Rusty brake discs on standing

[Bunsen Honeydew]

Finally sorted out a new front bumper with headlamp washers for my 2.8Q, the car sat on my drive for about 3 weeks without being moved (save for reversing of on and off the drive a couple of times) I've noticed that the brake discs have gone a bit rusty.

Took the car out for a quick run tonight and the discs (I assume its the discs?) are really rubbing on the wheels and the brakes are awful with virtually no bite.

Is this just a bit of surface rust? Will it rub off with continued driving? If there anything I can do to improve the situation? Do I need to go as far as replacing the discs and pads?

Cheers
Wayne

 

[Foxmeister]

Depends how badly corroded they are, but wouldnt think they need replaced.

It wont be the disc rubbing on the wheels, likely they are binding on where the piston in the caliper is applying pressure onto the pad due to seizing, may need stripped down and worked off by prising the pistons back and forward. Also clean the faces of the pads with some emorary paper when your at it.

 

[hades-]

mine always rust over within a few days

 

[aragorn]

Just give them a proper spanking. A couple of hard stops will usually clean the disks up.

 

[nwmlarge]

mine did the same after a week in gatwick car park. took a few decent stops to clear them.

do a few 60-10 50-10 40-10 and then back round again to get the bite back in them. don't stop to zero though as you'll burn/warp the brakes.

 

[aragorn]

If it doesnt go away after a few stops though, you want to be taking it apart and check it.

My brother had an E30 that was parked up for a few months, and the brakes were scraping really badly after it was driven again for the first time. Turned out the pad material had detached from the back plate of the pads, and had subsequently broken up and fallen out.

 

[PaulJC84]

I had that problem where the pad detached off the backplate when I was at edition 38 a few years ago. Had to drive home with the car as it was so had to replace the discs too.

 

[rossbrownlee]

I had the same problem on my S3. I just had a (careful) drive and did a few hard stops on the way and that cleared it quickly enough. That was after about 2 weeks and pretty rusty.