Models:

All (especially in the rust belt)

State:

Recently we had a Jeep Grand Cherokee in our shop for some braking job. After removing the rotor we found one of the rustiest wheel hubs we’ve ever seen (see image 1).

Being in the Rust Belt, we’re used to cleaning rusty hubs. However, in this case, traditional hub cleaning methods were not sufficient to remove scaly rust from the rotor.

Why is it important to clean a wheel hub?

Some technicians do not spend the time cleaning the wheel hub during braking work. It can take a long time, especially in the rust belt where a lot of rust and corrosion can build up on the hub. But, if you skip this step, it can cause excessive rotor side runout. This will eventually lead to a pulsation of the pedal.

To illustrate this, we checked the rotor runout on the Grand Cherokee we were working on before cleaning the hub. The runout was 0.014 “. The specification for this application was 0.002” or less. Therefore, it is so important to take the time to properly clean the hub.

When cleaning a wheel hub, many technicians use abrasive discs and a wire brush. While this does a good job of cleaning the rotor surface, it doesn’t do a good job of getting the area around the studs. We recommend using a hub resurfacing tool that can run over the studs and clean hard to reach areas (see image 2). As always, be sure to give the hub once with a wire brush before installing the rotor.

What if you go through your regular hub cleaning process, but there is still a buildup on the hub? There are a few options. You can use a hammer and flathead screwdriver or chisel to remove scaly rust from the hub (see image 3).

This is an efficient process, but it takes time. However, if you have access to a needle scaler, you can quickly remove flaking rust from the hub.

Courtesy of Raybestos