06 Ranger Clone, Rust on the Wheel Hubs

[Jonny Z]

Today I took off the wheels of my 06 Mazda B2300 to clean them, and to re-torque them.

I was surprised to find how rusty the wheel hubs were. I wiped them with P B'laster before I reinstalled the wheels.

This vehicle was built in June 06, it has a lot more rust compared to my 02 Camry, built in Oct of 01.

I noticed rust on the u-joint, and the suface of the diff too.

What gives, is this because it was built in a salt belt (St. Paul, MN)state, or because it was held to a lower quality standard?

 

[Rand]

Its a ranger thing. Dont know why but mine was the exact same.
the u-joints were practically eyesores even brand new.

 

[ted s]

living in Texas you have no idea what real rust is.

 

[VK56VD]

I think it's a Ford thing. I've checked out brand new Mustang's with 0 miles on the odometer that were real rust buckets on the undercarriage.

To answer your question,it is a quality issue when comparing it to your new Camry.

 

[ewetho]

Funny got a bunch of Mustangs up here and only light rust here and there after a year and a winter and a half.

HMM.


Clean the hubs real well and a light coat of grease.

 

[Kestas]

My company manufactures wheel hubs for automotive use, including the Ranger. There's been a lot of discussion about hub rust and coatings among the design engineers.

For starters, we don't coat the hubs because our customers asked us to lower product cost, and "they will show us how".

Then some muckety-muck automotive executive got a flat and couldn't change the wheel because it was rusted on. He made a big stink about it.

Since everything goes down hill in the automotive industry, our company is now looking into coating hubs, yet staying within our customer's prescibed budget. It's not happening.

Besides corrosion, one of the big issues concerning coatings is how it will affect the rotor mating surface. We're trying to maintain a 20-micron runout. This is to reduce rotor wobble and knockback of the brakes, so the customer can have smooth and responsive braking. Most coatings make this target impossible to meet.

The other issue is corrosion of the hub, making it difficult to remove from the aluminum knuckle because of galvanic corrosion. Our customer just wants this assembly to be corrosion-free and serviceable through the warranty period.

 

[Jonny Z]

Quote:

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Besides corrosion, one of the big issues concerning coatings is how it will affect the rotor mating surface. We're trying to maintain a 20-micron runout. This is to reduce rotor wobble and knockback of the brakes, so the customer can have smooth and responsive braking. Most coatings make this target impossible to meet.

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Once rusted on the surface, I can't see how it meets the the 20 micron runout.

Ahhh, the never ending beating on the suppliers: "We want it cheap, we want it good, but foremost, we want it cheap. Can't do it you say, let's see what the Chinese can do."