Norwichdelta06

I have the 2007 C230 stagger wheel setup... I've always noticed that the rear wheels collect an excersive amount of brake dust then the front. I know you use 70 percent of your brakes in the front more then in the back but is that common to have more dust in the back? At first I thought it was because the wheels are a lot bigger. But maybe they used two different style pads in the front and in the rear?

rocafel1a

Hmm, that's odd. My fronts have wayy more brake dust than the rear's

phister

fronts use to have more than the rears on mine as well. Just buy some brake cleaner and spray it down. Have you done a brake pad change on them? or have they been done before? If not I'd recommend getting some Akebono pads from tirerack. Minimal to no brake dust at all and has the stopping power as the OEM pads, hands down my favorite pads for these cars.

slammer111

My fronts also get dirty 5x faster than the rears. This sounds really odd.

eesjunin

rear pads are probably cheap metalic and are getting down to nothing...i noticed that with aged cheap metallic that towards the end of their life they seem to dust like a ****...but otherwise there should be barely any dust coming from rears...get some ceramics in there...good stuff!

samaritrey

I have never once had to clean brake dust off the rear wheels on my car. The fronts on the other hand look like i power coated the rims sometimes lol

anonymousmoose

Ja, that is strange. Same as above, my front wheels need a clean after driving for a week or so.

anonymousmoose

Can you recommend a product? Also, do you need to take the wheels off or just spray it on? I'm in Australia but surely if you recommend a brand I can track it down.

anonymousmoose

Wow, your fronts look clean compared to what mine look. But I think I got bigger breaks then you.

rocafel1a

Recent one has been the Armor All Wheel Protectant. Other people over here have used the more popular Sonax wheel cleaners. I have never tried any of them, but i think either one will do the trick.

phister

those are wheels cleaners... i'm talking about brake cleaners, i just use the cheap Oreilys brake cleaner, works great. Your auto store should sell brake cleaner.

I spray down my rotors and calipers with it before and after I do brake pads or whenever I touch the rotors so I dont leave an residue of grease or oil on it.

anonymousmoose

Once again, probably a face-palm questions for most if you reading this. I'm just a Benz loving driver and don't know much at all about mechanics etc. Does the wheel(s) need removing to apply this?

phister

no they have a straw that attaches to the spray nozzle so you just point the straw at the rotors and calipers. It wont do any damage to the wheels. I've sprayed the lip of my wheels to get some brake dust off before. Its a quick and fast way to clean the wheels from the dust, then just spray it down with water to wash all the loosen debris the spray knocked off.

Norwichdelta06

when I bought the car I knew the front pads were done but the rears didnt need them at the time... So probably they used some good quality ones in the front and some cheap ones in the rear.

phister

Probably cheapos in the rear since theyre not used as much as the front. I usually replace all the pads at the same time.

Glyn M Ruck

If OE - Benz did have a batch of OE rear pads that were faulty. Mainly effected W204 but also some 203. They made a real mess in the rear.

LILBENZ230

I have the same rims and like others said, fronts dirty much quicker.

Silver C

Again odd, the rear have smaller brakes and the front brakes are used in greater proportion. Must be a bad pad?

Glyn M Ruck

Here is one of many W204 threads on the issue.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ear+brake+dust

jtalbert

My front wheels were starting to look bad, was down in Manassas with my daughter for indoor bounce fun and before we went, stopped at the self serv car wash with high power water, and power blasted the dust from my rims, they are not perfect, but look much better than they did before.

Norwichdelta06

Believe it or not the magic eraser does wonders in the wheels!

MBfinatic

Do you have ceramic pads in the front? That could be why, My dad had a 230 and he could only put ceramic pads on the front (idk why) and the rear would always be dirty...

grane

If the sagent Glyn tip does not work I have seen cars that were had bad brake seals and leaking brake fluids that had nasty dirt in one or more wheels.