Theres no telling what he’s implying, but I just had my rotors replaced and had rust spot ground off of my 2018. Only 16K on her, last 6 within last 6 months.
Well, all I can say is that I have seen none of this (also a 2018, now with ~23K miles). My rotors are nice and shiny. The car has always been garage kept. We don't get a lot of bad winter weather here in Maryland, so it seems salt is much less of an issue. It would be interesting to know whether most of you "rusty rotors" folks are where winters are more severe and salt is the norm.
It’s not related to salt. Mine is also garage kept. Enough people have seen it as there’s a SB on it. Consider yourself lucky, I guess.
My MINI Cooper SE has been through one winter without rust on the rotors, but Clarity's rotors had to be turned in its first year. Now I make a point of making a few hard stops every time I take the Clarity out. I'm certain I hear the swish of rust for the first couple of hard stops. I do believe the difference is metallurgical. Perhaps the Clarity's great weight and limited swept rotor area demands naked steel to guarantee maximum stopping power. None of the Hondas I've owned since 1986 have had this problem, including 2 gen-1 and 1 gen-2 Insights. Then there's the asterisk: My Clarity brings more moisture into my tiny garage than any previous car. All of my shovels, rakes, and even my table-saw experienced significant rusting after we got our Clarity in November, 2017. So the car itself is creating a humid atmosphere that promotes the rusting of its own brakes! Our old buddy, @KentuckyKen, kept a dehumidifier going in his garage after he noticed the same problem.
In an old post, @craze1cars mentioned RockAuto as a source for aftermarket rotors. Sure enough, they show a wide variety of choices ranging from $20 to $75 each. Some of them are "fully coated" which is supposed to help prevent rust, but I have a feeling that this coating will come right off where the pads rub, and it will then be just as susceptible in those areas. It is encouraging to see a variety of aftermarket choices for the rotors. This option doesn't exist for most anything else. If you would like to see them, go to this link: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/honda,2018,clarity,1.5l+l4+electric/gas,3441908,brake+&+wheel+hub,rotor,1896
For appropriate service you should ask them to remove and lubricate the caliper pins to ensure proper operation, and to break the pads loose from the calipers to make sure they are not rusted in place, and obviously to make sure they’re not worn. As for your “clean the brakes” request, that frankly is not considered by most shops to be “appropriate service.” So I think you should remove the word “clean” from this discussion, as no mechanic will know what this means in your mind, and you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. However, if you also want them to “remove the rust” from the metal parts of the brakes during their brake service, then that’s what you should ask for, and then have a detailed discussion with service advisor about their intended process because, to be blunt, this is an odd request that most service departments don’t hear often. “Cleaning” in my interpretation is to use soap and water like a car wash, which will do nothing to remove rust, and is also a very odd request for a service department to hear. Just make sure you’re clear in what you are asking for, use your fingers to physically point at your area of concern on your car, and then the service department will comply for a price. More than anything else this is more a question of clear communication and pointing at the parts of the car to express your concerns with whoever is managing the repair.
