Grassroots fix for rusty rotors?

Halleluja, I got the Neon together after its head (gasket) job, and it's purring like a kitten.

The next step toward daily driveability is to make sure the brakes are up to snuff. The car's been out of commission for awhile, and the Martian landscape has come home to my brake rotors. There's mucho rust.

My options as I see them, from cheapest on up:

Simply drive that old rust away-should work short term, brakes will likely go bad shortly after.

Take apart brakes and lube everything, then proceed as above- May or may not be any better.

Sand paper the rust off the rotors, and hope for the best.

Get one of those brake rotor hones and a drill, zip the rust off, reassemble and hope for the best.

Have rotors turned @ $15 apiece (money I don't have)

New rotors @ roughly $30 each (even more money that I lack)

I intend to make this car my DD and sell the Buick, so eventually it'll just get new pads and rotors, but for now I'm looking for the cheapest, safest fix. I'm assuming dangerously that I only find rust, rotors, and usable pad thickness, so assuming that, are there any other options that I've overlooked?

The rotors look good save for the rust, so I'm hoping to "grassroots" it right, and get another 10K out of what I've got. After that I'll probably have money to just do fresh rotors, or maybe sell the car.

How long has it been sitting?

How rusty are they? My rotors "rust" after sitting outside in the rain for a few hours.

It's been sitting quite some while. God knows how long it was holding down the dirt in the PO's yard, then I drove it 200 miles home, and then it sat through a wet April. Now the rotors are uniformly rusted all over.

The last time I saw somebody try to drive away rust like this, brake failure followed in a month.

I'll probably take some Roloc discs I have and buzz away the worst of it.

Sell the car, buy something that needs nothing. If you can not afford to repair the safety equipment you should not drive it.

Please don't think I am trying to be a dick but put new (import Dangerzone) rotors on it as soon as you have the money.

If it's been sitting for years, you need to pull the rotors and put some others on. Some no-name cheap stuff might be the easiest/best bet, but if you honestly can't afford it, call a few junkyards and check there. You might be able to turn yours, but if they are too rusty they'll be too thin to get them clean and then you'll have wasted your money to get them turned.

If it's been sitting for months, I'd drive it, it should be fine.

Bryce

drive the buick a few more weeks and save up the cash to do it right. We may be cheap here on GRM, but we are not THAT cheap. You need brakes to have speed, you need good brakes for even faster speed.

Plus we want to keep you around a little longer

You have money for a head gasket but not new rotors? :fishy:

In those 200 miles home before April, were the brakes glaringly bad? If not, the month sitting is nothing to worry about. Otherwise, get this car onto a budget you can live with and freshen up the brakes with new parts. The options you describe above are not "grassroots" more than they are "unsafe".

My Corolla was sitting for 2 years. The brakes were rusty... but worked pretty much fine. Of course, when I really start driving it I'm going to change the pads.

The brake failure you spoke of... did the user continue using the same pads?

Or did that happen with new pads?

All right, I deserve the scolding for trying to cheap out on brakes. It's not so much that I could afford the HG but not the brakes, but that I ran out of money by the brakes, and right now I'm unemployed.

I guess the brake "failure" I'm worried about would actually amount to a tooth-grinding pedal pulsation. Letting the pads shred away the rust will likely knock the rotors out of true. Yes, the brakes actually worked okay coming back from the buy, and it's only been a month or so, so they'll probably be safe. I'll be flushing the lines before it sees the road again, just on principle, and because the old fluid is foul.

The other car I'm referring to is an Escort GT I once knew. It sat for a long time awaiting an engine swap, and the rotors got nasty. He finally drove it away like that, then ended up needing brakes shortly thereafter.

have a kid do it. i know that my high school shop has a brake lathe, just phone the local schools, and ask to speak to the shop teacher and find out if they will do that for free. free=grassroots.

If its been a month I wouldn't worry about it, personally.

I remember parking my sportbike with so much water on it on time the brake rotors rusted and nearly welded themselves to the fresh pads, could barely push the bike they were so stuck.

Moved it, lightly knocked off the nastiness with a scotchbrite pad and proceeded to do a track day on them.

I pulled a dead Miata out of a field after 2 years and all 4 of the rotors looked nasty. After completing an engine swap I took it for a drive around the block (about 1.2 miles - big blocks where I live :grin:) I checked them again. Probably 90% of the rust was gone and the brakes worked fine. I already had plans to replace the pads because they were worn out but I've been driving on those rotors with new pads since May 2007 with no issues (other than a stuck rear caliper but that's a different story anyway...)

Go ahead and wire brush the big rust off if it bothers you. It'll give a better surface to seat the new pads anyway. But as long as they're within specs, I wouldn't worry about the surface rust. Heck, run 'em with the old pads to knock off the big stuff and then make your final evaluation from there. But definitely install new pads soon.

Flush the fluid, lubricate the caliper pins and just drive it.

they might be crunchy for awhile. don't do anything crazy and you'll probably be fine till you can afford new rotors and pads.

+1 for "Just drive it." I've driven tons of cars that have sat for a long time. Top off the fluid, and drive it around the neighborhood sub-30MPH for 20 minutes or so, stabbing the brakes now and then. If the brakes feel solid, I seriously doubt you're going to experience catastrophic random complete brake failure the first time you approach a stop light.

Rotors shmoters. If you're broke and need a job, you ain't gonna get one without wheels. Now STOP PLAYING ON THE INTERNET AND GO MAKE SOME MONEY! :grin:

A month? Yeah, drive it, unless things don't feel right after a few miles, you're fine.

Bryce

Just drive it... my 92 celica sat for 2 years in grass, and it did well enough afterwards that i didn't NEED to replace them, but i did anyways.

If it was driven a month ago, just drive it. When the brakes are cool again, you could rinse them with a hose to get rid of any scraped off rust that's on there. That will of course result in a little more rust, but better overall cleanliness.