[Cafe.Racer]

Seems a fair enough response from BMW, to be honest - I'd heard this before to do with brake discs.

I have seen people get aftermarket discs cadmium/zinc (that gold-ish passivated coating) plated. It's such a thin layer that it wears off the face of the discs quite quickly, but protects the hubs.

[greyt]

My 335D has just reached 5 weeks old, and I am also suffering from rusty hubs... Not happy.

In response to some of the assumptions so far :-

I do above average mileage - 2,500 miles so far
I do not live or work near the sea
It has only been cleaned using BMW's own shampoo and alloy cleaning gel
No jetwashing

In response the BMW insult that we have only just noticed it on alloys, my last cars have been two M3's, 330D, 328i (manual), 328i (auto). So in 10 years of BMW ownership, all with alloys, none have had this problem........

[quattrogmbh]

Having given up on BMW stepping up and resolving this issue in a timely manner, I spent 4 hours today repainting the hubs. Something I'm not sure that Mercedes or Audi would expect you to do on a vehicle less than a year old with 4000 miles on it. anyway...

The result is not bad..

[Ridgy]

I've contacted my dealer with the same issue on my 56 plate E90 Saloon.

All I've done so far is sent an e-mail to the sales consultant that sold me the car. His response was that he has a forecourt full of them.

I intend to send a further e-mail explaining I'm not happy with that explanation and ask if there is anything they can do either on good will or on warranty before I take it up with BMW GB (not hat I'm hopeful they will be any more helpful but the thought of it might persuade my dealer to do something about it)

I've read a response from BMW in an earlier post and quite frankly I'm disgusted with it. Taking their explanation to a logocal conclusion it would suggest that all cars should suffer from the same condition and we all know that's not so. I was looking at a Merc thats older than mine by a couple of years and the hubs and calipers were spotless. I'm embarassed by the condition of mine frankly when people see the car, know how much you paid for it and then notice the hubs all covered in rust. This is a £35k vehicle ffs!!

How many people have had success with their dealers about this. Does anyone have a scan of any paperwork they were given detailing the work done, warranty reference etc I could have to add sway to my arguement?

[bazza_g]

I agreed with the comments above its really not good enough for a car of that price - BMW UK really annoyed me with their attitude even trying to blame the UK weather and the salt on the roads for the issue - well build a car suitable for the country you're selling it in then!

Eventually I got joy from my dealer who fixed the hubs out of 'goodwill' as BMW will not pay out warranty work on rubbing down and painting the hubs.

[Mark II]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before but I hope this might shed some light on things:

Up until recent years the coatings that were applied to brake disks, calipers and many other vehicle components and fasteners contained chemicals called 'Hexavalent Chromium' and 'Tri-Valent Chromium' - these were used extensively in corrosion resistant metal finishes and helped the finish to achieve many hundreds of hours salt spray resistance (this is the method by which the coatings industry tests resistance to corrosion).

Unfortunately, the chemicals were found to be carcinogenic and use was gradually phased out to be replaced by other types of finishes - in the case of painted finishes (as opposed to electroplated) there was also a move from solvent based finishes to water based finishes - however none of these offered the same level of resistance. At the same time many of the worlds largest car manufacturers have been in severe financial difficulty (this doesn't include BMW) and there have been considerable pressures on cost downs and even greater emphasis on eeking out every last drop of profit.

The upshot being that items like cast iron disks (which will oxidise in any case if left exposed) are not seen as a priority and this coupled with the change in coatings means that whatever the price paid for a car, the finish specified for its brake disks will not perform anywhere near as well now as the old finish did 10 years ago.

Apart from environmental issues and other intangible elements that might determine how much or how little different cars are affected, two things that may have an impact are 1) the chemical used by a valeter to clean the car of its transit wax 2) the chemicals that an owner might use to clean their wheels - some of these are very aggressive and some even contain acid. The OEM coating applied to the disk will only be 7 to 12 microns thick, so anything too agressive could just accelerate the formation of rust.

Replacement disks will not solve the problem as they will have the same type of finish and if you are concerned about appearance (as most of us here are), the only option is to apply a decent quality paint to the 'Top Hat' of the disk and the caliper yourself.

BTW: Zinc & gold passivates will only offer around 72 hours salt spray resistance maximum (poor), where the old Hex-Chrom coatings offered between 300 and 500 hours depending on coating thickness.

PS: I know this because before he retired my father was a member of one of the country's largest electroplating company's and worked with the likes of Ford, Jaguar, Aston, Land Rover, Bentley and many other companies for over 30 years.

I could bore you to tears with talk of Hydrogen embrittlement issues and other things affecting 'cast' iron - but I won't :-)

[croozin]

When i picked up my 08 plate 330d M-Sport E93 the hubs were ALREADY rusty!! This annoyed the hell out of me as it litterally only just arrived from the factory!!

Im going to take it back this weekend after seeing this post and tell them to sort it!! It would take BMW 5 minutes to paint the hubs!

Grrrrr!

[SoYank]

Hell, it's gonna take 'em five minutes just to get the bloomin' wheels off the car.

[croozin]

If they did it at the factory the wheels would already be off the car!!

It was a figure of speech anyway- i didnt mean for you to take it litterally!

[SoYank]

I wasn't. My comment is a swipe at the difficulty I had getting my wheels off my car.

[croozin]

Ah ok - lol. i can agree with that, the tyre place had to litterally kick my wheels off my E46 BMW - took them nearly half an hour to remove all four.

I agree with you there!

[SoYank]

You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find a dead-blow hammer in this country.

[Ti Rich]

Well I went to the dealer today to talk to the service department. They admitted that mine were the worst they had seen. All four wheel hubs covered in rust which started to appear after 3 weeks.



After refering it baclk to the manager he declined to do anything saying that his hands were tied. BMW UK know there is a problem but as this problem has not been seen in Germany head office is declining to admit there is a problem. So the issue is now passed back to sales to see if they will do anything.

I really think this is a shocking attitude. My wife wants a new 1 series in March and I can see the money going on a Honda Civic at this rate.

[BC4J]

Originally Posted by Ti Rich

My wife wants a new 1 series in March and I can see the money going on a Honda Civic at this rate.

My wife has a Honda Jazz and believe me the wheel/hub rust is infinitely worse than this! Honda has already replaced the alloys once as these were finished after 2 years. Honda dealer says it's because the Japanese don't understand our wet and salt dosed roads in winter. How hard is it to understand?!!!

[ed335d]

Having been very dissapointed with rusting hubs on a 4 month old car, having heard of other people's experience with BMW and their dealers and coming to the conclusion that nobody is going to accept any kind of liability or do anything about it, decided to have a go at painting them myself!

I used:
Wire Brush
240 grade paper (wish I'd used something a bit coarser)
White spirit (cleaning after the rubbing)
Halfords paint prep wipes (after white spirit clean)
Halford very high temperature paint, black (decided against silver as think it may show the brake dust & general road grime)
Medium & small brushes
Cellulose thiners (for cleaning the brushes)
Lots of elbow grease!

I've not got the steadiest of hands, so close up it's not as perfect as I like - but looks miles better once the 230's are back on.

Before



After rubbing & cleaning



After painting



Wheel back on



Have just done the fronts, hope to do rears tomorrow or next weekend (weather depending). Will report back how they last!

[SoYank]

Look nice. I think I'd have done the mating surface as well, though. Here's an idea for you. Take a good sized piece of paper and cut a hole through it to fit over the hub. Fold it so that it masks off the caliper yet allows paint to get to the side of the hub and spray paint it carefully.

Next, get some BMW or MINI valve covers. That plastic one looks AWFUL!

[scooba0010]

I decided to stick it to my dealer sort it or im going else where with my money.After 15 years and 7 cars no joy at all.I explained how dissapointed i was at there general attitude.I wanted to replace my wifes car (mini).either with new mini or golf gti.after a long chat with local bmw dealer a 1 series entered the frame.But then i said oh will i get the same attitude when i have issues like my rusty discs???????????????????

I let them spend ages doing quotes and thinking i was daft enough to fall for there nice sales pitch ,Then asaid actually i have decided i wont be buying from you again and explained why and bought a NEW vw gti .and to date im well pleased its only been a week but im finding lots of goodies that bmw charge as extras are bog standard on my gti .I still really like my e90 but really hate being treated like a mug so have thorougly enjoyed telling my neighbour how wonderfull vw are and how wonderfull the build quality is of my new vw .

The bit i liked most was letting the salesman tell me discounts were no longer available from BMW and do me a shit quote to change my car ,I bet he thought he mas going to make a shed load on the Px any way being a sad git i found it very enjoyable pi$$ing him off by going to vw dont get me wrong im sure the vw sales people here and dealers are just as bad but i havent been in and been a loyal customer for 15 yrs and bought 7 cars so i will let them at least try and mug me if rust starts to appear on these hubs

[dxb335d]

Scooba you should have mugged the fooker for his wallet. Would have paid to fix your rusty hubs and bmw in effect would have been paying LOL

[scooba0010]

Some pictures here off hubs are bloody awfull its about time bmw did step up to the plate and do something i am only speaking for my self but if its just a money issue i would rather pay a few pounds more im sure it could be resolved at build state before there was all this bad press .

I gave my local dealer CHANDLERS BMW at least two chances to make good the issue no doing .I have just advised the old couple next door to go look at a new golf as there vectra is to big for them and asked my advise for what its worth ,I will of course relay the message to my neighbour who works for bmw and say i mentioned the very weak /poor after sales back up .ie no one is interested in helping they only want your ££ .

[ed335d]

Cheers SoYank

I intentionally left the mating surface clear, as there was no rust there and this is purely a cosmetic exercise.

Also applied copper grease, as I have heard horror stories about issues with getting wheels off due to rust.

Agree about the dust covers! Anyone know where I can get something a little better looking?

Ed

[Mark II]

Originally Posted by ed335d

Having been very dissapointed with rusting hubs on a 4 month old car, having heard of other people's experience with BMW and their dealers and coming to the conclusion that nobody is going to accept any kind of liability or do anything about it, decided to have a go at painting them myself!

Ed, that looks much better! Any reason why you didn't paint the calipers at the same time??

In reply to your PM, I haven't done mine - decided to go a different route, buy the BMW Performance BBK (big calipers and drilled/grooved disks) and then I will paint the hub from new, before it gets any use.

PS: Copaslip is defo a good idea on the mating surface.

In reply to Scooba's post: I'm sorry to hear about the hassles with your dealer and can totally understand that you feel let down by BMW but as I mentioned in a previous post, the issue here is with the electro-plated finish that can be applied to modern cars, what is now deemed environmentally acceptable and what the manufacturer is prepared to pay for the coating.

In the knowledge that these were the limiting factors, there was no way BMW would simply start replacing disks and it wouldn't solve the problem even if they did. Sadly, these days, the only solution is aftersales DIY with a paint brush - either by the dealer (if prepared to) or the owner.

I've owned cars from most of the major German brands (BMW/Alpina, Mercedes/AMG, Porsche) and in recent years most have suffered with this problem to some extent (where previous editions would not have done) simply because of the change in coating. For what it's worth, the Volkswagen Touareg that I owned for 4 years also had rusty hubs from about 5 months from new!

Although things have changed, BMW is still one of the best engineered cars available and surely it's not worth losing those benefits.....??

Just my opinion o'course

[Ti Rich]

Just had a phone call and my dealer has agreed to put right the rust!!!!

Well, well, well - didn't expect that!