Brake discs, another fairly cheap disposable friction material for many of us, not so cheap for those reliant on dealers.

I think the secret is to use not neglect your braking system, which is exactly what most people do, this is especially important during the approaching winter season when road salt does its best to destroy our vehicles.

Cleanliness, when you wash your car don't be afraid to rinse the brake discs and calipers off in winter especially, leaving salt to do its worse will not only attack the discs themselves it will cause (especially unlubricated) calipers/sliders/pistons to stick and eventually seize, which then wreck your discs in no time due to heat when the brakes don't release properly, or you end up with seized sliders or one piston, if opposed design, so that brake is effectively operating on one piston pushing against one side of the disc instead of two camping equally...when that happens the unswept side rots away, i've seen many instances of this on the inside sides of rear discs mainly, where huge pits of rust have formed.

Maintenance, every other year at least, the pads need to be removed, everything cleaned and inspected, pistons exercised, pistons and sliders lubricated with the correct brake grease, and don't forget to check the pads are a cosy but free to move as they wear fit in their places...sometimes corrosion starts to form on the caliper itself and sometimes those stainless steel fittings the pads slot into need to come off, the corrosion uner them removed and then refitted, if not the pads can become too tight in their places and once again dragging or sticking happens.

Paint, it won't do any harm at all to paint the non friction areas of your brake discs/drums, as well as the calipers, not only do they look nicer (i use black gloss) but if there is rust forming on the friction areas it stands out more assuming you don't have wheel covers, so you maybe might take more interest in why its rusting, just a thought...i also paint the outer edge of the disc with the ventilation gaps which John refers to, helps delay rust build up.

Driving, i try and make sure i use the brakes as gently as possible most of the time, but every now and again they need a jolly good hard brake to clean everything up and deglaze, after driving in wet weather, especially through salty water, try and brake fairly hard just before your get to your destination so that wet salty water isn't left on the friction surfaces to do its worse.

Unless its being parked up for a long time, i don't usually bother about drying clean water off after washing the cars, but if you were popping to the supermarket anyway then the journey certainly won't do any harm to dry them off.

Even if you don't wash your own cars normally, the occasional rinse off of the whole underside of your car with the hose pipe whilst still wet during the winter, and an especially good wash down underneath once all the salty has gone in the spring is very good practice, those who pooh pooh this you usually find replace their cars with new or newish ones regularly, long term corrosion prevention is not an issue for them.

sorry about the long posts.

Edited by gordonbennet on 21/09/2019 at 12:01

Yesterday evening I drove to and from Matlock, twice, on the A632. The hills on the main road need the gears and constant braking to control the speed. Even in Matlock itself 3rd gear at 30mph needs constant braking effort. And going down Slack Hill needs constant effort to keep the speed down to 60mph even when in 5th gear. I once passengered down that hill in a 1936 Alvis Silver Eagle- in neutral it hit an indicated 85mph.