Is this true, rotors & brakes can rust from not driving much??

[paval3]

Not my 2021 Ranger, but my 2003 Mountainer. I keep all my maintenance records. It was due for state inspection & oil change so I had it in to shop that did my rear shocks on my Ranger (closer to where I work, more convenient than the shop I used in the past for decades for all my vehicles once they were off warranty). So I knew I had new brake pads put on front not long ago (I couldn't remember exactly when) and rotors were good at that time (the old shop suggested I replace brake pads front at that time since they weren't completely shot, but said to do them before they ruined my rotors).

So I got a call today that my Mountaineer needed new brake pads and rotors front. I was shocked. Told him the same as what I just wrote above. He said he'd show them to me, he said they were the worst rusted brakes and rotors he's seen yet this year and totally not safe to be driving.
So I picked up the Mountaineer just now and got my service records out of the glove compartment. It was January 2021 when I had the front brake pads put on!!! That was only 2,600 miles ago!

My brother told me that they can rust from not driving much (I only use the Mountaineer to drive 700 ft. back and forth from our house to my horse barn and maybe to Tractor Supply every two weeks and to Walmart because I refuse to take my Ranger into a parking lot with shopping carts... yea, one reason I kept the ole Mountaineer for a slider and plus I figured it's worth more to me than book value and it's been a good 8 cyl vehicle all these years).
So now I'm wondering if I'm going to go through brakes and rotors from rust on my Ranger too! We don't have a paved driveway at our home in the country, so although it's not parked on grass, it is only parked on a gravel driveway (which has good drainage, our house is pretty much build on a field of shale with about 4" of top soil). I usually only put 5,000 miles on a vehicle a year... I only have 2,200 miles on the Ranger since I got it in April 2021.

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[Sharky]

yes it is true. plus the calipers can lock up due to rust.

 

[slowmachine]

Brake rust is far worse if you’re not parked in a garage. We usually have 3-4 cars, and a two-car garage. The outside cars can have significant brake rotor rust after a week or two, especially in the early spring when the weather is warming but there is still salt on the roads. We never set the parking brakes on them. The Ranger lives indoors, so this hasn’t been a problem yet.

 

[Craftsman]

Absolute true. Had a caliper seize up on my Airstream and it sheared off the bolts on the rotor and I lost the wheel. Brakes had less than 3000 miles on them but it had sat for quite awhile and was rusty.
Rust on rotors can be removed as long as they’re not pitted , doesn’t mean you got fleeced.

 

[towpro]

(from someone who left PA, but inspected cars there for a long time)
Yes sitting rotors will rust. but as soon as you drive it that surface rust comes off.
yes pads can wear faster as they remove that rust layer.

But let it sit long enough and the rotors can get pock marked and an inspection station might fail it.
brake pads can rust, but usually not on the face where they are touching the rotors.
I have seen bonded brake shoes fall off as the surface they were glued to rusted. I have also seen the material appear to have rusted off front pads, but they were very worn down by that point.
as far as inspection, the rules are sort of a guideline, and what the individual inspection machines says is the fact. Its his license, he can loose it for letting stuff slide by, But if he is selling parts he can also loose customers.



But a quick check on rock auto shows you can buy a complete kit of rotors and pads for $150-200 bucks. If you can install them yourself its not that hard of a job.

Now I have never seen a calaper lockup because of rust on the outside.
yes if you don't change the brake fluid the calaper can get rust inside them from the moisture in the brake fluid but this is not freezing up from rust on the outside. and I bet the pistons in the calipers are plastic.

what I have seen in that age Ford is front brake lines failing where they collapse on the inside and prevent fluid from returning from the calaper when you let off the brakes. at first you may experience faster brake wear, or rotors that might look like they got hot (get dark). As it gets worse you may smell brakes burning and suspect a hung calaper. The way you can test for this hose failure is to have wheels off, with someone in car, have them hit the brakes, when they let up the wheel will still be stuck like brakes are on, crack the bleeder screw and a burst of fluid will come out and wheel starts to turn easy.

 

[paval3]

Our truck cap manufacturing business is only about a mile down the road from the shop I took the Mountaineer to today. The shop owner knows my brother who is President/CEO of our business (all the business owners seem to know each other on this stretch of highway). When my brother gave me a ride down to pick up the Mountaineer, the shop owner came out and showed him the brakes and rotors. The shop owner told me I could take the old ones and show them to the shop who put them on, but he said he doubted they would do anything for me about it.
I tend to think he didn't ripped me off by doing something my vehicle didn't need.... word of mouth gets around pretty fast in these small town, so I doubt he'd risk it.
I guess I'm going to have to drive the Mountaineer a bit more.... darn, the Ranger is so much fun to drive.

 

[Dsc]

you got fleeced.

if they're rusty its one thing
if they're seized that's another.

they are raw metal, they will show rust when exposed to moisture.
drive them and use them and the rust disappears.
surface rust on the non critical surface means shit for serviceability and safety.

you drove it to the shop, therefore they weren't seized....and were ripped off.

I agree with this. My Sport Trac only sees a few hundred miles in a year and sits outside. Rust is common after a couple of weeks but after a hour of braking and driving around they are clean in the functional area.
I am surprised that your rotors were still good if your pad were not. I always replace the rotors and pads at the same time. At one time rotors had a significant amount of nickel in them and would last pretty much forever, today they are pretty soft so wear easily. This is why you don't see anyone turning rotors because they are thin and worn. Also of note is high performance rotors from OEs are being FNC heat treated and this is becoming more common. One reason is to minimize rust from low usage vehicles.

 

[paval3]

I agree with this. My Sport Trac only sees a few hundred miles in a year and sits outside. Rust is common after a couple of weeks but after a hour of braking and driving around they are clean in the functional area.
I am surprised that your rotors were still good if your pad were not. I always replace the rotors and pads at the same time. At one time rotors had a significant amount of nickel in them and would last pretty much forever, today they are pretty soft so wear easily. This is why you don't see anyone turning rotors because they are thin and worn. Also of note is high performance rotors from OEs are being FNC heat treated and this is becoming more common. One reason is to minimize rust from low usage vehicles.

So you think that may have been part of the problem, that the existing rotors helped ruin the brake pads put on in January 2021?

Kind of hard for me to drive an hour straight and there isn't much braking while driving around here... it's pretty much wide open rural area. Only occasionally do I actually drive into town for something. Work is 7 miles away, grocery shopping is 4 miles down the valley. So not much stopping and going at stop signs or traffic lights. I used to travel alot (mostly out of state) when I showed horses and later when I showed dogs, but not so much anymore. Enjoying a much slower pace of life at my age.

 

[paval3]

do you have pics of these rusty rotors?
lets see the actual condition

Nope, I left them there.

 

[Dsc]

Pics of the rotors and pads would be ideal to understand what level is "bad" your shop is saying.
I understand what you are say about short drives with limited braking. I would say next time look at how much rust is on the rotor face before driving, then compare to after the trip. This would give you a idea if it is cleaning up the surface rust. If not, try dragging the brake at low speed for a few minutes and see if that helps.
As for rust ruining brake pads, I guess that is possible but what is the failures effect...noise, pulling to one side, increased/decreased pedal effort? It didn't sound as if you had any brake issues until the shop said so.
I've had a rear axle seal fail and gear oil contamination of drum brake linings which cause the brakes to grab and lock up. No way other than replacement to fix that.
Don't take this in the wrong context that you should have known better. I've been there when a shop calls and says "hey we found this and you need to fix it now" and expecting a decision.

 

[Trigganometry]

Few things here as others have eluded to already. If the rotors pit heavily then they’re bad. Not worth the risk! The more carbon in the iron the worse and faster the rust. So cheap rotors made in China will be worse for this than say quality steel from known sources.

 

[Langwilliams]

We go through this around here in the rust belt. I also think better quality parts resist rust better than getting the lowest price off amazon or ebay. Napa used to have fair priced quality stuff but I hear they have a lot of Chinese stuff now too. I also think parking in gravel or grass makes it even worse. Seems like all the moisture held in the ground makes things worse. A friend of mine an my brother both have low mileage F150's an had to replace the rotors, calipers an brake lines do to rust. Both were parked for long periods of time outside in gravel.

 

[Megawatt]

I didn’t read everything but RP said it best IMO. You got fleeced. think of all the vehicles in the Caribbean. They are surrounded by 90% humidity and live in an island. Do you think they are replacing breakers every couple thousand miles?

Think of all the coastal city’s on the central and South American countries near the ocean. They are not replacing brakes every couple thousand miles.

Even in the Vegas desert that gets a couple inches of rain a year the rotors will rust up If a car sits idle for a couple days. Step on the brakes once and the rust is rubbed off.

Find another repair shop next time for a brake job.

 

[paval3]

All I know is the big round disc looking things LOL which I assume are the rotors, were all a nasty brown ... he also showed me the pads where one was worse than the other, it was worn much thinner than the other one. He did ask me if I had heard any grinding, any noise. No I hadn't.

 

[Dsc]

All I know is the big round disc looking things LOL which I assume are the rotors, were all a nasty brown ... he also showed me the pads where one was worse than the other, it was worn much thinner than the other one. He did ask me if I had heard any grinding, any noise. No I hadn't.

If the outboard pad is much thinner than the inboard side then the caliper is binding. The caliper should float easily on the two pins which hold it in place. Lube of the pins and checking the caliper moves freely is part of the brake job. Hard to check after the brakes get applied for the first time because the clearance between the rotor and pads will only be small. The runout of the rotor creates the clearance.
If the inboard pad was thinner, then the caliber piston is binding and the caliper needs rebuilding.
These are not failures created from rust on the rotors.

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