i just put in new hawk front brake pads and now my front wheels are getting really dirty. i just cleaned them yesterday and now there covered in a light grease/ dust like film. it just rubs off, but its a pain in the butt cleaning them every weekend. any ideas what it could be?

 

Brake dust. Ease up on the pedal.

 

I was thinking about getting the hawk pads so I wouldn't get alot of brake dust.......I wounder if the oem pads are any good?

 

does it eventualy go away or is it all on how much pressure i use in braking?

 

oem pads dust a lot less, i would imagine... but if you get the hawk pads (hp+, like i've got) they're gonna dust like mad... if i clean my rims, in 2 days, they're already a shade darker, and that's without driving the car hard... if i drive the car hard, i'll get brake dust on those suckers quick... unfortunately, the fronts dust more than the rears (duh, bigger pads, more praking pressure on the front), and b/c they dust unevenly, sometimes it looks funny, hehehe...

for a while, i didn't wash my car for 2-3 weeks, and people thought my rims were powdercoated.... which is why i'm thinking of powdercoating my rims gunmetal... it actually looks pretty nice like that...

 

so theres really nothing to do about it?

 

not really.... you can change pads, but they won't have the bite... in general, pads that bite harder tend to dust and/or squeal more. mine happen to do both :p

 

just get some of that spray on hose off wheel cleaner, it shouldnt be that big of a hassle. you should wash your car every week anyway

 

its not that big of a deal cleaning them off every weekend. its that i have white rims and they get so dirty so easy, but o well. i plan on switching to gunmetal rims anyway.

 

just be careful, u want to make sure you let your brake rotors cool down if you've been driving hard be4 u spray down ur wheels....

 

Buy carbon fiber pads, they dont' dust nearly as much as semi-mettalics and mettalics.

 

talking about this? :o)

http://rx7cz.net/photos/workshop28/IMG_1702.JPG

hawk HP+ pads, new rotors
LOTS of brake dust, brakes sqeaks a lot but braking is great

 

yep mine look just like that.

 

Ive heard from several people those pads have to get hot as **** before they start braking well... Probably not suited for the street.

 

There is an alternative to the HP+ pads and that's the HPS pads from Hawk. I've got them with Motul 600 brake fluid. The brakes have alot more bite then the OEM pads. The pedal feels alot stiffer with the fluid. The pads have not dusted my wheels what so ever. So take it for what it's worth. I did alot of research on this. The HP+ pads have alot stronger grab over the stock pads but I didn't want to deal with the dust and squeeling. I don't think I put myself in the position where I have to get on the brakes hard. I"ve only had to do it once in six years going through an intersection at 130mph racing a WS6 (STUPID) the brakes just faded (on non-OEM pads) I couldn't stop. Thank God the intersection was clear!

Late

 

mine are always covered in brake dust, but one tip, if you dont keep cleaning it off, it will stain the rims badly, I learned the hard way

 

i noticed with the hawk hps pads, they dust quite a bit less after the first couple weeks of driving. when i first put them on they got my wheels dirty after just a little driving. after the initial period of a couple weeks though, i notice significantly less than originally.

 

who cares i haven't washed my car in 3 months