Rust in centre hub of new Model 3

[pauloross90]

Owned my Model 3 for three months (2500 miles) and noticed some rust in the hubs of all four wheels after washing.Removed the Tesla centre caps and have taken a some pictures. Baffled, what is accelerating the rust issue?

Wheels are reputable T Sportline aftermarket

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[pauloross90]

What's the best way to tackle this in terms of anti rust protection?

Fine steel wool corroded area off and seal with grease or paint?

Water seems to get in to the centre cap and has no way of escaping

 

[TypeRx]

hub rust is normal but it does appear like you have a little more than expected. If it really bothers you, use a wire brush to clean the area and existing surface rust and then apply naval jelly or similar. You can also clean the area and paint with a rust-retarding product. But in the end, there isn't a ton you can do to avoid this.

 

[TypeRx]

The other thing I'd recommend you do is use a dryer (like a master blaster, metrovac, air compressor, leaf blower, etc.) to dry your wheels/etc after washing. Looks like you are getting some water pooling behind the cap so you want to blow as much of it out during the drying process.

 

[MrHopsing]

If it bothers you, steel brush it and put on some grease.
But its pretty normal, first picture is from a Taycan and second from an Audi E-tron.

 

[pauloross90]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback

At this point want to get to the bottom of it before it begins to discolour the T Sportline alloys

When wire brushing to remove the rust do this dry or use a lubricant?

Also would copper grease be ok to apply inside wheel hub to prevent further rust?

 

[MrHopsing]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback

At this point want to get to the bottom of it before it begins to discolour the T Sportline alloys

When wire brushing to remove the rust do this dry or use a lubricant?

Also would copper grease be ok to apply inside wheel hub to prevent further rust?

I would wire brush dry and use an ceramic paste instead of copper grease.

 

[MODEL+]

2nd that on the wire brush.
As shown in 2:15 here:

 

[TheRFMan]

If you have some staining on the wheel itself, an iron decontamination product like CarPro Iron-X or Autoglym Magma will take are of it in no time.

 

[Bill Foster]

You could use a product like fluid film to help but this is completely normal for any car

 

[CapitalTM3]

As others have stated, hub rust is completely normal--however a bit of "why": Hubs are made of a high-ferrous content metal--so rusts very quickly when exposed to atmosphere. There are a ton of industrial applications though where this is considered normal and actually a thing oxide film is "protective". Not necissarily the case with the hubs on the 3, however it falls into the same general metallurgic use-case.

 

[jelloslug]

A light coating of wheel bearing grease will prevent it from forming again once it's cleaned up.

 

[webbah]

I spray Wurth SBS Brake Treatment II on mine, and also on the discs and bells of the disc. Totally eliminates the rust. Reapply every year. Prior to treatment I used a drill bit with a steel brush to remove all existing rust.

Note that I do remove the calipers and rotors to fully treat them and also to fully get to the hub and dust shield. If that is beyond your skill set you should take it to a shop and have them do it. It's not that hard if you have the right tools and the torque specs. ;-) This product is a bit hard to find though and the link below is the only place that consistently has it in stock. Being in Europe I had to order from here and use a shipment service (stackry) that can process Hazmat shipments to consolidate and ship to Switzerland. No biggie as I ordered in quantity with other things to make it cost efficient and have a good stock to last me years.

Wurth SBS Brake Treatment II - Goodspeed Motoring

Wurth SBS Brake Treatment II - 189311069 is a revolutionary spray-on metalizing treatment designed to prevent brake noise at the source. When applied as directed, microfine aluminum particles form a molecular bond with the rotor/drum friction surfaces. This composite surface finish ends annoying...

www.goodspeedmotoring.com

Found this gem of a product via this forum post:

Solution for rusty brake rotor hats

I had my Model S in for tire rotation and some other minor things the other day. I mentioned I had some rust developing on my rotor hats (not the surface of the rotor where the pads grab - that's normal). I think it may have been from a wheel cleaner a detailer used on it, but not sure. I...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[MrBadger]

What's the best way to tackle this in terms of anti rust protection?

Fine steel wool corroded area off and seal with grease or paint?

Water seems to get in to the centre cap and has no way of escaping

ACF 50 - just don't get it on your brakes. If its good enough for Concorde it will be good enough for your Tesla!

acf-50.co.uk

This domain may be for sale!

www.acf-50.co.uk

 

[webbah]

ACF 50 - just don't get it on your brakes. If its good enough for Concorde it will be good enough for your Tesla!

acf-50.co.uk

This domain may be for sale!

www.acf-50.co.uk

Awesome! I'm ordering some of this right away. However it looks like they recommend Corrosion Block for cars. It's the same but a little thicker? I've been using some anti-seize which helped quite a bit, and then tried some Wurth SBS Brake Treatment II which works really well for eliminating any brake noise and can help with corrosion. Combining this for the hubs and using the Wurth for the discs sounds like a brilliant combo!

 

[SJROSSO]

Owned my Model 3 for three months (2500 miles) and noticed some rust in the hubs of all four wheels after washing.Removed the Tesla centre caps and have taken a some pictures. Baffled, what is accelerating the rust issue?

Wheels are reputable T Sportline aftermarket

Any advice would be appreciated

Interesting - have the exact same issue on my Y (same wheels too)

Owned my Model 3 for three months (2500 miles) and noticed some rust in the hubs of all four wheels after washing.Removed the Tesla centre caps and have taken a some pictures. Baffled, what is accelerating the rust issue?

Wheels are reputable T Sportline aftermarket

Any advice would be appreciated

Interesting - have the exact same issue on my Y (same wheels too). How did you address the issue in the end?

 

[heavyD]

My BMW hubs were greased from the factory to prevent this and I never had any issues with hub rust on my M2 or X3M.