DIY: Cleaning rusty brake discs jugaad-style!

The roads are salted and when I came to fetch the car in January, the rear brakes were rusty and the sliders stuck. The rust was just too thick to get off by braking and the discs got some uneven wear patches.

BHPian Indian2003 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

To jack up both rear wheels, I place the jack under the tow hook. The jack is a proper Compac and welded together. Not the cheap ones from China made of profiled steel sheets. Spare parts are still available.

Here I am winding in the rear caliper piston with the special tool in a clockwise rotation. On some cars, the rotation is anti-clockwise. The caliper is a dual action with the handbrake mechanism built in.

Outer brake pad with the 240 grad sandpaper glued on. The next time I will skip the 150 grade and use only the 240 grade.

All the rust is gone after a few days of driving. It actually cleaned up after a few kilometers. Only light braking is needed. I had not planned on posting this so I don't have the before pictures.

This is my wife Elena who does all the heavy work for me. As a former track runner on the national level in Romania, she is extremely fit.

I had fit 4 new Zimmerman brake rotors and pads in September. In December, I had a heart attack in the mountains and lost my driver's licence for a month.

The roads are salted and when I came to fetch the car in January, the rear brakes were rusty and the sliders stuck. The rust was just too thick to get off by braking and the discs got some uneven wear patches.

I did not fancy buying new discs so I went jugaad. Skimming was more expensive than buying new rotors so I glued 150 grade sandpaper onto the outer pads with 2 drops of super glue and drove for a few days. As you can see, the rust is all gone.

Yesterday, I glued on a finer 240 grade paper and in a few days of driving, the paper will be removed and the pads sanded down flat and fitted.

I think I should have managed with only the 240 grade from the beginning. I have 2 more rusty discs which have done only a few thousand kilometers and I will try to clean those with the 240 grade.

I am 72 and when I sit down on the floor I dont feel like getting up again so my wife does all the heavy work for me. Here she is fitting the rear wheels. She took off the wheels and the calipers and I did the rest.

The tools used were a 13 and 15 mm spanner. A caliper piston winding tool and a battery operated impact wrench for the wheel bolts and of course my trusty 45-year old Compac jack.

Thanks to Indian2003 again. Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.