Brake Dust

[SnakeFarm]

Why do I have such an abundant deposit of brake dust on my front wheels?

The kids want to know.

They also wanted to know why they had to wipe off the brake dust but I told them it was because their fingers were small enough to get in the little space between the spoke and rim.

[RLove]

Quit using your brakes - problem solved.

[NY Smartie]

Originally Posted by SnakeFarm

Why do I have such an abundant deposit of brake dust on my front wheels?
The kids want to know.
They also wanted to know why they had to wipe off the brake dust but I told them it was because their fingers were small enough to get in the little space between the spoke and rim.

totally normal. most of the braking takes place up front IMO, and you'll always have that. was the same for my GTI and Audi S4. big brakes make big dust.

[bumblebee]

If they are available now you might want to change it out to EBC green stuff. They work great and brake dust is almost nil...

[Dunerunner]

Snake...Remember too that the front brakes are doing 85% of the work. And my beetle sport, following the brake upgrade to 12" disks up front; produced lots of brake dust.

[Fredvon4]

Some of you guys are new to Snake's Wit and charm...he is being sarchastic... excessive brake dust = crappy pads = cheap pads = not true Mercedes quality = junk = nothing to be proud of etc etc yada yada yada... and I suspect he is not real keen on the factory rims either

Of course, someone will instantly jump in a state/claim;

"What do you expect? It is an economy car. "

Yep it is that... so is my $14,000 2001 Ford Escort, and it's front brakes are still serviceable with plenty of pad after 7 years of daily driving here in Texas... Sure...it leaves some brake dust but no where near the build up of sooty black crap I see on several of the new smart cars....

I did a lot of reading the Brit sites and it seems the green EBC pads are real good but at the cost of increased rotor wear.... I am still searching options that do not include real expensive rotors also...

[N'AWLINS]

Welcome to world of Mercedes-Benz. Brake dust has been an issue since the early 80's. I have several M-B's, old and new and have just learned to live with it. I bought one of those small California Dusters that I use between washings....and then during washings use the three finger sponges from Griots to get between the spokes.
Hope this helps....

[tivoboy]

Brake dust is a problem on every car. Some vehicles do something with covers, and different wheels to minimize the amount that makes it out, but it is not one manufacturer over another, it is simply a function of braking.

[Fredvon4]

tivoboy...been driving cars and motorcycles for 35 years now...I can assure you that you are partly correct... but you minimize the point....

There are brands and materials that produce excessive dust and their braking coefficient is not any better then brands and materials that produce MUCH less dust, brake equally well or better, last a long time etc etc....

In fact the makers of brake pads have a lot invested in designing better materials to enhance all the desires: Fade, Braking power, Longevity, Temp control, Dusting, Out gassing etc...

[ex300SRT8]

Wow, major flashback to my old forum here. Man, this really seems to be almost nothing as far a brake dust goes. We had a major brake dust issue with the SRT-8s. It was so bad that your wheels would be almost completely black again, 1 - 2 days after having it washed .

It took about a year for ceramic brake pads to be developed for our car and that did the trick. As one of the last posts indicated, there could be a loss in braking quality with the new pads and a lot of guys who ran there cars on the track opted for the original pads because of fade.

For daily use the ceramics were a dream, with almost no dust to speak of and minimal difference in braking quality or feel.