damn brake dust

[brandonloserkid]

Hey guys, i searched brake dust on the forums and didn't really get an answer.

My question is this. Are all explorer front brakes prone to making massive amounts of dust? my stock rims shine nice and pretty when i clean them. REALLY stand out. (i think they're alloy?) But after a few days of driving the front rims are almost black! Is this an unstoppable force with all explorers? or maybe ****ty brake pads?

also do the brake dust covers work?

i wanna get some nice rims, but not if theyll look nasty from all the damn brake dust!

thanks in advance

 

[Ak LTD Xplorer]

my dad's 97 get's some on his after a month of drivng it around wihout a wash..but otherwise you can't notice it

mine i have not seen it do it

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

I guess it's just the composition of the pads. I don't know what I have. The dealer replaced it at 34k miles when I bought the truck. Now it has 111k miles and still has no brake dust at all. Heh...the back rims are actually a whole lot dirtier than the front after driving in the rain. I'm also very surprised that I still have a lot of pad left.

 

[EBInterceptor]

I don't get much dust on mine now compared to what I use to get. I'm guessing it has something to do with how hard you're braking and the kind of pads. That's the ugliest thing that I see though it super dirty black dust covered rims. I use to be able to just wash my rims and armor-all my tires and people thought that I had washed my entire vehicle. My friend had some break covers on his car before and they were hideous. The made his rims look like hub caps.

 

[Nick C.]

It's all in the pads you have.

 

[Lee S.]

I have the 'brake dust problem ' on my front wheels also. Bought my X used in the summer and I think some cheap pads were installed just before I got it.

So what are good pads to get that will also minimize dust? I may consider replacing them.

Lee

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

I think mine were Motorcraft. I've heard Raybestos are pretty good at reducing brake dust.

 

[boominXplorer]

I us Performace Friction pads and they arn't bad at all. I also wax my wheels so the dust doesn't stick to them as much (they are white).

 

[apollo607]

At my town, I saw other day an explorer with the same dirty dust, also I am having same issue, but only on the front wheels. I am worry about it because is looks more like a litte gummy, I thougth that it could be some very small leak on the front brakes. Also I reviewed my cv joints just to confirm if there could be some cv boot broken, and I did not find nothing.

I think this problem could be common on the explorers, maybe some of our experts here could give a good opinion.

Thanks.

 

[Carguy3J]

Ceramic pads - no dust, and they are more fade resistant then semi-metallics. Every vehicle I own gets ceramic pads, at least for the front, if they are available.

 

[Anime]

Dusty pads are usually the cheapo organic stuff, or sometimes the lesser semi-metallics.

High quality top-of-the line pads usually won't dust as bad if at all, though some performance types still do just because they're softer to have more stopping power.

Your best bet is usually whatever top-of-the-line brand name pads you can get, Rayloc, Raybestos, Performance Friction, etc. They typically have very little dust and are usually the best for stopping as well. I've used Rayloc pads from NAPA for a long, long time and while they do dust slightly, it's so minor that some spray-on-rinse-off wheel cleaner once a month is all it requires to clean. I'd probably worry about brakes that don't dust at all, since they might be too hard to stop a vehicle effectively.

Ceramic pads are excellent, but not all of them play nice with standard rotors, and often they are only available for the latest vehicles. Ceramic pads and performance rotors make a great braking improvement if you can get them, though.

 

[2TimingTom]

All brake pads dust- it's a function of how they work. Ceramic pads dust in a light color so it appears they don't dust.

Some of the best performing pads I've ever had dusted like a wind storm in the Sahara- ok, that's a bad analogy..... I currently have a set of some Duralast (Autozone house brand) Gold Cmax ceramic pads. I'm really happy with them- good clamping and no noticeable dust. I've also been really happy with EBC Greenstuff pads- great clamping power but tend to be a little dusty.

 

[toypaseo]

I put a set of Satisfied Pro Ceramic pads on a 2001 Honda Civic EX that my g/f used to have. Brake dust galore. Put OEM pads back on, tossed the Satified in the dump, and the brake dust problem was solved.

 

[pabille]

I guess it's how much you can accept dust. I installed some low dust Hawk performance pads and I still see dust after a couple of days. Of course, I'm real **** when it comes to brake dust. I keep my stock 8-hole deer hooves polished with Wheel Wax. That way any dust that appears wipes off really easy. My wife says it cleaning my wheels gives me something to do every couple of days. She says cleaning my truck makes me happy. I have to admit, she's right.