Little Advice - Rust

[ktomi]

First post here. Just bought an 04 CPO with 16K milles. Got everything I wanted and a little more, in the way of rust. It came with rust on the lug nuts, rotors and brake calipers. They ordered the lug nuts for me, but the calipers and rotors will still be rusted. I plan on painting the calipers, and possibly the rotors.
- any advice on painting the parts. Should I just scrub the rust offand leave it.
- I read about the rust warranty but I think that only covers the body.

It bothers me more and more every time I look at my X5. I did try to get the dealer to fix if for me but they would not. I thought it would be easy to fix.
A little help. Thanks.

[dkl]

Wow...that is the worst rust I've seen on an X. My '04 have over 38k miles and not a spec of rust is on the calipers (other than the massive brake dusts covering it). I don't even want to imagine what's under some of the body panels that you can't see. The previous owner must have submerged those wheels in sea water of some sort...maybe launching his boat?


It looks like your choices would be to either sand off the rust and put on a new layer of high temp paint or just get new calipers. The rust would just return if you simply sand it off without putting a coat of paint on it.

Personally, I would have walked away from the deal if I saw that. Good luck!

[JayX5]

Wow that's a lot of rust at 16k miles. Mine has more than 16k without any rust!

Definitely sand them down to bare metal and paint those calipers. Might as well replace the rotors too.

[NOVAX5]

you guys just dont understand it correctly, if you drive your vehicles these parts dont rust. but if you let the vehicle sit on the lot for a long period of time it will rust and them dealers just dont want any part of it, you pay out of pocket money to repair it. well thats what happens to most of the used cars that dont sell well, the brake parts plus rotors, hubs will rust if no one tests drive the car. or even the car has been in auction lot for a long period of time. well, people buy new cars and used cars. i guess the difference is how much you are willing to pay. thats my 2 cents. brush them off, go to advance auto parts buy the high temp. ceramic paint, go to a local shop that has a lift, lift it up, dont have to remove the caliper just cover stuff that you dont want the paint on and paint them with 2 coats. remember the hubs too.

[Wagner]

No car sitting gets rusted lug studs....ever. Unless they were severely chipped of paint. I have 'never' seen a caliper that rusted that bad, and that includes when I worked on 60's car restoration. Maybe if the car was in an ocean climate and sat for the better part of a year, maybe then the salt in the air would corrode it, but not simply sitting on a lot in LA.

I would look under the car at the suspension and linkage for more rust. If I found some there, I would check to make sure this ride wasn't salvaged along the line.

Now to the post, do NOT paint over that caliper rust issue. If you do the paint will bubble and flake and look horrible in a few months because of the metal. You should really get new calipers, if not, see if you can have the sand blasted or something to remove the rust. I'm almost surprised your pistons can float in that caliper.

My 2 pennies.

[EOD Guy]

ktomi,
Don't get too alarmed about all this talk about new calipers and them not working because of surface rust, yes surface... it's heavy but it's on the surface. NOVAX5 was correct. Anyway three options... paint over it, wire brush/sandpaper or sandblasting. Sandblasting will give you that new bare metal look, many places sell a home sandblaster rig SEARS, Harbor frieght etc... Play sand from Home Depot works well in them. A wire brush on a power drill will work well on the flat aras that are easy to get to...but it won't get in the nooks and crannies. Lastly, and worst option, is to apply some rust converter/stopper, also sold at Home Depot, brush it on and it'll dry either a white or black chalky color that then can be painted whatever color you want... however the paint will probably start to peel fairly soon. IMO sandblasting is the best and easiest option. Unless money isn't a factor then as mentioned above buy new.

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by EOD Guy

ktomi,
Don't get too alarmed about all this talk about new calipers and them not working because of surface rust, yes surface... it's heavy but it's on the surface. NOVAX5 was correct. Anyway three options... paint over it, wire brush/sandpaper or sandblasting. Sandblasting will give you that new bare metal look, many places sell a home sandblaster rig SEARS, Harbor frieght etc... Play sand from Home Depot works well in them. A wire brush on a power drill will work well on the flat aras that are easy to get to...but it won't get in the nooks and crannies. Lastly, and worst option, is to apply some rust converter/stopper, also sold at Home Depot, brush it on and it'll dry either a white or black chalky color that then can be painted whatever color you want... however the paint will probably start to peel fairly soon. IMO sandblasting is the best and easiest option. Unless money isn't a factor then as mentioned above buy new.

IMO, painting over it would be a nightmare. Not sure how you can tell it is only surface rust from one pic, on the rotor...you could be right, but you can't be sure with it on the car.

[Boston X5 4.4]

Surprised that you got that in LA...looks more like what you get here in NewEngland with 4 months of salted roads every winter. I see a lot of X's here with similar rusting and then a lot that don't have it.
I'm assuming the only differene is how often one washes off the salt in the winter.

Seems strange for LA ...wonder if the previous owner went off roading on the beach/water and never rinsed off the salt water afterwards? It happened very quickly to a friends jeep wrangler. Maybe that compounded with the car lying idle a lot (low miles for an '04) caused the problem.

Anyway, the first thing that I would do is have a good independant check to make sure the caliper rust is just surface rust and doesn't impact braking. If it bothers you a lot you can certainly get them painted - how good it looks/lasts is all dependant on how well you prep the surface and get off the previous rust.
As far as the rotors go, I wouldn't bother painting them - you will need new rotors anyway eventually and the new rotors are a LOT less prone to rusting.

Good luck

[dkl]

I agree with Wagner's evaluation. There might be other hidden rusts in the system. The safest and least painful thing to do is just replace those calipers. Sandplasting, then painting them works, but it's time consuming and you're still at risk of non-surface rusts that may prevent your calipers from performing properly or optimally.

[AzNMpower32]

Isn't there a rust-perforation warranty?