[Smurfenstein]

You have any pics? Would be good to know exactly what we're looking for.

As for if its actually rust, get some aluminum/tin foil[like you use for cooking], rinse it with water to get it a little wet, then use that to rub/scrape the rust off. If the "rust" is on a painted part of the body, use a clay bar.

 

[mcg75]

Your dealer is full of crap. Surface corrosion is covered for the bumper to bumper warranty. It's not metallic brake dust, it's rail dust from delivery.

Document ID: 2096928

Rail Dust Damage Repair Warning: Refer to Eye Protection Warning .


Note: If rail dust has penetrated into the basecoat, the panel requires refinishing. Ensure all the rail dust has been removed prior to refinishing or the rust spots will return.
Rail dust damage comes from the tiny iron particles produced from the friction between the train wheels and the track. It can also be deposited on vehicles if stored near any operation producing iron dust (i.e., steel ore yards). This dust can either lay on top of, or embed into the paint surface. It is usually diagnosed as bumps in the paint surface or rust colored spots in the paint.

1.	Move the vehicle to a cool shaded area and ensure the vehicle surfaces are cool during the removal process.

2.	Thoroughly wash the repair area with Liquid Wash and Wax GM P/N 1052870, or equivalent.

3.	Wipe the area dry.

4.	Clean the affected area with silicone, wax and grease remover.

5.

Perform the removal process according to the manufacturer's directions of the type of repair material used (Gel Type Oxalic Acid or Clay Type Non-Acid Based). If, upon inspection, some particles are still present, the process may be repeated. If the damage has been repaired, complete the repair to the entire panel.

6.	Polish the entire panel after the removal process. Refer to Clearcoat Repair Specifications - 3M Products . If small pits remain in the clearcoat after all of the damage has been repaired, refer to Clearcoat Repair without Repainting .

 

[Jim Frye]

A couple of points about the rail dust.
1. It depends on how far the particular vehicle traveled by rail. The assembly plant is in Eastern Ohio. So unless you live within a hundred miles or so of Warren OH, your Cruze may have traveled many miles via rail car.
2. GM's distribution depots are usually located right next to main rail lines, so in addition to traveling x number of miles inside a rail car, they may spend quite a bit of time sitting out in the open next to those tracks.
3. Even the plant's distribution facility is right next to a rail line.
4. I'd bet the areas of the cars with the "rust pitting" were not the ones with the protective paper covers that the plant puts on the vehicles for delivery.

 

[kkilburn]

You will have to get used to it, that's definetly part of having a white car. I made a thread about this awhile back. There's nothing you can do to prevent it, because it's brake dust. You can limit it to a degree with regular washes, wax, and clay bar. You also definetly want to completely dry all door jams after every single car wash. I wouldn't suggest purchasing the $438 dealer paint protection. When I talked to the body shop manager, he said it was a waste of money. If I was you, I would find a local auto detailer than can clay bar it and then apply a $50 paint sealant. It lasts about 6 months and limits the rust build up, and is easier to clean off.

 

[finklejag]

If you don't want to clay bar the car. You can use IronX. Those small brown and orange spots are very common on white cars. Other paint colors hide the fallout. You can still feel them though.

CarPro IronX Demo - YouTube

 

[NickD]

First I couldn't edit out the j in my heading, not my fault, computer error, LOL. Did get that clay bar kit, but searched all over the store for a large can of elbow grease. Couldn't find it.

To take a photo, would have to dig out my microscope camera, these dots are tiny, easiest way is to say, screw it.

A far more common problem than I thought, first time for everything, but did find these on the web.

Brake dust shields, but haven't looked up anything that would fit my wheels yet.

Wilki claims these bits of metallic brake dust are red hot and that is why they stick to paint. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if California finds this brake dust will cause cancer in dirty rats. But as usual, will just warn you, California hasn't done a darn thing, just keep your rats in an air clean isolated booth.

As I had mention, son had the same problem with his charcoal Nitro, to hide this spots, would need a rust colored car. Don't buy that white paint bit, dirt is dirt.

 

[XtremeRevolution]

Couldn't you just put on some ceramic pads instead of the semi-metallic ones to reduce the issues with the brake dust?

 

[Jim Frye]

Couldn't you just put on some ceramic pads instead of the semi-metallic ones to reduce the issues with the brake dust?

A caution with ceramic pads. I had a set put on my Civic and the rotors warped in about 3 months. Explanation I received at the parts stores was that ceramic pads tend to shed braking heat into the rotor. If the rotor gets really hot and you hit water, the rotors will tend to warp from the sudden cooling. Organic pads absorb the braking heat and dissipate it through the caliper. For high performance driving, the ceramics are better, but for day to day driving the organics might be better. I prefer Performance Friction's Carbon Metallic pads as they don't produce the dust and I've never had a rotor warp problem with them. Also, stay away from Chinese made ceramics. The quality control is awful and there have been instances of them being full of steel scrap and high levels of asbestos, which will trash your rotors in a whole different way.

 

[XtremeRevolution]

A caution with ceramic pads. I had a set put on my Civic and the rotors warped in about 3 months. Explanation I received at the parts stores was that ceramic pads tend to shed braking heat into the rotor. If the rotor gets really hot and you hit water, the rotors will tend to warp from the sudden cooling. Organic pads absorb the braking heat and dissipate it through the caliper. For high performance driving, the ceramics are better, but for day to day driving the organics might be better. I prefer Performance Friction's Carbon Metallic pads as they don't produce the dust and I've never had a rotor warp problem with them. Also, stay away from Chinese made ceramics. The quality control is awful and there have been instances of them being full of steel scrap and high levels of asbestos, which will trash your rotors in a whole different way.

I've actually heard semi metallics are much better for braking performance, but ceramics are used to prevent brake dust from forming all the time.

Either way, I've used ceramic brake pads on all of my cars since I started driving so that's really all I'm used to. I used to destroy ceramic pads when I was modding my 95 Regal. My Bendix CT3s would smoke up on occasion from really hard braking and by the time I replaced them, they looked like a dried lake bed. The Akebonos I installed to replace them were better and didn't quite smoke up so easily. The worst ceramics I've ever used were the Duralast Gold pads, the best being the Akebonos. I was not at all impressed with the Ceramix brand sold at Napa. Auto Zone's Friction Master are decent, but don't bite as hard as the Bendix or Akebono pads did. I tried 2 different Raybestos pads as well and thought they were decent for general purpose driving.

A while back, I had friction masters on my 2005 Bonneville GXP. Fairly large brakes up front with R1 Concepts drilled/slotted rotors (before I knew drilled rotors were pointless). I was going down Molhulland Drive in California starting out in the San Fernando valley having some fun on a warm and completely clear and sunny 80 degree day. The rotors and pads had 25k miles on them at at that time. I had just passed the peak of the mountains and could see the ocean on the other side. I was having quite a lot of fun; in fact a bit too much fun for a 3800 pound car even with 13" front GXP rotors. On my way downhill, I started losing braking power till it completely faded away and I saw smoke out of my rearview mirrors. It wasn't a gradual thing either, it was a hard brake from about 65 to 35 and the car wouldn't slow down past that point. I had to manually downshift to slow the car down till I regained some braking power and took it a bit slower down the hill. I pulled over and got out of the car to see what happened, and everything looked fine but you could feel the heat coming off the rotors as you walked around the car.

In any case, that's my only extreme experience with ceramics. The rotors ended up being just fine, but the pads didn't quite stop as well after that point and I ended up replacing them with Akebonos a couple of months later.

 

[NickD]

Such thoughts about changing anything quickly got out of my mind, barely 2K miles on this car, 3 months old, and still belongs to Chevy for repairs. Did remove the wheels to install splash shields, dealer knew I was doing that.

But with the rotors, calipers, all the suspension components, using paint dabs like the Japanese do and my dealer would know if I removed or changed anything, could void the warranty. Nicest part of buying a new car, its their problem.

But I guess I am stuck with cleaning this brake dust, have the supplies now to do that, but see I have to buy a new garden hose, this one is only 30 years old, nothing lasts anymore. Wife did drive the car to the cities last weekend, could blame her, there you have to use the brakes a lot. But I am thinking, after they break in, the dust won't nearly be as bad.

 

[ChevyCruzeLTZ]

I had a white Sierra that did this too, keeping a good coat of wax on seemed to help.

 

[mcg75]

A caution with ceramic pads. I had a set put on my Civic and the rotors warped in about 3 months. Explanation I received at the parts stores was that ceramic pads tend to shed braking heat into the rotor. If the rotor gets really hot and you hit water, the rotors will tend to warp from the sudden cooling. Organic pads absorb the braking heat and dissipate it through the caliper. For high performance driving, the ceramics are better, but for day to day driving the organics might be better. I prefer Performance Friction's Carbon Metallic pads as they don't produce the dust and I've never had a rotor warp problem with them. Also, stay away from Chinese made ceramics. The quality control is awful and there have been instances of them being full of steel scrap and high levels of asbestos, which will trash your rotors in a whole different way.

That's a common misconception. Rotors rarely, if ever, warp. What happens is the brake pad transfers the friction material onto the rotors in uneven spots. It's very easy to warp a rotor by braking hard and then holding your foot on the pedal full force when stopped.

My fiance's 2005 Pursuit had warped rotors in less than 10,000kms. It was easier for me to take it into the shop on the weekend and turn them myself. When we turned the car back in off lease, it had 30,000kms and were warped again.

She now has had a 2009 Civic for 3 years and 20,000kms and no warped rotors. Whatever type of organic pad Honda uses doesn't seem to transfer material to the rotors as easily as she's still a wait till you reach the light and jam them on type of driver.

 

[sciphi]

IronX is the only solution to this problem. Clay won't take it off since the iron particles are so embedded into the paint.

After the IronX, seal the paint with a sealant like Duragloss 101 or 105, then put a coat of wax over it.

The brake dust is almost non-existent on my Cruze. I guess I'm not using my brakes as hard as the rest of you.

 

[XtremeRevolution]

That's a common misconception. Rotors rarely, if ever, warp. What happens is the brake pad transfers the friction material onto the rotors in uneven spots. It's very easy to warp a rotor by braking hard and then holding your foot on the pedal full force when stopped.

My fiance's 2005 Pursuit had warped rotors in less than 10,000kms. It was easier for me to take it into the shop on the weekend and turn them myself. When we turned the car back in off lease, it had 30,000kms and were warped again.

She now has had a 2009 Civic for 3 years and 20,000kms and no warped rotors. Whatever type of organic pad Honda uses doesn't seem to transfer material to the rotors as easily as she's still a wait till you reach the light and jam them on type of driver.

I find this a bit hard to believe. If the pad material transferred, you'd be able to measure the rim width and it would be wider by a significant margin at the points where the pad material transferred. Have you measured this?

My understanding was that some rotors are just plain junk. The rotors that came on my Bonneville GXP were warped badly when I bought the car with 45,800 miles. My 95 Regal rotors were not warped after some very hard driving after 120k miles. I replaced the rotors on the Bonneville with some cheap R1 Concepts rotors and they didn't warp in the remaining 41k miles I had the car.

Everywhere I've read states that this is a matter of thermal expansion in the rotor material.

 

[mcg75]

I find this a bit hard to believe. If the pad material transferred, you'd be able to measure the rim width and it would be wider by a significant margin at the points where the pad material transferred. Have you measured this?

Everywhere I've read states that this is a matter of thermal expansion in the rotor material.

Source.

I don't need to measure any rotors to know this. We use the same brand of brake rotor for every car, the Delco advantage. The only time I get a complaint about noise or pulsation is when somebody asks us to use a second line brake pads. When we use the Durastop ceramic or Raybestos top line ceramics, it doesn't happen. The only time we have a problem with this combo is when a customer lets the car sit a lot. The spot on the rotor where the pad sits for weeks at a time will rust a bit. At that point, we have uneven surface to brake on. If the car would do some 30-0mph braking 4-5 times, the pad will normal clean up the rotors enough so pulsation does not occur.

 

[NickD]

Not buying that theory or whatever those very tiny metal chips I am finding on the sides of my Cruze is coming from the metallic dust from the brake pads. Not even like the color of the dust that is an extremely fine powder I am finding any where near the brake pads. And not finding that kind of dust anywhere on the surface of the car.

I did wash that car about three days before my wife took it down to Madison, and didn't find any of those chips on the doors, was mostly road salt these idiots are putting all over the place. And these chips have nothing to do with the air stream I can visualize coming from the brake pads.

As a matter of fact, the side doors were also splashed with mud when she came back, did have a light rain that day. And where the concentration of this mud was the greatest, so are these tiny metal chips. Where the car was not splashed with mud, zero chips.

Whatever they are, they tend to stick to that soft vinyl like paint. If I were to theorized, could come from say a bald tire worn down to the steel bands of a truck or even ground up old tires I heard they were mixing up with asphalt. But certain, these chips are not coming from the brake pads. Perhaps a good wax job will help.

We also drive quite a bit different, I like to stay miles away from any other vehicle. Ever notice on the interstate, idiots like to drive in clumps? And I-90, 94 always has a continuous line of trucks night or day time. That can be the problem. But dead positive, it is not the metallic brake pads. That little bit of dust can be rinsed off with a water hose.

 

[tvicars]

Not buying that theory or whatever those very tiny metal chips I am finding on the sides of my Cruze is coming from the metallic dust from the brake pads. Not even like the color of the dust that is an extremely fine powder I am finding any where near the brake pads. And not finding that kind of dust anywhere on the surface of the car.

I did wash that car about three days before my wife took it down to Madison, and didn't find any of those chips on the doors, was mostly road salt these idiots are putting all over the place. And these chips have nothing to do with the air stream I can visualize coming from the brake pads.

As a matter of fact, the side doors were also splashed with mud when she came back, did have a light rain that day. And where the concentration of this mud was the greatest, so are these tiny metal chips. Where the car was not splashed with mud, zero chips.

Whatever they are, they tend to stick to that soft vinyl like paint. If I were to theorized, could come from say a bald tire worn down to the steel bands of a truck or even ground up old tires I heard they were mixing up with asphalt. But certain, these chips are not coming from the brake pads. Perhaps a good wax job will help.

We also drive quite a bit different, I like to stay miles away from any other vehicle. Ever notice on the interstate, idiots like to drive in clumps? And I-90, 94 always has a continuous line of trucks night or day time. That can be the problem. But dead positive, it is not the metallic brake pads. That little bit of dust can be rinsed off with a water hose.

I have a Silver Cruze and have a similar "problem" with rust "flecks" and "dots". Having said that, I think there may be something to the fact that its particulate from something.. they are basically hair "thick" almost like iron filings or perhaps the size of a pin prick or pinhead at the most. You have to get right up to the car to see them.

There were a few when i got my car, and a clay bar removed them no problem.. I then completely waxed my car by hand. Now that I have gone though a winter more have shown up. However, because i waxed my car before the winter I can take them off with barely a flick of my fingernail.. In my case it does appear to be an iron particulate thats just rusting.. they are very easy to remove and leave NO rust behind.. Its definitly not a flaw in the paint. My other vehicle (silver) from another manufacturer gets them too, same process to remove them..

Again once they are moved and you run your finger over the area, you can't feel any imperfections.

 

[NickD]

Ha, got my cleaning supplies and wax, but my wife and kids had other ideas what I can do with my time. Recall in my military and corporate days, use to be called, sir. Around here, just like a lowly worker. But I did get permission to wash my car today, except its raining. Can't win. You know,logically, I could wash my car in the rain. Heck, will put it off for another day.

 

[NickD]

Decided to tackle that job anyway, washing a car is easy, those rust specks are miserable to remove. But being observant, under every rust speck was a dot of a tar like substance. Something is holding those specks to the paint, has to be that tar.

Mineral spirits has never known to hurt the paint on the car, so tried a small section with a paper towel dipped in spirits. Those smaller dots came right off, effortlessly. Larger ones need a flick with a fingernail, then the spirits to get that tar off.

Whatever this crap is, more and more certain its coming off the road, and why not? Spread plenty of salt in the winter, why not make the summer months miserable as well? Did hose off some of that black salt private parking lots are using now, but not worth getting the floor scrubber out just yet. Was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio, had a couple of guys talking about the number of times we have had snow in May. That I can verify. Snow is nice and clean, but that damned road salt.