Brake problems from rustproofing

[super_vixen]

I know there is a topic for rust proofing in the group buys section, but this isn\'t about a group buy, so I\'m putting it here instead.

I had my car rust proofed yesterday at Rust Check. I\'ve had all my previous cars done, as do my parents. It was done before lunch, and I took my car out last night around 8pm and I noticed that my brakes were horrible. I mean, it was actually hard to stop, I could smell the oil smoking, and when I finally came to a complete stop, my brakes were creaking so loud that the car was vibrating.

In the past 6+ years of getting our cars rustproofed, I\'ve never come across this problem. I can only assume that some oil got on my brakes/pads and is now causing it to do this, but it\'s just not safe! My stopping time is drastically cut down, and the creaking is just annoying. Is there anything I can do to clean this up, or do I just have to wait and hope that it all burns off? I know I can\'t wash the car for a week, so any thoughts on that are out the window...

any thoughts or suggestions?

[mEtH]

Sorry to hear, but I am sure its hard to miss getting some spray on our HUGE BREAKS!!!! ( for stock).

I have been debating on going to either Krowne or Rust Check. Maybe the answers shown here will help with my descision. Sorry but I am no help.

[MajesticBlueNTO]

Originally posted by super_vixen


I know there is a topic for rust proofing in the group buys section, but this isn\'t about a group buy, so I\'m putting it here instead.

I had my car rust proofed yesterday at Rust Check. I\'ve had all my previous cars done, as do my parents. It was done before lunch, and I took my car out last night around 8pm and I noticed that my brakes were horrible. I mean, it was actually hard to stop, I could smell the oil smoking, and when I finally came to a complete stop, my brakes were creaking so loud that the car was vibrating.

In the past 6+ years of getting our cars rustproofed, I\'ve never come across this problem. I can only assume that some oil got on my brakes/pads and is now causing it to do this, but it\'s just not safe! My stopping time is drastically cut down, and the creaking is just annoying. Is there anything I can do to clean this up, or do I just have to wait and hope that it all burns off? I know I can\'t wash the car for a week, so any thoughts on that are out the window...

any thoughts or suggestions?

i\'m thinking you meant your stopping time has increased?!

what you could do is remove the wheels, spray brake cleaner on the brake disc, get some emery paper and sand the rotor in a \"cross-hatch\" pattern, spray brake cleaner again and wipe off.

as for the pads, if a pad bedding procedure doesn\'t work (pad bedding = approx. 6 stops from 80 to 5km/h and then driving around for 15 minutes without using the brakes so they cool down), you\'ll have to pull the pads out and then sand some material off (you can use the emery paper....don\'t breathe in the dust)....if you have the rear brake dust issue, and haven\'t got it looked after by the dealer, they\'ll do just that on the rear pads (remove some material).

however, i had that same problem on my maxima when it sat at the dealer for 18 days ... the rear pads corroded (i didn\'t know)...i found it funny that my braking distances were hella longer and that a rust ring was forming on the rotor higher up than normal. it ended up making a horrible creaking sound at a stop and you could feel a pulsing in the back. i removed the pads and they were blistered with this white nastiness on it....ended up replacing it with new Metal Master pads and OMG the stopping distance and time were cut way down (i was suprised just how much the rear brakes did help).

long story short, you may have to get new pads.

[Newlook]

So it was last night at 8pm... if it still happens today, go to Crappy Tire and buy a can of spray on brake cleaner (blue can with a gold cap). Follow instructions and clean your rotors and pads.... see if it helps. The cleaner should wash off all grease and dirt from your brakes.

[idreamofmazda]

I went to Rust Check last week, and only noticed a bit of delay, the first time I pressed the brakes (as someone was ripping around the corner in front of me in the parking lot). The brakes felt a bit greasy the next day, but they are fine now. My last car (Saturn) was bad the first time I pressed the brakes, took about 10 seconds to stop, even at a slow speed in the parking lot.

Try using a high-pressure soapy spay directly into your rotors, if that doesn’t work, complain to Rust Check.

[teambedlam]

when i got my cars done i was warned that there might be brake delay for a short period. I always test the brakes good right after i leave the rust check. Better to test in a parking lot then your first stop light. The problem will go away quickly. It depends on how careful the installer was to avoid spraying the brakes. They also warned me about the added feature of a temporary 007 smoke screen.

Make sure when you wash your car you get all the drips. Dirt is attracted to those drips like moths to a flame.

[mEtH]

Do you really have to wait a week after getting rustproofing to wash the car? I can\'t have my car dripping in the drive way. Anyone do anything to make sure they never dripped in the garage or driveway?

Pls don\'t give me answers like park in the street. Yah I know...:sarc hehe (beat ya too it)

[super_vixen]

on average your car will drip fairly regularily for about 3-4 days....the first 2 are the worst and I usually park on my street during that time. I haven\'t parked out there since I had it done yesterday because of the rain, so I don\'t mind if it washes down the driveway. But you aren\'t supposed to wash it for a week following, and if you can\'t wait, 5 days after is probably ok.

There really isn\'t anything else you can do about it. I haven\'t noticed the drip on my car cause of the rain, but my parents cars were done last month and they dripped pretty bad for a few days and our court now has a lovely stain on it :)
You can also opt for the dripless spray people are talking about, and then you won\'t have to worry about messing up your driveway or garage.

[idreamofmazda]

For an extra $10, Rust Check offers no-drip formula. I went out of town the first night after I had mine done, so if it did drip, I wouldn’t have to worry about it. I didn’t notice any drips where I parked, but didn’t check the 400 northbound lanes, when I returned the next day. :) Yes, wait a week before washing, but I don’t think it would do much to stop the drips. The fluid washes from the driveway with the rain, so Saturday would be a good do to get your car treated. ;) You can always wash the driveway.

[mEtH]

Yah my dad has had it done to his car and dripped all over the driveway and most of it washed away but there is some really noticeable marks though still. Maybe i\'ll look into the non-drip stuff.

Parking on the road in my area is a pain because SOME PEOPLE like to call the cops to say the car has been there longer than 3 hrs. So when I walk out in the morning it is most definately going to have a ticket on it. DANG NEIGHBORS!!!!

Thanks alot, sry for the hi-jack ;)

[Xenon]

about the increased stopping distance/times:

If worse comes to worst, you could get the delaer to resurface the pads or replace them if they are really bad.

I\'m not an expert (or anything close to) on this topic. I\'m just guessing here.

[RedRaptor]

When I got my Rustcheck done, I also had the same problem. The brakes were greasy and hard to stop with. When I did brake, there was a ringing screeching sound also and of course I hard to brake earlier to stop. It went away after 1 week so I think you should be fine. I was getting concerned also after the 3rd day, but all is well after 1.5 weeks or so.

As for dripping. I opted for the Non Dripping for an extra $10 and its a lot better than the Dripping stuff. With the Non Dripping stuff, the car dripped mildly for 3 days or so. Again no big deal, just park it on the street or park it at a friend\'s place who has a crappy driveway they don\'t care about.

[super_vixen]

Well I sprayed some brake cleaner on Friday and Saturday and I could still see all the oil in there and the creaking was still present.

My neighbour used to be the Service Manager at Scarborough Lexus Toyota, so I got him to come over and check them out for me. I also had quite a groove in my passenger front rotor and was afraid I had a rock stuck in my pad.


Some interesting points to note here: My wheel nuts on all 4 wheels were so loose, I could have taken them off by hand. My wheels haven\'t been touched by anyone else since I picked the car up brand new, so I have no idea why they are like that. Secondly, after we took off my front tires, we noticed that my left rim is weighted heavier than my passenger side, which my neighbour said is just their easy way out of properly correcting the balance, and its very bad on their part.

Once we took off the pads, we noticed that I had shards of metal stuck in my pads/rotors. It wasn\'t a rock, but these shards had been wearing deep grooves into the rotors and pads. On top of that, the oil had impregnanted my pads and was just melted right on them. We sanded the pads and rotors down a bit to get rid of the grooves and we also chipped the shards out of the rotors. I have no idea how they got in there, as I don\'t work near any places with metal, unless i just randomly picked it up while driivng.

We sprayed all the oil out of the brakes and it does feel much better now. I\'ll definately have to get my rotors machined or get some new pads/rotors in the spring, because that did some nice damage.

[MajesticBlueNTO]

good to hear that your brakes are better now.


Originally posted by super_vixen

Some interesting points to note here: My wheel nuts on all 4 wheels were so loose, I could have taken them off by hand. My wheels haven\'t been touched by anyone else since I picked the car up brand new, so I have no idea why they are like that. Secondly, after we took off my front tires, we noticed that my left rim is weighted heavier than my passenger side, which my neighbour said is just their easy way out of properly correcting the balance, and its very bad on their part.

usually when tires are put back on at the dealership, they\'re supposed to torque it down to spec (~80ft-lbs)...some are lazy and air gun it in too tight, or air gun it in too \"loose\" ...if they\'re gonna air gun only, they\'re supposed to use torque sticks.

in any case, it\'s a good idea to invest in a torque wrench and check the wheel nuts every so often. vibrations from driving can loosen the wheel nuts. a \"bendy\" torque wrench can be had for $25 at canadian tire (bendy in that there\'s a pointer that moves/bends as you torque down bolts and will show on the dial the amount of force). then there are the \"clicky\" types where you dial in the torque amount and it\'ll click when you reach the desired force. those are ~$90....for the purposes of checking the wheel nuts, the $25 bendy is more than enough.

as for the wheel weights, as long as there isn\'t a vibration in your wheels while driving, the amount of weights on each wheel shouldn\'t be a concern. some tires aren\'t perfectly balanced from the factory..couple that with rims that may not be perfectly balanced, and you have the potential for that combination to be \"out of balance\" by a significant degree. depending on how the tire is mounted to the rim, those individual imbalances might cancel each other out, or they might exacerbate the issue. in either case, the use of stick-on or clip-on wheel weights will \"even things out\". on the set of winter rims and tires for my maxima, i had one wheel that didn\'t have any wheel weights and another one that had one on each side (inner and outer part of the rim).



Originally posted by super_vixen

We sprayed all the oil out of the brakes and it does feel much better now. I\'ll definately have to get my rotors machined or get some new pads/rotors in the spring, because that did some nice damage.


you might want to re-bed your pads....that will fill in any crevices that might have been etched in with brake pad material. machining rotors isn\'t always a good thing as it takes off material beneficial for heat transfer; however, this all depends on how you drive.

cheers

[majic]

first of all.. wow.. crazy metal in there.. could it have been from factory??? i\'m glad you rbrakes work better now.

@MajesticBlueN
i went to CT on sunday in search of a torque wrench. i saw the 2 types u described.. exactly $25 and $99 respectively for the bendy and the clicky one. now for my purposes of rotating tires would the $25 suffice or should i get the clicky one (that\'s a bit more precise)? also i saw the bendy on ein 1/2\" and 1/4\" (I think) may have been 3/8\" which one is better for the mazda3? does it just matter on what kind of size socket you can get? thanks

[MajesticBlueNTO]

Originally posted by majic


first of all.. wow.. crazy metal in there.. could it have been from factory??? i\'m glad you rbrakes work better now.

@MajesticBlueN
i went to CT on sunday in search of a torque wrench. i saw the 2 types u described.. exactly $25 and $99 respectively for the bendy and the clicky one. now for my purposes of rotating tires would the $25 suffice or should i get the clicky one (that\'s a bit more precise)? also i saw the bendy on ein 1/2\" and 1/4\" (I think) may have been 3/8\" which one is better for the mazda3? does it just matter on what kind of size socket you can get? thanks

for rotating tires, the $25 will suffice. (i used that for a while before a member of torontomaxima.com was selling the clicky for $50)

the 1/2\" and the 3/8\" are the socket sizes. a 1/2\" will be able to take more force than the 3/8\", as long as the torque scale goes up to 100 ft-lbs, it\'ll be fine.

the mazda3 takes a 21mm socket size, which is more common in the 1/2\" size.

hope that helps,
cheers