Raybestos rotor and caliper coatings are worthless

[atikovi]

Put on their Element3 rotors and coated calipers Sept. 30th and have driven only 1,100 miles. Then:

Today:

If I had open spoke wheels on nice car. I'd be pretty annoyed. The actual performance is very good, just that they look awful. Truck was parked inside half the time.

 

[billt460]

Washington D.C. Lot's of rain, snow, and salt I presume?

 

[atikovi]

Haven't driven it in snow or salt and only once or twice in rain.

 

[LazyDog]

This is how mine look at about 4 years, here in the mid west. I still continue to used them because I have not seen something better at this price.

OEM are more than twice the price, would I get 8 years out of the OEM rotors.

 

[brianl703]

Haven't driven it in snow or salt and only once or twice in rain.

You don't need to. One winter, the windshield of my car was coated with what I thought was frost.

It turned out to be salt from the road. And it was parked 90 feet from the road.

They dump a lot of salt...

Some cousin of a VDOT manager must own a salt company.

 

[Trav]

Something does not seem right here. The area behind the wheel is badly corroded but the fins have nothing. I have seen this before on cars that someone used wheel cleaner, purple power, simple green, etc on, all of those can damage the coatings.
My VW has had them for 4+ years and has no corrosion and it only drives in the winter in NE. I clean the wheels with soap and water and only clean the backside of the wheels off the car when I rotate the tires.

I recently rebuilt and engine that had to have every sensor, every part and every nut and bolt replaced, all were rotten. The previous 94 year old owner had it detailed regularly and they used wheel cleaner on the engine compartment.

 

[doitmyself]

Wow. I'm disappointed with both the rotor and caliper finish. Are those E3 calipers brand new or remanuctured?

 

[atikovi]

Reman calipers.

 

[brianl703]

I recently rebuilt and engine that had to have every sensor, every part and every nut and bolt replaced, all were rotten. The previous 94 year old owner had it detailed regularly and they used wheel cleaner on the engine compartment.

Some wheel cleaners contain hydrofluoric acid, which is nasty stuff.

 

[atikovi]

I use iron decon but that removes rust not paint.

 

[doitmyself]

Reman calipers.

I've had the same result with white box remanufactured calipers from the local autoparts store, indicating that the Raybestos are nothing special in that respect.

 

[Cujet]

Were they coated in sunflower oil?

I typically paint my rotors and calipers with a quality black paint. I don't trust the factory coatings and I generally don't want the brakes to stand out. I will have a look at my calipers and rotors tonight and see if my paint held up...

 

[bullwinkle]

That’s weird, the Element3 rotors I put on the xB before last winter don’t look as bad as those, and they were driven in rain, snow, salt, etc. What do they put in the salt in DC, paint stripper??

 

[atikovi]

It wasn't even driven in salt.

 

[Hall]

What do the other rotors and calipers look like ? That looks like something chemically attacked it.

 

[Trav]

I use iron decon but that removes rust not paint.

I suspect that may be the root cause of the problem, this is not paint or powder coat it is a coating that includes zinc that may damaged by chemicals in the iron decon. You have to be very careful what you use on metal protective coatings, they can last for years but can also be easily damaged.

https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101-a/50197-will-irox-x-harm-brake-caliper.html

https://www.meguiars.com/sites/default/files/pdf/D1801 SDS.pdf

 

[Hall]

From the Autogeek thread Trav linked to:

Iron X though an outstanding product will harm Zinc plating on some after market brake rotors. I took plating clean off my rotors.

There you have it....

 

[Rand]

I suspect that may be the root cause of the problem, this is not paint or powder coat it is a coating that includes zinc that may damaged by chemicals in the iron decon. You have to be very careful what you use on metal protective coatings, they can last for years but can also be easily damaged.

https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101-a/50197-will-irox-x-harm-brake-caliper.html

https://www.meguiars.com/sites/default/files/pdf/D1801 SDS.pdf

I use iron decon but that removes rust not paint.

sounds like @Trav solved the mystery.... User error.

 

[atikovi]

Except I cleaned and detailed the wheels when I was doing the brakes and had them off the truck.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

That's still 6 months longer than non-coated would last

If those calipers weren't coated at all, they'd have already rusted completely overnight

You're not supposed to clean the rotors before installing them. Did the wheels come off easy without having to hammer on them? If so, the coating still worked