Wet Brake Discs during Wash?

C

CVette

New member
Maybe this is a newbie question, but:



Does it matter how wet I get my brake discs and calipers when I wash my car and wheels? I try to keep them as dry as possible. Obviously they get soaked while driving in the rain, etc...but I didn't know if there are any precautions to getting brakes wet and then putting the car in the garage for the night.



Anyone ever take the car out for a spin to dry the brakes and wind dry the little crevices after a wash?



I did a search and couldn't find any info, sorry if this is a repost.
 
You don't need to worry about the brakes. I find that if I drive my car too soon after a good wash, the brake dust merges with the water and makes a grand mess all over the freshly cleaned wheels. I actually leave my car purposely sitting in place to allow the brakes to air dry to prevent such a mess.
 
Think about not only how wet your brakes get while driving in the rain, but how much crud gets thrown into them off the road surface - all that grit and grime, yikes!



Now think about the nice, fresh clean water you're hitting them with when you wash the car. And what's the duration of the spray when washing the wheels, a couple of minutes each, tops?



I wouldn't give it a second thought.



As Setec Astronomy mentioned, you might see the rotors appear to actually rust over. Don't worry about that either as it's the only the most minor of surface oxidation and will come off the first time you apply the brakes from even a slow roll.
 
JDookie said:
I actually leave my car purposely sitting in place to allow the brakes to air dry to prevent such a mess.
Click to expand...



The only problem with this is if you have open spoked wheels the first time you drive the car again, the oxidisation on the discs ends up all over the wheels in a nice fine dust. I drive the car round the block after washing to remove this and then wipe down.
 
Interesting - thanks everyone. It's good to know I'm not really harming anything. I had a Pathfinder that went through several rusted calipers that would lock on me and I guess I'm sensitive to it.
 
Holy crap! From the winter salt? I don't know anything about Nissan brakes, but sounds like someone wasn't lubing the caliper pins the way they are supposed to be. I'm mostly familiar with GM brakes, but they even have little rubber boots on them now to keep the water out of the pins.
 
You can get them as wet as you want. They will flash rust like Setec mentioned, but after a trip around the block, that would all clear right off.



If you ever take the car for a drive and use the brakes a lot, I'd wait a little while before washing your car with a hose. You don't want to spray cold water on the hot brake rotors and warp them.
 
white95max, that makes sense - thanks.



Setec, I don't think it was winter salt, the mechanic told me they were a bad set of calipers and they were replaced under warranty. However, I did come home one day in which it felt like the last few miles I was really dragging my pads. I pulled into the garage and lo and behold, my rotor was actually glowing orange. Grrr.
 
I blow things off with compressed air, and after I finish drying I like to pull the car forward/back a few times to clear the light rust off the rotors. Otherwise I get a slight pulsing from where the caliper/pad was. It only lasts for a little while, but I still prefer doing something to prevent it.



On the S8, I once left it parked for quite a while after a wash and the rotors *really* got rusted in the area covered by the cliper/pads. Stoddard replaced the front rotors (no charge, thanks guys!) over it even though I figured it just needed driven a little more. When a service dept. thinks the rust is so bad that they oughta replace your rotors, at warranty expense, I pay attention ;)
 
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