Rust ring on front rotors/ intro! - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hi guys, first post will serve as my intro as well. My name is Kaili I live in sunny Colorado and I just traded my '11 Camaro in for an 03 Boxster S. Love it but my breaks squeak and with the top down it's annoying. Been searching all over for 2 days trying to find an answer to this so here we go: Break pads look new but the front rotors have a ring of rust near the hub on the surface of the rotor about 1/4" wide. I assume the pad isn't making contact there and I'm worried about it. Still breaking breaks in just not sure if that rust is gonna go away. As for the surface, the rotor feels good. Besides the pads being new this rust might account for the squeaking but I really don't know. Car has 56k miles. Looks like the dealer or someone put new all seasons on it and didn't balance it either so I need to find someone to balance my wheels for me. Never really had to deal with that before. Thanks guys!

Hi Kaili, 1) Area of rust near hub sounds normal, the brake pads only contact the rotor where you see a shined worn in dimension on the face. If the other ring of rust bothers your eye you can paint the rotor hats with some black rustoleum or equivalent if you have it apart. 2) -(weltmeister-anti-squeal-liners) These solved all my squeals on the 986, you do have to know how to disassemble the brembo brakes. They apply to the back of the pads, others have had less luck they solved my problem straight away. At 56K it might need pads, rotors and likely a fluid change depends on the previous owner and drive habits and conditions. 3) bad brakes (warped rotors) can also cause a wheel shake, it's very unlikely anyone mounted tires without balancing, would have to be true hackers to do that. They may need to be re-balanced due to wear or a thrown wheel weight, check the brakes first, maybe the squeal is indicative of a need for service.

The rust ring may just be your rotor "hats", which shouldn't make contact with pads anyway. Go get some real HP tires, like Michelin Pilots or (cheaper) Sportcontact 3's. The car will not perform properly on all seasons. Drive a 100 miles easy and go hard in the mountains for a few hours, being sure to do a decent amount of braking. That'll fix everything. (P.S. I recommend Rt 72 East of Boulder)

Squeaks typically come from pads vibrating at high frequency. This issue can often be solved by applying a thin layer of Permatex "Disk Brake Quiet" where the brake piston contacts the pad. Most modern pad set-ups have a thin soft shim on the back of the pad designed to isolate the pad from the caliper. It's not always enough. Don't go overboard with this stuff, use just enoug to form a thin layer between pad and piston...

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Hehe it's my daily so I'd love HP tires but I need to sometimes get around in snow and don't have the extra cash for new wheels to mount the rubber on. I hear using one set of rims and constantly switching rubber will hurt them because I was gonna do that with the camaro but stuck with my all seasons. Car is plenty sticky for me I'll still take your advice on the boulder route I hear it's a great drive. Anyway here is the pic I snapped when I got back from lunch, circled ring in red.

Those rotors look rough but if you are saying they are smooth they should be alright, the inner rust area is normal as the pad doesn't contact there. Maybe the pads were not broken in yet so it's time to experience the amazing Porsche brakes by using them as hard as you dare & then much harder to mate the pad & rotor surfaces together & minimize noise. Stay with the allseason tires at least till spring since the hi-po rubber is no good below 40 degrees.

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Thanks for the reply, I just wanted to make sure that rust line was normal. I'll clean it with a rag because it bothers me. The rotors are a little dirty but they don't feel pitted or grooved to the touch. And yeah I'll get a few more 100-60 breaking sessions in after I go in for my tire balancing This car already stops waaay faster than my V6 camaro. It's blast to drive.

Those rotors look pretty worn, that's a bit of a shelf of a groove. Personally, I would check out all the brakes for wear, rotor warp first before I threw down for balancing, if the rotors are even a bit warped balance will be a waste. PS I'm not shocked your perception of the brakes compared to GM is stellar, Porsche cars all have awesome brakes. And the handling... Why I demonstrated that to a tailgating BMW coupe on the off ramp, seems his sedan doesn't have the chops in a tight turn.

I'm guessing the only way to check for rotor warp is to take off the tires? But then I'll get all dirty lol. I'll have my male friend take a look at it, see if he might do it for me EDIT: Yeah I have an appointment with Porsche dealer near my house on Saturday for balancing. So I'll check my rotors when I get home. I really think it's a balancing issue that picture makes my rotors look a lot worse than they do in person. But to be safe I'll try and inspect them as best I can.

If they have a road force balance machine they might be able to tell if a rotor is bad. Porsche rotors are pretty robust so maybe it is a tire, you might need brakes in a while either way given what the picture shows. When they pull the tires they can check what's left on the brake pads.

Well also if the rotor was warped wouldn't my breaks pulse? My breaks are fantastic. I can see the pads through the wheels, they are brand new. Have a ton of meat on them.

Right you are, should pulse on hard braking if it's a rotor, like I said P cars have expensive but phenomenal rotors compared to other cars.

I've seen pulsing on braking from bent wheels too.

I had some rust problems as well. Tried to get real cheapo and did the rust removal thing. It's not worth the trouble. Get new rotors. I just did and hope to install this weekend. The Porsche mechanic gave me a tsk tsk look!

Grinding a small chamfer onto the leading (rear) edge of the pads may solve your squealing problem

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If the steering wheel is steady going down the road & you brake causing the steering wheel to shimmy then you have a rotor problem. Look for new wheel weights on the inside of the wheels to see if the tires were balanced when installed.

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Not necessarily, I have seen suspension issues (loose tie rod) cause a shimmy under braking. If you get no pulse in the pedal, but the steering shimmies, it could be suspension related.

The rust looks like a minor groove in the rotor. It should go away as the new pads seat themselves in, though it may take a few hundred miles.

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That's certainly possible, I just suggested the next step she can do herself while attempting to bed her brake pads to the rotors & eliminate a possible contributer to ride vibrations & shimmys.

As far as I can tell I don't have any shimmy in the wheel while breaking on even road. Colorado has a ton of really crappy pavement, I try to do my observations on nice patches Getting balanced tomorrow so hopefully my wheel shake will go away although I think I might need alignment too. I actually heard a *clunk* on the highway while driving yesterday and thought I kicked up a rock under my passenger tire, I think it might have been son existing weights on the tire because my steering shake is not nearly as bad as it was lol.