Tyre, Brakes and paint issues

[M1tch]

I’ve been overseas for 3 months and arrived back this week. Tyres were all around 37psi so topped them up and made the drive home on software version 28.something with no issues. This morning a tyre down to 13PSI and a screw through the middle of the tread. Took it to a local independent garage for a repair but also to do my summer winter swap. Imagine the shock when I came out to find my car balanced on 4 trolley jacks with no wheels!

Anyway, all was fine - thankfully - and they also fixed a puncture from last winter too.

While the wheels were off I noticed some serious corrosion / pitting on the brakes. I know it a known issue on the P but didn’t think they were this bad…

It’s done a 200 mile motorway trip since retuning and cleaned the surface rust off but those are quite deep grooves.

Also while the wheels were off, I noticed the paint flaking off the wheel arches…..and seemingly rusting!

It’s just updated to 44.1 and then a big map update too. Anyone come across the paint on the arches issue?

Apart from that, it seems to have faired well from 92 days without moving.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Is that road grime on your paint or bubbles? Certainly needs to be all cleaned off and any surface rust dealt with before it becomes a problem.

As for the brakes... yours are among the worst I've seen! You need to use them more. They might clean up with some heavy braking and/or some elbow grease but they may have gone too far. Some proper initial bedding would have helped, so when you do get them replaced, bed them in and they'll last longer and work better.

How many miles has it done?

 

[M1tch]

Is that road grime on your paint or bubbles?

How many miles has it done?

Just road grime and rain droplets.

Just under 29k miles

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Well try a few hard braking cycles from >60mph to 20mph very hard then let them cool down by not using them at all for a few miles and see what difference that makes. If you get the brake temperature warning, that means you're doing it right!

 

[M1tch]

I burnished them from new following a guide on here (iirc) but won’t hurt to try again

 

[rincewind]

I burnished them from new following a guide on here (iirc) but won’t hurt to try again

As did I on my 2019 M3P, and my disks are now a mirror of yours @46k miles. I've also recently done the service menu brake burnish twice, which makes very little difference.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Brakes require regular preventative maintenance to keep them in good shape. You can see the rotors with the wheels on so just take a look at them every now and then. When the corrosion looks like it's starting to take a hold give them a good work out.

Carrying out a burnish 3 times in 46k miles isn't going to keep them in good shape if you don't do any hard braking in between.

There's not much you need to check regularly on cars these days. It boils down to:

Tyre condition, tread wear & pressures
Brake rotor condition & pad thickness
Alignment check every year

At least we don't have to keep an eye on the engine oil level.

 

[Adopado]

At least we don't have to keep an eye on the engine oil level.

It does have oil, filter and oil pump but fortunately (like many modern cars) it will report if there's an issue (when enough oil has been lost if there should be a leak ... rare, but it happened to me, embarrassing to have an oil leak with an EV!)... same for brake fluid of course ... and annual brake caliper lube and clean too (to stop the pads sticking, which is the reason the disc corrosion can build up).

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Yes and there's coolant as well of course but as you say there are warnings generated for all of that stuff. Eventually we may get software generated warnings for tyre tread depth, brake pad thickness etc. and the car will drive itself to the service centre in the middle of the night so we don't have to think about doing any maintenance at all.

 

[cramsnik]

I’ve been overseas for 3 months and arrived back this week. Tyres were all around 37psi so topped them up and made the drive home on software version 28.something with no issues. This morning a tyre down to 13PSI and a screw through the middle of the tread. Took it to a local independent garage for a repair but also to do my summer winter swap. Imagine the shock when I came out to find my car balanced on 4 trolley jacks with no wheels!

View attachment 997846
View attachment 997847

Anyway, all was fine - thankfully - and they also fixed a puncture from last winter too.

While the wheels were off I noticed some serious corrosion / pitting on the brakes. I know it a known issue on the P but didn’t think they were this bad…

View attachment 997850
View attachment 997851

It’s done a 200 mile motorway trip since retuning and cleaned the surface rust off but those are quite deep grooves.

Also while the wheels were off, I noticed the paint flaking off the wheel arches…..and seemingly rusting!
View attachment 997852

It’s just updated to 44.1 and then a big map update too. Anyone come across the paint on the arches issue?

Apart from that, it seems to have faired well from 92 days without moving.

How old is your car? Some of the earlier Freemont cars have paint issues. Mine was the same as was repaired under warranty.

 

[init6]

Carrying out a burnish 3 times in 46k miles isn't going to keep them in good shape if you don't do any hard braking in between.

Surely with the constant phantom braking that's reported on this forum our discs would be like a mirror?

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Surely with the constant phantom braking that's reported on this forum our discs would be like a mirror?

Like this?

(Model 3 LR with uprated pads)

 

[Cloggie]

oooooh, shiny.....

 

[Adopado]

Like this?

View attachment 998331

(Model 3 LR with uprated pads)

I see discs like this only in my dreams!

 

[init6]

I see discs like this only in my dreams!

You need better dreams

 

[Adopado]

You need better dreams

Ah but I can dream about many many different things! (I’m frequently shocked and disgusted!)

 

[Dangerous Fish]

I'm going to say it before someone else does though - that sort of mirror finish isn't really what you're after.
You need to have a layer of brake pad material transferred onto the disc to get maximum braking efficiency. So the disc will be a consistent dull grey/blue across it's surface ideally. The bluer it is the more heat generated during bedding, which isn't a bad thing either.
The photo shows the discs not long after upgrading to a better road pad which was probably dragging slightly on the discs when brand new and polishing them like that. After a few hundred miles they looked more like discs should.
YMMV.