Pitting on front wheels
I have a 2008 Passion with approximately 7000 miles on it. I recently noticed when doing my "spring cleaning" of the car that it appears that the finish on the rims on the front of the car have been pitted. I believe that the pitting has come from the brake pad dust. Ther eis no similar pitting on the rear rims. Has anyone else experienced this or should i look elsewhere for the cause?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Knotts on -
I think you are right, it is brake pad dust. But it should clean off. Mine did. Takes a lot of elbow grease. After I cleaned them I sprayed the tires w/armorall and also wiped the wheels w/armorall. I'm hoping this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Stock on -
Darn brake dust. Does not take long to accumulate on the rims. Does anyone have aftermarket rims and do they have the same problem?
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Permalink Reply by Larry on -
I'm told there is suppose to be some kind of shield you can put over the brake pads to keep this from happening. This is a common problem on MB cars. I have not looked into it yet. Maybe somebody that has can comment on this thread.
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Permalink Reply by Fred on -
In my experience, Mercedes brake pads shed a lot of dust. If I don't use wheel cleaner every week on my smart, the buildup requires more than a brush and wheel cleaner - I use Scotchbrite, a green plastic scrubbing pad that doesn't scratch the finish but pulls off the imbedded brake dust. SInce there are drum brakes in the rear, the brake dust is almost non-existant.
There are shields available for Mercedes, but I don't know about smart. I have been told that they are not recommended by the manufacturer (smart).
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Permalink Reply by Monty on -
Huh...and I thought it was fairy dust gone to the dark side. I did not know that. After reading your post I did a little research and found that brake dust contains an adhesive and tiny metal filings. The metal filings can be red hot when they come off the brake pads, and supposedly can get stuck to the wheel by the adhesive. There is a special wheel wax that is supposed to repel this stuff. According to the people who sell it, the adhesive can't stick to it, so neither can the filings. It claims to deflect about 75% of the brake dust. As long as you don't mind being 25% dirty, it sounds pretty good. There are also special cleaners and even a little cleaning tool to get into those wheel openings designed to rub the skin off your knuckles so you'll look like somebody who works on cars a lot. Hot manifolds can make you look and scream like a car expert too, I've learned.
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Permalink Reply by Dan LaFountain on -
I wash my Smart every week. Before I go to the car wash, I mix a little dish soap with hot water, then dip a small paint brush in and clean my rims. Works very well and easy to do.
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Permalink Reply by SATO on -
Just use a good car wax on the rims... Yeah I know you'll get alot of flack for waxing your wheels.. "whats next BOB? you gonna wax the underside?...." But the wax will keep the harsh brake dust from sticking as much to the rims and cause pitting. Remember the rims are a painted surface.....
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Permalink Reply by Cathy on -
We have Kleen Wheels on our front wheels. Rear wheels are drum brakes and do not require a shield to keep the dust down. They work great and keep things nice and tidy. We have them on all our vehicles in fact. www.autogeek.com had them the cheapest when we looked.
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Permalink Reply by Ryan on -
Cathy: i just looked at that site.... kinda find the description of the Wheel Shield to be rather funny. On one line, it says:
"Total protection from brake dust, road tar, rust, corrosion and winter chemicals (mag chloride)."
and two lines down from that:
"Repels 60% of all brake dust."
am i missing something there?
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Permalink Reply by Duspin Stevens on -
Wheel shields sold on various sites are somewhat effective but what you gain in prevention you lose in appearance. Plainly, the shields are ugly. The whole idea of alloy wheels with a very low profile is to show the brake disk and callipers. (Else, why would certain car makers provide specially-painted callipers?) Search the internet and look up Griot's Garage for a decent wheel cleaner and apply a double coat of high-quality carnuba-based wax to the outside of your wheels every month or so, and to the inside of your wheels at least 2x a year. Mercedes-Benz brake pads (made in Germany by Pagid and other manufacturers who put the MB logo on their product) are specially designed to provide excellent stopping power with the smallest size pad possible. The forumula results in a horrible black dust, unfortunately. Other auto makers use pads of similar composition so this problem isn't unique to MB. Stubborn stains are best removed with an acid type cleaner but such a cleaner is never recommended for regular use--a less caustic cleaner should be used regularly with a very soft-bristled brush made just for wheel cleaning (painted surfaces). Never, absolutely never, use a Scotch-Brite pad on your wheels--inside OR outside. That's just not a good idea--ever. Use the acid cleaner and be patient by putting on several applications after repeated scrubbing and rinsing. Pitting occurs because you haven't paid enough attention! If this sounds like a lot of work, then you're unnecssarily worrying about pitting to begin with.
Ryan said:Cathy: i just looked at that site.... kinda find the description of the Wheel Shield to be rather funny. On one line, it says:
"Total protection from brake dust, road tar, rust, corrosion and winter chemicals (mag chloride)."
and two lines down from that:
"Repels 60% of all brake dust."
am i missing something there?
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Permalink Reply by Ryan on
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Duspin: well.... the Wheel Shield i was talking about in that post is a spray, not one of the metal guards for behind the spokes.
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Permalink Reply by Cathy on
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sorry, site is www.autogeek.net and they work very well on all our vehicles. pretty sure they do not block 100%, but much better than without...dust is minimal and we have not had any pitting.
Ryan said:Cathy: i just looked at that site.... kinda find the description of the Wheel Shield to be rather funny. On one line, it says:
"Total protection from brake dust, road tar, rust, corrosion and winter chemicals (mag chloride)."
and two lines down from that:
"Repels 60% of all brake dust."
am i missing something there?
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