I did a search on here for "rust on tire" and "changing color tire" and various other words. I also did a www.Google.com and www.Cuil.com search.

I noticed the outside wall of my tire is changing a rust/brown color. What might be the cause? My brakes do not make any sound when stopping and there is not a lot of noticeable rust on brakes.

On a few other forums and searching, people have said Michelin tires have this problem. This is the first car that I have ever had that have had this brand of tire on it. I plan to change them out to a quite Pirelli tire in November.

I will try and take pictures later tonight.

i have this same problem. my issue is the fact that the previous owner never took care of the tires (cleaning and or "dressing" them to keep them well oiled/lubricated).

I have noticed that even if you dont think you have rust on your rotors, the brake dust from the Semi-Metallics does get onto the tire quite easily... that seems to be what is causing mine to be like that. i have cleaned the tires many many times (every couple weeks, using Welsey's Bleche-White (which does clean the tire pretty well) and then spraying some Tire Foam or applying some gel to it.

every time it rains, the rotors get a tiny surface layer of rust that burns off the first time you stop.. this, combined with the brake dust gets onto the tire and makes them look ugly...

basically, if you spray some cleaner on the tire and rinse it off (or scrub, and then rinse), and then spray some foam on it (and just leave it), the tires will come out black and satiny looking afterwards.. you just have to do this every so often to keep them looking nice.

cant wait to get new tires so i can take proper care of them from the start... (BTW, ceramic pads will cause less of this since they give off less brake dust, or at least less noticeable brake dust)....

(it's not just Michelin tires that have this problem.. all tires will eventually get this way unless they are cleaned once in a while).. not saying you don't but many many people dont bother with their tires' appearance but i am anal-retentive with it...

This post has been edited by ddix1026: Aug 14 2008, 01:54 PM

Thank you.

I just got my Sonata about 6 weeks ago (used). I have always taken care of my cars very well and they get a bath about every other week. I guess I never had this problem because I always took very good care of the tires since they connect me to the road.

These tires have about 34K miles on them, and they need to be changed within 6K miles. Like I said before I plan to change the tires by novermber, hopefully to a quite four season (all season) tire. We don't see that much snow in the DC area, but we have seen increased rain. I don't run my car hard at all.

Tire foam cleaner/protectant will take care of that.

if you just got the car 6 weeks ago, chances are the person before you didnt take good care of the tires.. once you get new tires, and take care of them from day 1, you will most likely not have as big an issue... (i plan to do the same, but a few more miles down the line)

Ozone will also cause this.

So your brakes are most likely semi-metallic, as those are pretty cheap (but not the cheapest).

These tend to dust up really bad, and depending on the quality and quantity of the iron metals embedded into the padding on the brake, it can oxidize and turn it to an orange color.

This is basically what Propflux01 was stating, but in a technical manner.

Your options are to either change your pads to nicer (i recommend hawk hps, if they make them for sonatas) or to get a tire treatment that will basically be like teflon for the rim/tire (don't get it on the tread!!!!)

What else could happen is after a good rain, or going through some direct contact with water, overnight and into the morning you can get what's called flash-rust; which is just a quick rusting of a small layer of the surface. You probably don't notice it because you don't stare at it on a constant basis, and it doesn't really take much to notice on your wheel components.

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I just re-read this... Are you saying your TREAD is turning orange? If so I'd believe that to be the radials in the tire? Are you wearing thin?

This post has been edited by killerspaz: Aug 14 2008, 09:13 PM

One other cause of this, that I have found out over the years of going to many car shows in my Pontiacs, is what you use on your tires. Not to offend anyone, but I, along with countless others, have noticed that Armorall tends to turn your tires a brownish color after awhile. It has something to do with the high silicone content. I used to be a big fan of that produce using it both inside and out. I have never smoked in either the wifes car or the show cars and there was alway a nasty film on the windshield. Since I quit using Armoral on the dash the film went away. Other car people claim that the silicone goes from the dash and is attracted to the glass.

I’ve also had this problem. I tried several spray wheel cleaners, which were at best okay. The best technique I found to fix this was a scrub brush and Comet/Ajax. It works great on tires. Obviously don’t scrub your rims, but this will actually remove the film from the tire and not cover it like many spray products.

I stopped using ArmorAll and switched to Black Magic and have never looked back... Black Magic products are far superior! Tried Meguiar also, and liked Black Magic more.
I would reccomend the Black Magic Tire Wet Foam to fix your tire discoloration and use it whenever you wash your car to keep your tires conditioned and looking great. The tire foam cleaner/protectants helps protect against UV, salt, and any other damaging conditions your tires face.

This post has been edited by MABuch131: Aug 15 2008, 09:24 AM

i, too, use Black Magic foam for my tires... once in a great while I use Meguiar's High Endurance gel with a foam pad, but not too often (dont like putting on the rubber glove, cleaning out the foam pad afterwards, etc)..

i still get the brown after a while (mainly because once you dont take care of the tires, as the previous owner obviously did not, its hard getting them to stay black regularly, especially with semi-metallic pads), but then i spray more foam on them and they look decent again.. driving in the rain seems to hasten the wear-off of the foam/gel solution though...

as for the Armor-All usage, what do you suggest for the dash INSIDE the car instead of Armor-All? (other than a soapy wet sponge - i need something on there to protect the dash too, not just clean it)... sorry im bringing this :offtopic:

This post has been edited by ddix1026: Aug 15 2008, 08:56 AM

On the inside I use Meguiar's Gold Class Vinyl/Rubber cleaner/protectant. It has UV protection, which is important for me b/c I live in FL.

hmm.. i might have to try something like that... im assuming it doesnt cloud up the glass as much ike AA likes to do?

On a car cleaning site. They blamed browning/yellowing of tires to improper cleaning of old gels and foams we layer on. My car has the same browning problem. The site recommends a TIRE CLEANER with scrub brush. I notice none of the other cars in my house have browning tires since they NEVER put tire shine on.


Tire shine + improper cleaning of old shine residue = browning of tires.

I really doubt RUST or BRAKE DUST causes this. Our two Mercedes have brakes that are notorious for lots of brake dust however neither have ever showed any tire 'browning'


At leas tI think so anyways.

thing is, i have used a tire cleaner, with a scrub brush and then NOT put on the dressing in the past.. i still get the browning.. i think it has more to go with the pads & rotors than the dressing, especially of that is cleaned regularly (which ours is)

you might also want to look at the wheel patter of the other cars in the house as well as the type of brakes they have on them...

i have used the tire dressing on my previous cars, and never had the browning effect like I do on ours.. (plus, it's not "tire shine", its tire foam, which cleans AND leaves a little bit of shine on it.. they make plain old "spray on tire shine" as well, which i don't use)

This post has been edited by ddix1026: Aug 15 2008, 11:37 AM

With Meguiar's I have had minimal if any clouding of the glass...