Severe rust on E92 Coupe wheel hub

[tarks63]

Just picked up a 6 month old E92 M sport coupe and the wheel hubs are covered in rust.Almost the total surface and with 19 inch wheels looks pretty crap.
Dropped by a BMW dealer who said it was not a warranty issue but a common complaint from owners.(Personally if I was Mr BMW I would sort out an issue that was a common complaint but what do I know.)
Car bought up North so I can`t really be bothered to pursue the supplying dealer but surprised that a £43k car can be designed to have rust as normal!!!
I will speak to BMW customer services but I won`t hold my breath.
Anyone else experienced this problem and got BMW to sort it?

[Gruber]

It's a regular problem with the 1 series as well. Rather disappointing.

Painting the hubs with hammerite is probably the most effective solution. The question then is just whether the dealer will agree to do it or whether it's easier to get your local friendly backstreet mechanic on the case.

Edited by Gruber on Wednesday 25th January 07:17

[martin mrt]

The rust isn't on the hub itself, it's the brake disc, and yes it's a common "issue" I personally wouldn't call it a fault with the BMW, this issue seems to affect most manufacturers

Easiest solution is to paint the centres with hammerite

[SBN]

I have just had new BMW rear discs fitted and after a few months they have started to turn orange on the hub part... not great too look at i agree

[Pickled Piper]

I have heard of VW / Audi dealers painting the hubs if customers kept complaining.

See if you can get BMW to do it. If not, it's not a bit job- paint brush and a tin of Hammerite.

I agree it looks terrible.

pp

[steve_bmw]

you need zinc primer spray.

[tarks63]

I will get our company mechanic to take the wheels off and respray as I just cannot be bothered to argue the toss with BMW.
Shame they don`t actually do something about it as from what I have noticed it is quite a niggle with a lot of customers.

[8Tech]

The reason for this is the reduction in nickel content in the disc material.

Ideally, you need to shot blast the discs and then spray them in a high temperature paint or do this when you install new discs.

As a protest, buy your discs from another manufacturer like Brembo in the aftermarket and maybe BMW will do something about it if they start losing sales.

8Tech.

[4rephill]

tarks63 said:

Just picked up a 6 month old E92 M sport coupe and the wheel hubs are covered in rust.Almost the total surface and with 19 inch wheels looks pretty crap.
Dropped by a BMW dealer who said it was not a warranty issue but a common complaint from owners.(Personally if I was Mr BMW I would sort out an issue that was a common complaint but what do I know.)
Car bought up North so I can`t really be bothered to pursue the supplying dealer but surprised that a £43k car can be designed to have rust as normal!!!
I will speak to BMW customer services but I won`t hold my breath.
Anyone else experienced this problem and got BMW to sort it?

Completely wasting your time!
Plenty of people have complained and it's made no difference whatsoever. They will not replace/paint the hubs free of charge.

(If you're into wasting your time though, you could ask BMW to paint a layer of top coat over the primer/base coat that the inner panels left the factory with, free of charge. I suspect the answer will be exactly the same as for the hubs).

8Tech said:

As a protest, buy your discs from another manufacturer like Brembo in the aftermarket and maybe BMW will do something about it if they start losing sales.

8Tech.

Unless you can convince every BMW owner on the planet to follow suit, it's not going to make a blind bit of difference to them!
At the end of the day, the vast majority of owners don't give a rats rectum if the hubs are rusty so long as the brakes work correctly and BMW know it.

[anonymous-user]

steve_bmw said:

you need zinc primer spray.

Yep, this is what Lamborghini use to sort the same problem for customers

[anonymous-user]

tarks63 said:

Just picked up a 6 month old E92 M sport coupe and the wheel hubs are covered in rust.Almost the total surface and with 19 inch wheels looks pretty crap.
Dropped by a BMW dealer who said it was not a warranty issue but a common complaint from owners.(Personally if I was Mr BMW I would sort out an issue that was a common complaint but what do I know.)
Car bought up North so I can`t really be bothered to pursue the supplying dealer but surprised that a £43k car can be designed to have rust as normal!!!
I will speak to BMW customer services but I won`t hold my breath.
Anyone else experienced this problem and got BMW to sort it?

I'd describe a panel with holes due to rust as severe. Not a bit of surface rust on a hub!

[The Stiglet]

We had the same problem but ended up caving in and getting BMW to paint them with Hammerite. Looked much better after that.

It wasn't severe though more like a top coat of rust!

[LocoBlade]

If you paint them, if you get any paint at all on the wheel mating surface make sure you let the paint FULLY dry before bolting the wheels back on otherwise a future wheel removal might become a tad more tricky!

[tarks63]

St John Smythe said:

I'd describe a panel with holes due to rust as severe. Not a bit of surface rust on a hub!

I`d consider a £43k car that is 6 months old with rust on the whole circumferece of 3 the wheels
as pretty severe.

Depends on your standards but as I drive an Aston Martin as well, maybe my standards are too high for BMW.

[anonymous-user]

tarks63 said:

St John Smythe said:

I'd describe a panel with holes due to rust as severe. Not a bit of surface rust on a hub!

I`d consider a £43k car that is 6 months old with rust on the whole circumferece of 3 the wheels
as pretty severe.

Depends on your standards but as I drive an Aston Martin as well, maybe my standards are too high for BMW.

I didn't realize the wheels had rust, that is pretty severe you're right. If it's that bad then they will have to fix it under warranty.

[halo34]

I washed the car today (E90) and all hubs looked remarkably clean for a 59k example.

Looked a bit closer and they have been painted with something fairly recently by looks if it!

[tarks63]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Hopefully these will come out.Taken with crappy camera.
Bear in mind this is a £43k car not some £3k 8 year old 4 owner car.
Your verdicts on whether i am being a bit of a princess!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[tarks63]

ps tey have come out crap but you can get the idea.

They are on the brake hub and not the alloys by the way.Bit of a typo.

[Bubba Zanetti]

Exactly the same issue on my E90. Rust on the hubs since I picked the car up with 5000 miles on the clock. It annoyed me at first but 50000 miles later I just ignore it now.

[tarks63]

Sorry forgot to add this was the least affected wheel.
One has rust covering 360 degrees with no alloy whatsoever showing on the brake hub.
It is down to personal preference and I am the sort of person that likes their car to be spot on.
Anyway booked into my company mechanics to sort out a respray this week.
I will now go and gloat over my immaculate, rust free DB9 Volante sitting on carpet in a centrally heated garage.
Now thats what I call a real garage princess :0)