Did my brakes at Midas.
Got 4 new rotors, and they all started rusting in a few months.
How are the Lexus OEM rotors manufactured differently?
(2005 Lexus LS430)

Do your rotors rust?

 

Rust in months....heck they rust in minutes. Not only rust, but after a thorough wash and drying, they often rust "locked up" so rocking car is needed to break them loose. Guess I think it's pretty common. Comes off driving and using brakes.

 

Scissors and brake rotors etc are made from "cold steel" which is a manufacturing process that produces a steel that is more resistant to wear.
However, cold steel tends to rust quickly.
Nothing to worry about; just stab the brakes and wear it off.

 

It's all about them having a quality zinc coating. The drilled rotors are about four years old, and starting to rust. The other one is about two years old , and still clean. All zinc coatings aren't equal. Painted rotor hats tend to rust pretty quickly too.

 

Rotors that rust on the hat (thats the part that sits over the hub and bolts between the wheels and the hub) are just cheap rotors, of course thats what you're going to get at a place like Midas.

The OEM Lexus rotors have a coated hat that doesn't rust like that, and I just replaced my front rotors with Centric Premium rotors that have a coated AND fully painted hat that won't rust. Thats the "Premium", if I had bought the non Premium rotors they would have an uncoated hat that would have rusted like that.

This is why you should take the time and select your own quality components. Good rotors are cheap, my Centric premiums for my AWD LS460 (bigger more expensive rotors than what is on the LS430) were $63 each. The non Premium would have saved $18 each...so for $18 more a side you'd have no rusting.

Note the painted hat:

 

I wish I had known that these new rotors would rust so bad; I would have paid the slight price differential for the Lexus ones.
This makes the car look... cheap
And it is very visible.

The previous rotors, though very old, did not rust (at least I couldn't detect rust).
Previous owner had the car serviced at Lexus Dealerships, if those weren't the original rotors from 2005 (110K miles).

 

The Lexus OEM rotors do rust, but nothing like the photograph in your opening post, unless you have not driven the car for 3 months or so.

 

All rotors rust except carbon fiber and maybe some others that use exotic materials. I have some Centric Premium rotors they are nice but after 3 years are starting to rust on the edge of the hats.

 

Yeah I always see my rotors rust on the disc surface after car wash or rain, but never seen it rust around the hat area.

 

Rusting at the edge of the hats after 3 years and that are a little different lol

 

That's completely normal for cheap aftermarket rotors. OEM Lexus would take several years to get that bad (if ever). You're in CA where they don't salt the roads and you basically have no winter. That kind of rust is completely unacceptable IMO.

 

I've been looking at many cars' rotors, in parking lots and while stopped at traffic lights.
I don't see rusty rotors like mine.

I'll contact Midas and see if they have premium rotors they can swap mine out for.

If I get these:
Centric Parts 120.44122 Premium (Front) Brake Rotor with E-Coating ($60)
Centric Parts 120.44123 Premium (Rear) Brake Rotor with E-Coating ($30)

would I also need new sensors and pads to match them?

 

The pads are fairly new also right? I would replace them also just to be sure I have the best combo. The pads are cheap.

 

Got new premium/coated rotors installed (see pics).
No rust on the hat now
Beautiful new Centric premium/coated rotors! Note the black hat. Close-up of installed rotor.

 

cool, this topic is very near and dear to my heart, as I hate knowing when cheap replacement parts are installed. The issue, however, is that a shop can get a cheap rotor for as little as $10-$20, but they either "package" the brake job, or they simply list out the part, at OE list. This equates to a huge margin, larger than on many other jobs. the first time I personally got burned was using OEM on my Maxima. Nissan boxes, from dealer, "made in USA.": Thought they shoulda been China, or Japan. They rusted within days. Rip off, paid OEM list minus 30%. But that's Nissan, and also one has to be careful, sometimes mfgs have a "value" line.

Anyway, for comparison's sake, this is Lexus OEM, it is more gray than black like the Centrics




When I got ready to do my BMW, since OE is not outrageous, I insisted upon them, maybe $120 per disc shipped. Also, OE is the best bet with squealing and groans. The entire disc is dipped, as you can see, it has a white appearance out of the box. As the pads sweep the disc, it looks chrome where swept. The rest will NEVER rust throughout its life. I literally hit the fronts with the palm of my hand and they came off, after 9 years on the car.

The only mistake I made was listening some some guys on the forum INSIST I bed them, so I did. One guy said there's a tag in the OE box saying to go easy on them first xxx miles, DOH!


BMW new OEM vs. 9 yrs. on car. No rust on the old rotors, that's anti-seize...



installed on car



one year later