Recently moved to a big city and my 2002 CRV sits outside without use for long amounts of time in between use. Each time I use it rust is present on the surface of the rotors. When I drive it I first experience a sticking like feel followed with a dragging feel. Both going away after a few miles of driving. Each time it has gone into service for something else I have the brakes checked. Each time the rotors had to be re surfaced. Is there a brake rotor available with corrosion protection and less prone to having to be re surfaced?
You should NOT be having your brake rotors resurfaced on each visit to the shop. A brake check, if there are no specific owner complaints or problems, should consist only of determining pad thickness and fluid level. If a mechanic suggests brake resurfacing, or if you request it because of rust, then you are throwing away your money.
Rusted rotors are a normal consequence of your infrequent driving and there is really nothing to be done to prevent it. Nor should it be considered a problem. Continue your current method of clearing the rust by a few miles of gentle driving. That is the normal way of dealing with the situation. This is a minor nuisance but nothing more.
the key in your question is that: " both go away after a few miles of driving"
it is common for brakes to get a surface rust on them after no use.
go to any car lot about two days after a heavy rain. lean down and look at the rotors on ALL the cars in the lot. they will ALL have rust on them.
i feel you may be getting taken advantage of by an unscrupulous brake shop by having them agree to resurface the rotors each time. just curious… where are you taking it for service? the dealer?
I wonder if they are really resurfacing the rotors, or just driving the vehicle a few miles and charging you for resurfacing the rotors. If they have actually resurfaced the rotors several times, I’d expect them to be approaching their minimum wear thickness, at which point they can’t be resurfaced any more and you’ll have to buy new ones.
The rust is normal, and wears off during the first brake application. You don’t need to pay for resurfacing every time the vehicle is serviced. It’s a waste of money.
You are wasting your money and damaging the rotors if they really are resurfacing them. What you see, feel and hear is normal.
After looking back at service records from the dealer I brought my 2002 CRV, at the time with 52,265 miles to the dealer, who had a few months earlier installed new tires from Tire Rack, complaining of vibration in the steering wheel. Since they balanced the tires they balanced them again but for free in addition to re surfacing the rotors and replacing the front pads, never replaced before. Eight months later at 57.764 miles front rotors were re surfaced and rear pads were replaced, never replaced before.
it seems ODD that the front was resurfaced, and rear pads were installed.
if they resurfaced your rotors twice (which I seriously doubt) they would be dangerously close to minimum thickness.
look carefully over the invoice. does the second one at 57764 really have the front listed as turned, and the rear as pads? sounds like a typo to me.
but your brakes really sound fine. a couple of hard brakes (not skidding of course) will clean off the rust and all will be normal after that, until it sits for a while and they rust up again. then you brake and it goes away. etc etc etc.
it may sound bad, but as MC said, i bet they are just driving the car hard and stopping several times then billing you for resurfacing. since you have gone there and not brought it up they probably figure you are an easy mark to get an extra fee for nothing. (don’t mean to make it sound that way, but they do!)