02Audi-A4-3.0

My car was initially drivin in Pennsylvania for a 3 year lease. The road salt oxidized my undercairage and outside of my rotors. It is something that I really want to fix. I guess I should just wait until I need rotor replacements? how do I know? does it shake when braking? Can I get some that won't oxidize? How do I know by looking at them? Do I look for grooves in them when they are worn too bad? Thanks for the assistance!!!!

25orsix24

I would not worry about that!
The body of the cars VERY well built and has amazing rust resistence; and the rotors get replaced when you will need a new barke job... 'sides it is not either noticeble nor damaging.
Just enjoy you car!

akula-ssh

Rust buildup on the rotors outside of the pad's swept area is unavoidable, I'm afraid, and is perfectly normal.

whoace

What akula said. As long as the rust is not on the contact surface of the rotor, you are fine. Your vehicle also has built in sensors in the pads so when it is time to change them, your car will let you know. Not sure if 2002's have them in the front and back, but they are definitely in the front.

Heiko

If you're more worried about the visuals of the rust... just take the rotors off and throw them in a bucket of Rust remover for a few hours! They will look like new! Just spray them off afterwards with some brake cleaner, let them dry and spray the edges with some high temp caliper paint and wipe the rotor's braking surface clean of any oversray... If you do it every year you can keep them looking fairly nice
It beats spending a small fortune on stainless rotors, although if you dont want to clean them its an option (but not cheap). After I cleaned my rotors up, I also switched to Dust Free Pads... they dont last as long, but all the black brake dust (or 99% of it) is gone!

Black_RS4

some people cadmium plate their rotors, so this does not happen to them, but it's mostly for showcars...

I wouldn't worry about it...

02Audi-A4-3.0

nice heiko.... dust free brake pads? that's sweet. Yeah I'm pretty sure the 02's show the warning for pads. Actually... what does the brake pad indicator look like when you hit the check light? It only shows me coolant, brake fluid, oil, tranny fluid I believe, and something with a circled 1 with mph. What is this circled 1 ? What do the pad indicators look like>? Thanks a sh it ton folks

02Audi-A4-3.0

yeah max ur right... I just got my car 2 months ago and it sat in the shop for a month. I drove a 97' Land Rover before this car. The rover which I took off-road and didnt really care about too much (but liked her mucho). This is first car Ive owned that I love madly. Just trying to get info on how to take care of her. You got any maintaining tips and stuff to watch for that would be killer... Thanks dude!