Preventing crummy brake rotors when parked outside?
Is there a simple way to keep my brake rotors from going bad if I don't drive my car much?
Because I have only been using it a couple of times a month lately, they "thump-thump-thump" and the pedal pulses until I do a bunch of relatively hard stops to scrub them clean (which I hate to do, because hard stops = bad FE).
The car is parked outside. The wheel covers are already fully sealed, so its not a question of rain getting in (from the outside of the wheel, anyway). So it must just be atmospheric moisture doing this.
I suspect the easiest solution is to just go for a drive once a week or so and use the **** brake pedal. Am I wrong?
they "thump-thump-thump" and the pedal pulses until I do a bunch of relatively hard stops to scrub them clean (which I hate to do, because hard stops = bad FE).
As far as I know rotors shouldn't go bad from sitting, aside from a bit of surface rust. Thump, thump, thump sounds like they need to be turned. I don't think that they would need this from sitting, but I could be wrong.
Well, it goes away with multiple hard brake applications, so I'm thinking it's just surface rust. It's not warped, just unevenly corroded
The longer I let it sit between drives, the more & harder stops I have to do to get the thumping & pulsing to go away.
clencher: in the past I've bought replacement rotors from the store that came with some kind of light waxy coating (which I assume is for rust prevention), but it would obviously be a pain in the *** to re-coat the rotors after every drive!
Is aluminum robust enough for that application? I would think that the repeated heating and cooling would affect its integrity and that the aluminum surface would be too soft. I googled it and didn't find a whole lot.
I don't know if their is anything you can do. I do know that other than the thump's and noise, the rust doesn't seem to create any undue harm.
I've had a couple of cars which have been largely unused for extended periods of time. The first one, I took apart and sanded the rust off, before i used it. I got lazy the next time, so I just drove it and used the brakes, as I needed to. They seemed to clean up just fine. I don't think it will cause the rotors to warp, in any way.
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