Rotor Cleaning

[flash_e]

I have seen when people clean the rust off of the rotors using a wire brush but will a SOS pad work the same? I was also wondering if there is a way to protect the rotors? I have seen when some paint them but wouldn't that hurt the brake pads?

 

[Accumulator]

The rust is usually pretty hard to get off by the time you think to do this.



No matter what you try, it's best to start with a new/unrusted rotor.



Painting can work OK but the pads will wear it off the swept areas. Those are gonna flash-rust no matter what. The best you can do is protect the unswept areas.



Somebody here had the rotors on his E500 (500E?) Benz plated with electroless nickel and he liked the results.



I have had various other platings done on my rotors but a) it wears off the swept areas, and b) the prep/plating is seldom done as well as I would have liked and the results are imperfect at best, especially with time/use.



At the risk of sounding not-so-Autopian (yet again...), I've pretty much given up on this, at least with regard to any semblance of perfection.

 

[louie586]

Painting the rotors would be a horrible idea.



If you don't want your rotors to rust, I recommend finding some rotors that have a coating from the factory. Centric brake rotors have what they call an "E-Coating" that gives their rotors a black appearance. Cryo-Stop rotors are also treated with the same coating.



I want to say that some Power Slot rotors are also cryogenically treated.