UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Picked my GTI up brand new in September and after one winter the wheel hubs were rusted in my opinion to a ridiculous point in such a short space of time. I had a 1.0 TSI for 3 years before this and after three years they weren't this bad. Phoned the dealer and explained I wasn't happy, and I understand they do rust etc etc. They booked my car in the next day, cleaned and painted them for free. Attached pictures, some may think I was too quick to complain but personally the cars should be equipped to look as good as possible in the environments they are sold in.

Anyway, if anyone else is suffering with the same problem it might be worth phoning the dealer and having a little moan haha. I'm suited with how they look now so happy I actually said something, normally I'm not one to complain

They look better, although the rust may come back - depends what prep the dealer did before repainting, and the type of paint they’ve used.

Corrosion on that centre section of the brake disc (it is actually part of the disc rather than the wheel hub) is a common issue as the majority of brake discs are manufactured from cast iron and there’s very little paint applied to the centre section by whoever makes these for VW. However, my previous (Spanish built) Polo GTI didn’t show any signs of rust on that centre section of the brake disc in over 4.5 years of ownership (different manufacturer / supplier of brake discs at that time maybe?). It’s not just some models of VW that suffer from corrosion on the centre of section of brake discs through - other car manufacturers vehicles also suffer from this.

As far as VW’s are concerned, the mk7 Golf R seemed to be particularly prone to this, although it might be that the design of alloys on the mk7 R just meant it was more visible than it is on some other models. Most owners who didn’t like the rusty look just rubbed it down and repainted with Hammerite paint - cheap and easy to DIY and to re-do if they rust again.

Our 2019 GTI+ hasn't got rusty disc hubs, but my MK7 Golf GTD and R rusted up within a week of ownership. Seems like VW were using better discs for the Polo.GTI but have more recently switched, unless we've just been lucky with ours.

Humm, they used a darker colour of paint to refurb these rusty areas, a wise move!

I've used Hammerite in the past on these areas - looks better, easy to brush on (no primer req) and lasts

One of thee first things I did after my wife picked up her GTi was to remove the wheels and sand and paint the hubs.
Also don't forget to put a smear of copper grease on the wheel mounting (not the clamp face of the flange) so you can get them off when you need to.