Hey CL Folks!

Picked up an '07 RX 350 for my wife last week and I have been busy cleaning it up and bringing all the maintenance up to date. It is sparkling on the outside, but all four brake calipers look like crap. Each has surface rust spots on them and it ruins the look of our new (to us) ride. Is this normal, as even my '06 Tundra has some decent silver paint on the calipers from the factory which looks nice through my 20" Enkei Deep Sixes? I ordered some silver G2 caliper paint and hope to get them up to "luxury" standards! I hope to be able to post some before and after shots in a week or so.

 

No, that is par for the course. Mine are pretty bad as well.

Good luck. Post pictures.

 

my suspension links are rusty :S ughhh

 

Rusty? My calipers look like alloy on my '05. Have they changed or maybe our calipers just don't rust in Texas.

 

Our '07 spent its first 4 years in the Tampa Bay, FL area, so I am sure the salt air did a job on them. The rest of the underside metal is in pretty good shape, unlike some of the pics that some Northern members posted that have to deal with salt on the roads in Winter.

 

Are your calipers rusty or your rotors?

 

I hope no one was holding their breath waiting for me to do this! Finally had time this past weekend. Here are some pics. They look a lot better now!

 

my 07 RX 350's hubs and brakes look just like yours!

 

My calipers are rusty on my 08 RX400h that I just bought. I've never seen a car with rusty calipers before. Rotors, yes, but never calipers.

Jeff

 

The "before" or "after" pics?

It does look a lot nicer now, especially the fronts. The rears are buried deeper in the wheel and you have to look for them, but the fronts stick out like a sore thumb since they are right next to the openings on the alloys. Took a wire brush to the rust spots, cleaned the whole caliper with a parts brush and the brake cleaner in the G2 kit (actually used about another half a can of my own brake cleaner as mine where really dirty), and then applied two coats of the paint waiting about 30 min between coats. Masked off the areas that were close to the rotor so as not to get any paint on them. The G2 looked good 2 years after I applied it to a civic I used to own, so I hope to get at least that long out of the finish.

 

Man, that was nasty. Good job on the repaint. If you have to replace the rotors get the cadmium or zinc coated ones. I had them on an RX300 for 5 years with no deterioration.

 

good as new!

 

That was exactly my thinking. I am probably going to need new pads in the next couple years, so I will swap out the rotors with some plated units then. Might need shades to look at those pics!

 

I have to post some pics of mine. If that was his 'before' picture (the shot with a bit of rust on the calipers) you will have a heart attack when you see mine. I guess living in an area with snow and salt is brutal on the metal.

However, I've owned several other makes (Honda, Nissan, Dodge, Jeep Volkswagen) in the same location and none of those calipers rusted anywhere near as bad as the Lexus calipers. I wonder what is different about the Lexus brand.

 

Hey!