quickest. On my daily (other brand) I sprayed clear laquer on the calipers when it was brand new, and the front calipers still look good (after 2 years, 55k miles and 2 harsh/snowy winters), but the rear calipers look old.

These are steel calipers and don't get any rust prevention from the factory. That is with all the brands. They get a shiny thin nickelplating when new, but that's only sufficient to prevent rust when sitting on the shelf.
If you want your calipers looking good, you have to paint them.
Same goes partly for the discs. The front discs have an aluminium hat (centerpiece) from the looks of it (bmw performance brake line), so that won't rust (it just gets dull) but the rear is an all steel disc, so you'd have to paint the centerpiece (or give it an alternative surface treatment, but that will be expensive).
As for all steel discs better brands sometimes have a marginal surface treatment to prevent rust, but the material used for discs (cast iron) is really susceptible to rust, so for those center hats you have to apply a fairly thick layer of coating (same goes for the calipers)

That hyde's serum looks like the same stuff als a lot of active wheel cleaners (based on sodium thioglycolate)

 

[JustCruzin]

Shadow chrome if they'll offer it! Otherwise I'm with Maniac on this, silver.

Must admit that shadow colour looks awesome

@ GuidoK @tomscott

Great tips and advice. My sincere thanks. Love those striking orange calipers- look awesome on the grey M, nice look!

The dealers have emailed me this morning and are waiting for BMW UK to 'authorise' the work on the rusted components. Hope the outcome is a good one. Fingers crossed.

Cheers all

 

[ekimj10]

Virtually impossible to stop the rusting but obviously good paint treatment will slow it down. I don't suppose many owners on here ever take their motors to 'Romanian' car wash places, but I used to take our Series 1 to a local hand wash, always was pleased with results until I found out that the first thing they do arrival is spray the wheels with what a mate called 'builders acid' to let it soak in and soften up the brake deposits. Often wondered what they sprayed on. Now spend a couple of quid more and have it done at home by a mobile franchise using only AG products.

 

[JustCruzin]

An update on proceedings.

Stephen James contacted BMW UK forwarding my pictures of the rusty brake components and they have authorised that all the brake components are replaced! Sounds rather drastic to me but I am wondering whether some coating was by way error was omitted at he assembly plant.

I was originally given the impression that all that would be needed was a paint job but obviously something has resulted in a decision to replace which does worry me a little but I am not required to pay anything and even get a courtesy car.... the 35is goes for surgery on March 6th....

Frankly this is quite surprising and any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[flybobbie]

All this the result probably the company manufacturing the calipers don't want to spend money being environmentaly friendly.
So left them natural and let them corrode.
Think they have a get out clause in manual stating discs will go rusty, so again penny pinching.

 

[TitanTim]

Its a problem that afflicts loads of manufacturers not just BMW and exacerbated by water and heat. I complained to Peugeot over a brand new 207CC as the suspension struts were bright orange with rust, turned out they're actually rusty at the factory :? Its also wise not to use any harsh acidic wheel cleaners that BMW dealers use on AUC cars, hence why my 3 month old 1 Series had bright orange hubs and calipers and had to get the dealer to paint them all back up.

I think replacing the hubs and calipers is a bit OTT although good theyre doing it as I imagine the replacements will go the same way over time. I would have thought repainting with a rust preventative paint would be a better solution or better still paint the new ones up to prevent future corrosion

Tim.

 

[JustCruzin]

Got the zed back yesterday morning. Was given a courtesy brand new 116d which was actually more pleasant than I would have thought. On my zed the discs, hubs, pads and front anti rattle plates were changed. The rear calipers were not changed...... even though I was told these would be changed..... :x

I did challenge the service manager on this he was very dismissive of this stating that replacement calipers would look the same after a couple of months driving and suggested getting them cleaned and painted. I did state that is what I thought would be done. I was pressed for time and left rather disappointed but in some respects I am assuming that what he said was probably correct, but in my initial contact with the dealership I was told that these components would be sealed or painted.

Perhaps I was expecting too much? I did spot a 14 plate 6 series on the forecourt with painted calipers.....

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Miles]

My thoughts are that if you clean them regularly they will not go rusty in a couple of months. Mine are only darkened from brake dust staining after 4500 miles daily driving in all weathers, the car was new in October. It does get cleaned once a week on average and the calipers get properly cleaned each time. The hubs are certainly not rusty to that degree, a little pitting but nothing that can't be removed by a washing up sponge scourer (the non-stick) variant. The rust on yours does look quite unfortunate and potentially unusual

 

[JustCruzin]

Apologies in resurrecting this thread.

I contacted Stephen James recently asking whether they could paint the calipers for me. I was initially met with a lot of enthusiasm and was asked what colour I would like and things were looking positive. Quite unexpectedly I was then contacted again and was told that their paint specialist did not recommend getting the calipers painted in case this in some way affected the braking mechanism voiding my warranty........!!!!!!

Sounds like a load of b@ll@cks to me.

JC

 

[GuidoK]

BMW paints their own calipers blue....
And I dont mean their aluminium front bbk /m sport calipers, but normal cast iron calipers:
The m6 has in the rear normal cast iron calipers that are factory painted blue:
http://automotive.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-1076/pi-5669343/ti-837333/t-automotive-im-glad-to-see-bmw-putting-m-calipers-on-their-m-cars-but-/

 

[tomscott]

M cars have black painted callipers and don't rust, all faces of the discs rust when left. Even if you clean it with water the orange will show after 10 mins, because if the face was protected they wouldn't do a good job of stopping the car… Just take it for a drive after cleaning and it comes straight off with braking.

Only recently BMW have put bigger brake systems on cars and painted them due to aesthetics and problems with brake fade.

Its not a big deal just get some hammerite and do it yourself afternoon job. I think its ridiculous they swapped perfectly working brakes for new items that will do exactly the same. They know fine well they rust as all cars without painted callipers do.

Everyone does it, doesn't affect your warranty at all. I had a sticky calliper and had painted them about a year previous they replaced the calliper no problem. You just have to make sure you don't paint the brake pads as they do show and look apart of the calliper as when they need replacing, removing them will probably ruin the finish. Also give the rotor in front of the discs a paint too they tend to go rusty.

Here is mine. I took the black paint off with a dremmel first as the paint doesn't adhere to the surface particularly well. I also gave the hubs a wire brush to remove contaminate/rust I left the car overnight in the rain and you can see the disc has turned orange.

Orange paint isn't everyones cup of tea but I like it on mine. Also the paint I used was a 2 part and a pain in the arse as it takes three coats but takes 24hours to dry, its very difficult to paint with as its thick and clumsy paint. Using hammerite it will dry in 20 mins ready for a second coats 2-3 coats should do. I used Silver Hammerite for the hubs and it took 2 coats.

BMW Z4M CSL wheel strobist by TomScottPhoto, on Flickr

BMW Z4M Coupe, Ulswater Boat house, Cumbria by TomScottPhoto, on Flickr

 

[markeg]

Get some "fast etch" and wipe it on with a sponge. Leave for a while, rinse off and viola! No rust. Used it for a couple of months now, great stuff

 

[TitanTim]

Apologies in resurrecting this thread.

I contacted Stephen James recently asking whether they could paint the calipers for me. I was initially met with a lot of enthusiasm and was asked what colour I would like and things were looking positive. Quite unexpectedly I was then contacted again and was told that their paint specialist did not recommend getting the calipers painted in case this in some way affected the braking mechanism voiding my warranty........!!!!!!

Sounds like a load of b@ll@cks to me.

JC

My BMW dealer painted both my rusty hubs and calipers on my old 1 Series so yes they're talking rubbish, unless they mean they need to be done by an Authorised dealer?

Tim.

 

[JustCruzin]

Orange paint isn't everyones cup of tea but I like it on mine

I love the orange look. Compliments the car beautifully. Excellent pics BTW

 

[JustCruzin]

Can't seem to find fast etch in the UK? Any pointers? Thanks for the heads up

Tim, painfully this was the advice from an authorised dealer Stephen James BMW allegedly from their own in-house 'paint specialist'. I am wondering whether I should insist they honour my request. They seemed so keen to start with! Thanks for the advice though