This may seems like a 'newbee' type of question, but can anyone tell me what causes rust on the surface of the calipers (mostly front). Is that harmful and what can be done to prevent it.......
The car has been sitting and driven very little since February. Brakes seem to work just fine with no pull, shudder, etc., and no rust on the disc.
Just look awful..!!
Thanks

 

harmful-not really, just surface rust but it does look sh1tty.
solution-get a BBK or paint your calipers

 

It's surface rust. Just ugly, not mechanically important. I'd go with a coat of paint, or a big brake kit if you feel like dropping a few bucks.

 

I presume you mean the discs, not the calipers. It's completely normal. 2 or 3 stops and it's gone. They are made of iron, what you gonna do?

 

I think he really is talking about the calipers.

 

Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides. In colloquial usage, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture.

 

use a wire brush and lightly brush it off. Then paint them whatever color you would like

 

I assume you are talking about the rotors, not the calipers. The rotors on all cars will rust a little bit when sitting because of moisture in the air which causes oxygen to react with the iron of the rotors to cause rust. After applying the brakes a couple of times, the friction between the pads and the rotor will clean the surface and it will look fine again. Take a look next time you drive it a ways and you will see a nice shiny surface on the rotors.

 

Sorry for the delay in getting back -

Actually I'm talking about the Calipers NOT the disc rotors. And only on the front Calipers...The rears are OK. The discs (rotors) are OK and the car stops OK and the brakes are noise free.

Everyone is right about one thing - rust on the calipers looks like crap and I'm curious as to what could have caused this and how to prevent it from happening again.

And am also interested in whether this situation can create any long term negative problems-long term meaning within the next 2 or 3 years.

The G I'm relating to is a '08 Journey which currently has about 61000 miles on it and unfortunately I don't have access to the service/maintenance history on the car.

Thanks again

 

If it's actually rust, as in an oxide of iron, then it's because you have some exposed iron on the surface of your calipers. I'm not sure what they're actually made of, but assuming it's not carbon steel, I would have to say that you're getting rust on them due to likely carbon steel contamination. Basically, when a non carbon steel item is cleaned with a carbon steel wire brush, or worked with carbon steel tools, some of the carbon steel (mostly iron) actually rubs off of the brush/tool and gets wedged into the non carbon steel item. That allows the carbon steel to corrode and appear as though the non carbon steel item is corroding even though it's not. It can lead to some cathodic issues in certain situations, but yours isn't one of them.

To prevent it, just clean the calipers (remove the paint that's on it) and give them a light sanding to remove the carbon steel deposits, then repaint. As long as there's carbon steel to corrode, and oxygen, it will rust.

The only long term problem it could cause is ugliness. A little paint to make it perty again will fix it.

 

I guess that I was concerned that, with the car sitting virtually unused for an extended time, that the the moisture caused the rust and possible damage. Was also concerned that the car may have beed in a flood at one time or other even if the Car Fax doesn't indicate that it was.