That one looks better!?!! Holy crap what did they do give you the rotors from a big brake kit and keep the stock callipers and pads!?!

-Cameron Keffer

 

No idea... but it sucks! I'll get a picture of it on here in the next day.

 

Best I can suggest without seeing it is to find another similar year Mazda and compare. It they're looking the same, your option is as suggested painting the rusted part of the caliper. Unprotected the whole hub are will normally rust rather quickly. Miata owners have dealt with this for years and some come from the factory painted and some don't. Not awfully hard to do the cleanup and paint, but a bit of a PITA.

 

I'll keep that in mind...
Today it's going to the shop where I recently had the rotors and pads replaced. I have a suspicion that they put on bigger rotors. They even said that the ones they would normally put on weren't in stock so they got other ones... fools!

 

AH HA!! I think we're getting to the bottom of this. Bond13579, sounds like you've identified the like source of your own dilemma. Get ready for the song and dance.

 

You don't say whether or not your car is a V6 or 2.3L? Wonder if you now have V6 rotors on a car with the 2.3L drivetrain?

 

My car is a V6.
Will know by tomorrow if in fact the wrong rotors were the problem.

 

The pad vs. disk area is a careful tradeoff: make the pads too small and they wear quicker; make the pads too big, and the disk cooling is compromised, so you get fade and warping. Ditto for the disk material; the steel alloy needs to be economical, soft enough to "bite", yet hard enough to resist wear and scoring. Rusting is the result of these tradeoffs, and beyond cosmetics is not a serious issue.
If it's really bothersome, fit some rims or wheel covers so the disks are not visible. (You will however sacrifice a little bit of cooling).

 

All that may be true, however I have an '05 v6 hatchback and to not have this issue. So this is not a normal thing for our cars.

 

Well, I'm out of ideas. The mechanic double checked to make sure he put the correct rotor in... and he had. Later that day I met up with a guy in a 2005 mazda 6 and he had the same issue. I guess I have to live with it.