Rust on wheel spindles?

[Teslife]

I bought our Model S Long Range brand new last year and it has been kept impeccably from day one. It now has 15k miles on it (after a couple roadtrips) and I just bought a nifty suction cup tool that allows me to remove the center caps from the wheels. When I removed them, I was quite surprised to see that 3 of the 4 wheels have rust all over the spindles. Has anyone else had issues with that?

I live in Arizona where rust is not really an issue at all since it is so dry here. The car has only driven through rain sprinkles twice for maybe 5 minutes each time. I wash the car by hand. I can't figure out how this type of rust could be happening on a brand new car like this.

Here are pictures of the rust on one of the wheels and then the only wheel without any rust.
Is this something I should take up with the service center under warranty?

 

[SSedan]

Not any sort of issue.

 

[allenshaw]

Not a super uncommon thing to see - but I agree it is annoying. Although rare in your part of the country, you can stop it from getting worse by smearing some grease in there - white lithium, axle grease, etc. Anything to keep it coated will help. If you don’t want to touch it or don’t have gloves you can buy grease in a spray can form and spray it in there - just get something a little thicker that will stay on there and be careful not to get any on your brakes.

 

[allenshaw]

Can you share what suction cup tool you are using? I’m just curious

 

[Big Toys]

Normal. Put some antiseize on it. It will allow you to get that nut off if need be.

 

[TireBytes]

I bought our Model S Long Range brand new last year and it has been kept impeccably from day one. It now has 15k miles on it (after a couple roadtrips) and I just bought a nifty suction cup tool that allows me to remove the center caps from the wheels. When I removed them, I was quite surprised to see that 3 of the 4 wheels have rust all over the spindles. Has anyone else had issues with that?

I live in Arizona where rust is not really an issue at all since it is so dry here. The car has only driven through rain sprinkles twice for maybe 5 minutes each time. I wash the car by hand. I can't figure out how this type of rust could be happening on a brand new car like this.

Here are pictures of the rust on one of the wheels and then the only wheel without any rust.
Is this something I should take up with the service center under warranty?

View attachment 596025 View attachment 596026

150,000 on my model s... there was plenty of rust. Wire brushed and applied a thin layer of aluminum antiseize. Also removed the rotors and caliper pins and put a thin layer on the mounting surfaces after cleaning them up with a sanding pad on a 1/4 pneumatic die grinder. DON'T get the anti seize on your lugs or braking surface if you do this. Then... rustoleum rust reformer for the coolant clamps and any screws that attach the electronic control boxes (under the frunk at least). And... the upper control arms. Pretty obvious which parts aren't aluminum after 150k . BTW, had to replace the parking brake calipers, those pins wouldn't move. I'll drill them out one day.