Axle Rust?

[latenite]

While I had my O3 at the SVT service dept Friday for an oil change plus an alignment check with a tire rotation and balance, the service tech asked me if my car had been submerged. The end of my axle was severely rusted and if they need to remove the rear brake assembly they were talking about having to replace the nut if the threads would still be intact to even allow them to remove it. This car has 12K miles on it and was purchased new last April. It was evacuated before Katrina arrived and has never been submerged as far as I know. There was also no other areas with this advanced type of rust and corrosion under the car.

Has anybody else noticed this on the end of their axles?

[JRHWhiteSnake '04]

Yes. Same thing on mine. I live in CA. No hurricanes here.
Seems the wheels collect water in the open pockets in back of
the wheel.

The water gets in from the lug nut area during washings, etc.
Try to avoid high pressure at these areas.

I had to use a drum brake puller (a huge gear puller) and lots of
penatrating oil to remove all my brake rotors except the right-front which surprisingly had little rust.

I cleaned off as much rust as I could and used anti-seize compound to
inhibit further rusting. Don't know how well it's working though.

[ausie]

If it is just the axle stud that appears rusty. that is common. Also the rotors will rust when it rains if the car is out in the rain. What I have done to prevent rust on the rotors is to paint the hub with caliper paint. I should have cleaned off the axle bolt and painted that as well since it does have some rust on it.