I have a complaint to all the automotive engineers that read this blog (which is none that I know of). You or one of your contemporaries can win my business (that means I'll buy your product) if you will make a brake pad that doesn't deposit sooty black dust all over my wheels. I almost always have a clean car and there is nothing that looks worse on a clean car than having its wheels coated with black, oily, soot.
I think this problem is fairly recent in origin, probably in the last 10 years or so and I think it may have been the result of eliminating asbestos from brake pads (not sure). European cars seem to have it worse than American cars. It's become ridiculous though because I can actually keep my entire car clean longer than I can my wheels. Yes--I know all about waxing my wheels and using spray wheel cleaners. I do that already. I also know about the shields you can buy that supposedly eliminate it. My service manager told me not to do that because it wouldn't allow the brakes to cool properly.
As my buds in marketing would say, we need "a technological advancement" in this area.
Hey, I agree with you completely. I washed my car during lunch break today but the rims (stainless 6 points) are coated with brake dust from a recent road trip. Since I'm going on another long one this weekend, I can't really be bothered to clean them properly; it seems like a wasted effort. Harder brake pads for racing seem to keep the accumulation down somewhat, but this may not be an option depending on the type of car you have and whether you're rich enough to afford such extravagancies (I know I'm not).
Posted by: Justin Yoshida | 07/07/2004 at 12:57 AM