What can I use to keep the brake dust down?

 

Change your pads to Rotex Gold.
Do a search, they are spoken of bery highly, and discussed at least once a month.
Available from various places.

 

There are three things you can do to keep the brake dust down.

First, you can buy Rotex Gold Pads. They are not as great for stopping but you will get less dust.

There is a dust shield available that fits behind the wheel. I don't like them because they reduce air flow, ie: cooling, but if you don't do a lot of hard braking, I would assume they would be fine. They are black and are hardly visible. A practical solution.

If you have an Auto stick, you can use the downshift more often to help with the braking. That will reduce your need to overheat your brakes.

There is one more way, but you must have a stick shift. (the way it should be) I hardly use my brakes being more of a "momentum" manager than just push to go and/or stop. It means you work harder driving and not hardly at all cleaning your wheels.

I was asked once what brake shoes I used. It seems at the end of an aggressive run through some curves, everybody but me had to get out a rag and clean their wheels. I told them they were stock pads. Nobody believed me.

They are.

Stick Shifts Rule.


roadster with a stick

 

Thank you for all that info...So far the Rotex Gold Pads are the way to go...I have Auto Stick in my car and most of my driving is done just around town....so there isn't really any hard braking.

 

Use the downshift mode on the Auto stick. You will be amazed.

It is easy, just click the lever left and feel the engine slow you down. Do it again untill you slow to about 20. Coming of the exit ramp, it will save you money on pads and rotors. And Cleaning. Even if you get the Rotex.

roadster with a stick

 

I just gave up and now have the grandkids wash the wheels.

 

When can they come over to do Mine

Jealousy will get me no where.

 

I have been able to cut the cleaning down to once a week...since I had my tires filled with nitrogen.....I can't imagine what they are going to look like after The Dragon in April. That's why I need to find a fix now.

 

Get the Rotex Gold pads.. you don't really want to have to downshift to break.. that'd be seriously annoying after about 2 days..you want to use the brakes to brake, that's what they're there for.

I used to wash my wheels about once every day to get the brake dust off.. now I do it about once a month.. if that..

 

I've used Rotex gold just the fronts they stop as good if not better than OEMs and my wheels always look clean! As for using your transmission & or clutch to slow you down ! I think the brakes pads cost thousands of $s less to replace than your clutch or transmission !

 

The simple answer is not to use them so much, why race up to lights knowing you are going to have to stop etc. Think ahead and judge your throttle use accordingly, this saves gas as well.
Using your transmission is going to cost you more one day when it goes wrong, I use my manual tranny at times when I feel like it, but I know that brakes are cheaper to replace.
When two things rub together something has to wear, using harder pads I imagine wears the rotor out faster. Soft pads gives more dust but is probably easier on the rotor, I could be wrong and no doubt I will hear it if I am.
Pads are cheaper to replace than rotors, I think at least two sets of pads should wear out before the rotors need replacing.
Mechanics have remarked that my brakes, pads and rotors last many more miles than normal. That is money saved all around.

 

One quick burn out does more damage to your tranny or clutch than a year of using it to slow down.

Been doing it for a long time (45 years) with tranny's even some from the 50's and 60'S with no issues. I'm not basing my advice on some wild theory. Don't scare people from using the tranny for what it was designed.

This Auto stick is an awsome bit of machinery. You won't hurt it doing what I suggested. And, you will do less rapid accelerations and decelerations, something that has been suggested.

Perhaps it is tedious or boring to some but this method of driving gives you more control and less brake wear. As I have said before, my manual trans mission shifts automaticaly unless I think about it.

She asked what would cut down the dust, I gave her choices. Including one few people think of.

roadster with a stick

 

Thank you Franc....I'm taking in all this advice too

 

Some interesting comments here - but at thend of the day, you shoulnt have to down-shift through the gears to save putting the brakes on, the driving style is way out date since the brakes on modern vehicles have improved soo much. Also there is no point in all that wear and tare being put on the engine and transmission for no reason. Please also consider the road safety implications here; while you are down shifting to slow the car down YOU ARE NOT SHOWING ANY BRAKE LIGHTS. Rotex Gold is the only way to go!

Good Luck
Steve

 

I am having a hard time making the connection between nitrogen and brake dust.
Nitrogen used in tires is good, better than air but the moisture in the tire from poorly maintained air compressors is the big culprit to internal tire damage. The water must be removed from the air and the nitrogen before going into the tire.
The air we breath is practically 80% nitrogen so it is not a rare gas.
When using the tire air station at your local gas station etc make sure the air valve on the compressor is clean, as small particles of sand may jamb in the valve and will lead to a leaky tire valve. This could cause a flat tire in not too many miles, also make sure that a cap is on the valve stem as well for similar reasons.

 

www.wheelwax.com

I put 2 coats on the front wheels and one coat on the rear wheels. This prevents the dust from sticking to the wheels. Amazing stuff !

 

OK, while spagetti sauce simmers, some definitive logic on brake shoe wear vrs clutch.

The clutch disk is roughly the same size as the pressure plate. This is roughly the same diameter as the rotors on your wheel brakes. The pads, however are less than one fourth the surface size of the pressure plate.

Further, the clutch, when operated properly spins over the fiction plate hardly at all. It is for engagment and disengagement of the power thru the drive line.

The rotors on the other hand spin 50 times thru the face of the brake pads during a normal stop from say 40 MPH. Therefore, they are wearing expotentialy faster than the clutch plate would.

This is proven by the dust that lands on your wheels. Generously, we could suggest that what is on your wheels is only would be about 5% of what was actually worn off as you stopped.

As to the brake lights. You can still apply the brakes lightly however at 60 MPH a shift from 6 to 5 (or 5 to 4 in autostick) is hardly dramatic. Flash em if you are concerned about the fool behind you. Should be anyway.

Brakes convert rotary motion to heat. Heat converts your pads to dust. That's how they stop your car. Clutches don't. The pressure plate has considerably more mass, and as such more heat sink properties, than the comparably thinner rotors.

Warping your rotors takes only a couple of panic stops from high speed. Warping your pressure plate is exquisitely difficult. Go ahead and try.

I have a 95 one ton Dodge pickup that pulls a 20 foot trailer half the time. At 210M miles, my original factory brakes passed inspection. I changed them out anyway because they were getting marginal for stopping 17,000 lbs rig and load.

The original clutch is fine at 236M miles although not as crisp as when new. Likely needs an adjustment in the linkage. But, it doesn't slip even with the torque of the diesel. The tranny does double duty all it's life under my foot. It is also fine.


roadster with a stick

 

Franc, I cannot argue with any of this really so, true, true, true, true, true, but it is the rubbing of the pad and rotor that abrades the pad and to a lessor extent the rotor that gives us the dust mostly and not the heat. Just like filing metal. Heat is generated in braking as well as filing. Oh and true.
Sorry Franc, I could not resist.
Can you make the nitrogen and dust connection?

 

NOPE!


roadster with a stick

BTW I do go with your clarification. But that said, energy can be absorbed by friction or dynamically. Either way the energy is dissipated by heat.

 

I personnally went with Disc Italia pads and put cross-drilled rotors up front and have absolutely no issues with brake dust any longer-awesome