Hypermiling ruined my brakes! Toast after only 25k km / 15k miles

[MetroMPG]

Search around and you'll find a couple of posts from me from the past whining about how my front brake rotors are always rusting up because (1) I don't drive my car much, and (2) when I do, I don't use the brakes very much/very hard.

To try to solve this, I actually got in the habit of trying to clean the rotors off by stopping pretty hard ... on those rare occasions that I do have to do "normal" braking.

But the rust apparently got further ahead than the pads could scrub clean, and the result is I've now worn the pads down to the wear indicator on the rough rotors!

Here's what they look like now:



Makes me wonder if cars with regenerative braking will have the same problem - possibly more than regular cars.

These may still be OK to be machined down; I haven't looked into it yet.

[Daox]

Looks pretty ugly Darin. Gotta do some preventative maintenance on your car!

[MetroMPG]

Sorry for the lousy pic: the pitting is pretty significant. Sand paper is not an option.

[MetroMPG]

Vaseline on the rotors!

[McTimson]

You don't use the brakes anyway though, so what's the big deal?

[99LeCouch]

Ouch!

How about adding ~200 lbs to the car so you use your brakes harder?

Those look pretty gnarly. Take them to a brake-turning place, there may be hope for them yet.

[tasdrouille]

I personally think it's not so much the hypermiling as you not driving your car frequently. If I remember right, you can go a full month without using your car. Time is rust's best friend, it lets it work its ways.

Is there something you could spray on that prevents rust, but does not interfere with brake pads? That sounds like a tall order.

BTW, What do the rear drum brakes look like?

[Frank Lee]

I told you about WD40 right?

Yup, I bet 4 wheel drums would look just dandy.

I just got through unsticking (derusting) some Metro front brakes. Not only was the rust building up in the grooves for the piston seals and dust seals, pushing them against the pistons so they wouldn't retract, but the pad cradles had rust under the stainless pad seats, pushing them tight to the pads so they weren't free to move either!

I hate disk brakes on cars.

On yer disks tho', having them turned would likely get rid of most if not all the pits.

[Christ]

I pretty much never have rotors turned, only because they're so cheap to buy new. Turning them takes away heat dissipating material (although making them slightly lighter), thus making them more prone to warpage that one time you actually do have to stand on them. (Deer and bear don't stop for you around here.)

That does look pretty crappy, though... might be a good idea to spray them with WD-40 once a week or something to keep that from happening.. As soon as you touch the brakes, the lube will burn off and you'll have braking power.

[MetroMPG]

McTimson: a philosophically interesting question. I've still got rear brakes...

Martin: I agree, it's probably more the lack of use than the light braking. Come to think of it, having spent the winter in the salt air of the east coast must have been extra hard on them. I had to oil my bike chain on the beater bike about twice a month all winter to keep it from rusting solid.

I'm a slow learner Frank. Seems it has to cost me money before I learn my lesson But after I replace/machine these rotors & change the pads, I will try WD-40 if I know I won't be driving for a while. Of course, smooth wheel covers complicates things a bit...