Mazda will Paint my New RX8's Rusted Rotors
 

I went to my dealer and spoke with the service manager about the rust on the rotors and the fact that I had only had the car since late Jan. He did some research and found a bulletin that spec'd the repair. It calls for priming and then painting rotors w/silver paint. It also states that rotors can be replaced if repair does not meet customer satisfaction (but why replace they'd just be rusted again in a week).

I still think this is a case-by-case decision and because my car was so new, they did it. I wouldn't expect that it will be automatic though.

Bill

i'm gonna ditch these stock brakes soon as they go up. brembo factory replacements just seem to be better for me :D

nice post though

Do you have a copy of the Bulletin number or even better a link? I can't seem to find one and was under the impression none existed.

Thank you for the info. I am actually going tomorrow to talk to the service manager about the same issue. My car came with the rust problem as it sat in a warehouse before it was sold. The sales manager told me that it would eventually come off as I drive the car, some has, but I doubt very much that it will all come off. Any extra info would be great.

Artzy8 please get your service manager to tell you what the number of the service bulletin is that he is referencing. There are many of us that would be interested to talk that info over with our service managers!

Mazda Repair Information

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RUST ON BRAKE ROTOR HUBS
Applicable Models
Model Starting S/N Ending S/N
2001 PROTEGE 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2002 PROTEGE 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2003 PROTEGE 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2004 RX8 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
1999 MIATA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2000 MIATA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2001 MIATA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2002 MIATA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2003 MIATA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2004 MIATA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
1999 MILLENIA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2000 MILLENIA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2001 MILLENIA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2002 MILLENIA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ
2003 MILLENIA 00000000 ZZZZZZZZ

0003559 Dealer Repair Information
Rust can be seen on the brake rotor hub area when looking between the wheel spokes. The rust is most visible on vehicles equipped with 17" chrome wheels. 1. Remove rust from hub(s) by sanding. 2. Clean/prep hub surface for primer. 3. Mask off brake rotor area. 4. Apply primer around entire hub area. 5. Once primer dries, apply a heat type silver paint to the affected area to repair the vehicle. Note: Replace the rotor(s) only if the affected area cannot be repaired enough to satisfy the customer.

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Let there be no doubt...you are the MAN!! :D

Your dealer will have to dig for this one. It is NOT a TSB. Have them do a ESI search with 2004/RX8/Brakes. It will post as an "MRI" (mazda repair information)

Thank you... :o

Thanx a lot man.............

Snap-on...thanks as always

I need to talk to you...you on AIM?

sure go right ahead bud

You are Da'man

Just got the SB but I see Snap already took care of business.

My service manager said he was sending it out to their body shop (which is a local Body Shop they outsource to I imagine), I am going to see if I can talk with the Body Shop about painting the Calipers at the same time.

Whadaya think they would charge seeing that Mazda is paying labor to remove the wheels?

Went to Mazda service and presented the manager the Dealer Repair Info. that I printed off this thread and they are taking care of the problem Monday morning. Worth to bring it with you.

my mazda people are such dicks that they won't do ANYTHING for free unless there is a recall...they won't do anything else...grrrrrr

My service manager said the regional Mazda rep was not allowing them to take care of this problem.

He said something about in other parts of the country they would paint them for free once but they wouldn't in the midwest because the paint would just rub-off. Personally, I think it is BS. I painted my calipers on another car and they looked fine after a winter of driving in the snow and salt.

I'm not too bothered though because a $9 can of spray paint from Pep Boys will take care of it and I can hit my calipers at the same time...

Yea my mazda dealer are a bunch of bs ers with everything but ima try to use that dealer code to my advantage. thanks for posting.

Reading this makes me wonder because he did not mention price to me, just asked me to make an appointment. I also just bought the car on Friday. I will call and find out tomorrow.

How can the dealers tell you it is not covered? It's right there in black an white..

The district rep has no dog in this fight. If the stealership tells you he does they are blowing smoke up your %$#

Noticed the model listed for Rx8 is 2004...

Was there an update for 2005, or did they do something to the 2005 rotors to prevent the rust? I remember seeing rust on mine shortly after I got it.. but since I knew it was an 'issue' and haven't bothered painting it yet.. i keep forgetting to check to see if it's still there.

Figure when I take the car in for it's first service, I might have em do it. (If I don't paint em first).

i tried to get this done, my dealership said that it is natural and happens to all 8's and painting them would "hurt the ventilation of the brakes". F*ckin bs man, so what does a man have to say to get this done?

why would you want the brake rotors painted?
the extra paint layer wouldnt work well with the compound of the brake pad.... would it?
is it safe to do so... it is normal for rotors to rust, just go for a drive, it will come off :)

SnapOn

I first called Mazda USA and asked them the policy on Rusted rotors and after a few mins on hold the rep said there was no policy and it had been done on a case basis. Uninformed or fabricators?

It was not until I went to the Service Mgr at Rosenthal G-burg Mazda and he took a couple of days to really reseach it, that I found out about the policy and got the appointment scheduled... On Mazda, I might add.

why would you want the brake rotors painted?
the extra paint layer wouldnt work well with the compound of the brake pad.... would it?
is it safe to do so... it is normal for rotors to rust, just go for a drive, it will come off

The only areas painted are the front lug face and the outer rim.

Snap-On, you are just too good to be true....I can't believe we have an inside man :cool:

Well if they get enogh complaints and repair them then the feed back will get back to manufacturing and they will address the problem on the next purchase of rotors.

Otherwise they will continued to get bad parts from their supplier.

Did you made it clear that it was for the brake rotor HUBS? I can see why they would dismiss the caller as some hard-to-please whiner if it looks like the caller doesn't know what he/she is talking about. But on the other hand, the call center should have a database of complains so that they can piece two and two together and act on it.

Snap On - Are they doing this for the )5's as well? I noticed mine are rusty as hell as well.......that rymed didn't it?

Does any one have an idea how long this procedure takes? I have been waiting for two days for my car to be done.

I took snap-on's MRI to a dealer and showed them some rust on a rotor. He said he would investigate the issue. I come back some time later to retrieve the vehicle and he mentions that they ordered 2 new rotors!!?? He states that two rotors showed rust and since they've been painted before, he ordered 2 new... In my mind I'm thinking they are just going to rust again... I only wanted him to paint the exisiting rotors not order brand new ones.... :(

Manager is telling me that they had to cut them and some other bs. I don't understand why, but because they needed to cut them, that this is the reason why is taking so long. BS BS and more BS. But at least they are getting done. Anyone has any idea what kind of issues I am going to have (if any) with these cut rotors?

Thanks to Snap-On, I printed the MRI he posted, and took that to the dealer. He fixed the rusty-rotors for me! :) yay! :)

Request that they be painted per the MRI before he installs them...or hit them with high temp paint yourself when they come in...

Yeah thanks.. I'm gonna take care of it... I was just surprised they moved to buy 2 new rotors... makes no sense... :confused:

Rotors Painted, looking gooood!
 

I just got mine back from Rosenthal Gburg Mazda. I brought the car in on Thursday AM and got it back today (Friday) at 2:00pm.

The dealership sent it out to a body shop.

See my positive review: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=56606

Hello
Do you have a picture of how bad was it? What did you tell them. I got my car 2 weeks ago, and took a picture. Not sure what i should do.

Two weeks after my rotors were fixed, I just noticed today that the rust is already starting to come out agian on the rear hubs. Does this mean that the dealer did not use the proper paint to get this job done, or is this the norm with this type of procedure? I am getting really frustraded with this issue.

I painted mine myself this weekend. To me the rusting rotors were not any worse than what I've seen on other vehicles. However, the OEM rims make it very apparent. It took quit a long time to mask, paint and reassemble. But in the end I think the job is better than what a dealer would provide.

I think you are right...I may DIY it and the calipers this weekedn

(silver rotor hub and purple caliper)

Work of art, DosDog. I'm doing mine.

DosDog, how 'bout a little tutorial for us rookies?

Very nice job!
I second the DIY request!

Rusted Rotors
 

Interesting topic in this thread. I have not go the time to DIY the rotors but I suspect If i had, i`d probably be more consciensous than my dealer. I`m going to go for new rotors and every time they rust, new rotors again. If that works, hopefully, i`ll become such a pain in the arse that Mazda may feel influenced to actually go procure some rotors with a proper coating on them. (this is probably wishful thinking). Its all down to profits at Mazda...a proper coating would probably cost them about $0.80 a rotor or $3.20 a car. At something like 70,000 cars a year - you can do the math!

Watch my space

Tom

I am painting my rotors next week. I have a velocity red 8 and I am painting the calipers to match. While I am down there I am going to paint the rotors. What do you guys think about black instead of the aluminum color? I have stock rims. I think that the black will help hide any inperfections that appear. After all they are just rotors and will rust no matter how well you paint them.

fanrtastic advice
 

I just wanted to let you all know that I took my RX8 (04 with 25K) in to have the brakes done.
However after reading this thread I printed off the SB that snapon posted.
In short they repainted the rotors silver (with a promise if that does not solve it they would replace them next time).
Also they did not charge me for the pads and turning of the rotors!!

Saved close to $300 by taking this along.

Now Im sure that this is very subjective as dealers may differ, but if it helps, I took mine to the Kerry Mazda Dealership in Florence KY.

It may be worth a shot for you other local guys in Cincinnati, NKy and Indiania!

Just thought I would share this with you all.

Bump

how do i know if there is rust on my rotors

:rolleyes: if there is rust (red/brown colored speckles and spots) on the brake rotors which is the center of the discs which are located behind the rims (rims are wheels and are usually wrapped with a black rubber called a 'tire')

Here's a gallery of them:
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-multimedia-photo-gallery-6/rusted-rotor-hub-gallery-49027/