brake rotor rusting

["ONeill, William" <William_ONeill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The front brakes on my E34 535i have (once again) rusted up so badly that I
think they need resurfacing or replacing, despite being only about a year
old.

The car has been parked on my driveway in the elements for about two weeks,
awaiting a new radiator, which is now installed.  Those of you in the NE
know it's been very rainy and humid during that time.  Brakes were fine
before parking, but now are making lots of noise, and not stopping very
well.  On all my other BMWs past and present, surface rust on the rotor has
scraped off pretty completely after a few stops. In this case, no amount of
brake pressure has been able to remove all the corrosion, and the brakes
rumble pretty loudly every time I use them.

Question is, is it the rotors, pads, or the particular combination of rotor
and pad?  The front rotors were replaced summer of 2002 with ATE Powerdiscs
(the ones with the grooves), and the pads were replaced with new Pagid
streets. I've never used ATE powerdiscs on my other BMWs (M3's), 'cause they
didn't have fitments for them. The first time this happened, the corrosion
on the rotors was most severe right under where the pads were resting when I
parked the car, so I'm wondering if there's some particular "bad chemistry"
between the pad material (which is pretty heavily metallic) and the rotor
surface.  Supporting this "hypothesis" is the fact that my wife's old car
(Saab 900s) with the same ATE rotors, but Saab pads, never had this problem.

Any suggestions, comments?  Is it worth resurfacing the rotors, or should I
just give it up and buy standard oem (Balo) rotors, which have always worked
fine with Pagids?

*************************************
Bill O'Neill
Chair, Driving School Committee
Genesee Valley Chapter
BMW CCA

Phone: (585) 275-4023
FAX: (585) 756-5334
Mobile: (716) 747-4419
email: william_oneill@domain.elided
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