jcnash

Hi all,

Recently Ive been noticing that in maybe 3-4 days after I wash my car, my wheels get coated in a layer of brake dust. All 4 wheels have the same problem with the front two wheels getting more dust that the rears.

I understand that this is normal, but the amount of dust on my wheels and the rate at which it accumulates has me worried.

Is this a sign of some other problem which could pop up in the future?

I dont brake too hard and have had no issues with braking efficiency.

Thanks.

Mu9enx

It's just the softer compound Benz uses on their cars. Many other German marques have the same problem. Switch it out to Ceramics if you're scared.

jcnash

Phew..!

I might do that or get some of those brake dust covers...anyone use those? noticeable difference?

Also, in the interest of gaining some knowledge about my car, are all the four brakes disc brakes or are the front two discs and the rear two drums?

jcnash

Phew..!

I might do that or get some of those brake dust covers...anyone use those? noticeable difference?

Also, in the interest of gaining some knowledge about my car, are all the four brakes disc brakes or are the front two discs and the rear two drums?

sleewell

that's weird that all four get equally coated, my front two get a lot worse than the rears. yeah it is hard though to keep them perfect, i'd say 3-4 days is about right for cleaning if you want them to look their best.

when mine get real bad i usually clean them before i wash the car, last thing you want is a lot of that crap to get on your car and then take your wash mitt to it, that could be disastrous.

glocati

4 wheel disc brakes my friend. As noted, the dust is normal. Benz pads are notorious for excess brake dust. One of the trade-offs for great braking. As noted, you can change the pads out to ceramic. Much less dust.

I have never been a fan of the brake dust shields. They hinder brake rotor cooling and promote disc warpage in my opinion.

SickSpeedMonte

And they shields look funny too, IMO.

I have the same problem and I hate it. I can wash the car and wheels and then drive for 15 minutes, wipe the wheels, and I'll get black dust on my rag. I've done this when putting tire shine on and wiping off the excess.

LILBENZ230

I used to think the C230's brake dust was bad. Now the 135i shows me what bad brake dust really means. It takes all of 30 minutes of driving to coat its wheels. The C takes a few days. But both have excellent brakes, and it's easy to clean, so I can't really complain.

W203E35

Will there be a performance loss if someone goes with Ceramics? I use to run these on my older car but noticed OE pads work better.

LILBENZ230

I've read a lot on this and I think most agree that for performance & smoothness it is hard to beat the OEM pads. They just last about 25k miles (for me) and create a good bit of dust. I love my OEM brakes, but I come from a Honda, so you know..

glocati

My observations with Akebono ceramics is a bit of intitial bite loss vs. OEM. After that it is pretty much the same in my opinion. But of course, everyone has an opinion on brakes and tires.....

The problem is, it seems like ceramic pads fro the front are hard to find for us folks with pre-05 model year and non sport brakes. I went with Pagid on my wagon in the front and they definitely dust up compared to the Akebonos in back. Of course the fronts do a majority of the stopping % as well.

I agree with Little benz. I think the dust is even worse with factory BMW pads. ( even though i think they are the same mfg-textar/pagid) I can wash the wife's X5, drive around the block, and the front wheels are black again. HAHA !

Nokiemon

Ceramic pads will take care of your dust problem. You might also consider putting a good coat or two of a good quality wax on the inside of your rims next time you have them off. This makes it much easier to remove the dust when cleaning the wheels.

Finding ceramic pads is tough for some models as noted above, but if you do enough research you should be able to find someone who makes pads for your particular application. buybrakes.com is a good place to start.

Had the same issue as you, and having to clean them all of the time was a pain. Ceramics all around now makes wheel cleaning for me less than a 10 minute job.

LILBENZ230

Oh yes. The 135i brake dust is 100x worse than my C230 - both run OEM equipment. Both cars are washed 2x a week so brake dust never builds up to an overwhelming extent on either of them.

bensitto

My porterfield C4S pads are very low dust too. I can go for 2weeks and still have clean wheels. Carbon-Kevlar type.

I'm curious about ceramics though, might try them out some time.

bdgdl08

Those Honda brakes are SCARY! If you are out of practice driving on them, you slam yourself into the steering wheel with just a little tap. HUGE difference from Benz brakes, in both performance and feel!

W203E35

+1

We had a company car (lease) 2007 Honda Accord, I was once looking for a clients address with one hand on the steering wheel. I pressed the brake to stop to see the building letters better and It pushed me so front that my elbow hit the horn (beeeeeeeeep) funny part was the client called me saying "was that you honking i'll come out" he thought I honked so he can come out looooooool

Honda Brakes are sooo sensitive.

LILBENZ230

Honda brakes might be sensitive, but past the initial bite they provide you with extra long stopping distances, a supersized serving of fade, and a guarantee of near constant rotor warpage. Honda builds a solid car but they need to get serious with their brakes. I know because I've had 5 Accords, 1 Acura TL, and 1 Civic in the past. On second thought, it may be asian cars in general. The G37 had weak brakes, too.

bdgdl08

Wow, 5 accords??? One's enough for me. And the '05 TL we have is pretty bad. We're driving down to South Florida in it, and we started the trip talking about how much the car sucks... and how much better my C is. My step-dad, who owns the TL, had a 2000 C230 before the TL, and wished he never sold it. The older TLs were better though, along with all the older Hondas.

LILBENZ230

A 93, 99, 01, 03, and 05. The 1993, 1999, and 2001 were vastly superior to anything produced since 2003.

I had a 2G TL, the generation from 99-03. These cars had extremely fragile transmissions. Mine failed 3x in 75k miles and I said "enough".

BMW and Mercedes from here on out.

And I'd like to add that at 51,500 miles my C230 is as reliable as any previous Honda product I've owned.

bdgdl08

I know you're very adamant about this... I've heard it about 15 times!

As for the brake dust, just a fact of life if you own a Benz. Small price to pay for a great car. And if it really bothers you that much, there are solutions. I would just rather have my stock brakes, they are just brilliant!

LILBENZ230

You shut up and be a good American.

If I just keep saying it, then the C230 is bound to believe it.

Agree on the stock brakes. I can deal with the dust, they perform brilliantly.

bdgdl08

I like that someone will vouch for the C-class. So many people with the 1.8L four were talking about never buying Mercedes again. It's insanity!

jcnash

Damn! Washed twice a week....Im slowly starting to realize what it takes to keep these sexy machines looking classy and running smoothly....LOL. Im planning to follow the wash every week, wax every month, clay every 6 months, pant touchups every year routine.

Thanks for the website Nokiemon. My brakes are fairly new (maybe about 1500km on them so I have a while to go before I need to consider changing.

jcnash

Thanks for all the tips/advice guys.

LILBENZ230

I've heard that a lot, too, and it's sad. Although I can see how one is sort of put-off by the M271. It isn't as refined as a Honda engine. But with 192tq, it has a helluva lot more torque than your average Honda four-cylinder. If you ask me, the 2007 C230 or C350 is the car to have. The design is timeless and the chassis is so mature the problems had all been ironed out.

And yep, it's a constant thing to keep the cars clean. I'm not too obsessive about it (not a word, Drew) but I do like for them to put their best wheel forward wherever they go.