GM has issued a press release saying that it has come up with a way to make brake rotors become rust resistant and stay shiny for a long time by “changing the chemical makeup of the components using a process that could double the life of rotors and save consumers hundreds of dollars.”
Their engineers created a process in which the rotors are heated to 560 degrees Celsius for a day in an atmosphere enriched with nitrogen, which then bonds to the metal, creating a stronger finish. The name for the technology is Ferritic Nitro-Carburizing (FNC), a process used in powertrain parts in the past.
FNC rotor technology is featured on the Buick Lacrosse and Regal as well as on the Chevrolet Malibu, Impala and Volt in North America.
This is quite interesting and I’m hoping after market makes this a standard practice otherwise these “hundreds of dollars” savings will disappear if these become a “premium” more expensive rotors over OE replacement.
This would be quite welcome in the motorcycle world as well. My bike get surface rust after a day of sitting and need to be scrubbed off by braking before getting upto speed.
Cool in theory and for the average consumer, but I don’t really see any performance benefits of this. I think it’d just be nice for the non-friction surfaces.
i’m always suprised that the ultra expensive two piece rotors that came with my bbk never seen to rust and are probably the only thing on my car that constantly gleams lol. fav part of the bbk.
hard to tell from the picture, but the new rotors we have been getting at the shop over the past couple months have been shipped dry and are that greyish color. Be interesting to see if they do really hold up over time.
My EBay brakes are still not rusty after almost 30k and months and months of use. $160 for all four corners including pads. Best EBay deal I ever got. And they brake better than the OEM trash I had before.
Brakemotive, right? I got mine directly from the company so I paid under $150 shipped. They are zinc coated and they look good, but they do eventually rust on the friction surface.
Funny you say that. A good friend of my dad works for a pharmaceutical company. Swears that ~20 years ago they had found a cure for certain types of cancer, shortly after their funding had mysteriously vanished and their lab was shut down.
Don’t know if its true or not, but she never seemed odd or anything to me, and to be honest it wouldn’t surprise me.
You ever see the Aids episode of southpark? Same goes for cancer.
‘It can be cured with cash!’ Lots of it!!
rust in metal though, that is a cancer that costs billions every year to our government alone. If you realize the cost of anti-corrosion products required for everything from aircraft carriers to pistols. millions to develop greases and paints. The cost to galvanize road signs and guard rails. The cost to replace bridges when rusting rebar causes the concrete to crumble…
All GM did was switch out one anti-corrosion tech for another. They didn’t create anything new and it won’t last long. This is just for sitting on the shelf at the dealership before they sell you the parts and another reason for them to charge you more than autozone.
