German brake dust!

[JCE]

Many German cars use soft brake pads with rotors that shouldn't be turned - smooth and quiet braking, long rotor life, but black wheels! And if the black is left on too long or through a rainstorm, it can bond to the wheels and make a hard to remove mess. At the extreme, it can actually pit the wheels or form a glaze that is only removed by bead blasting or other aggresive techniques.

My quick and dirty solution is to use a California Duster - the small one designed for dash boards - 2 times per week on the wheels. Takes less than a minute per wheel, pulls off all the black dust, and makes washing the wheels during a weekly car wash a snap, especially if the wheels are dusted off again just before the wash.

Just don't use the duster on any other part of the car. The red dusters won't need any special marking to ID them since the dust turns them black. The dark grey dusters should be marked so they don't get used on your dash!

[saturn2]

Man this brake dust gets like black paint if you don't do anything to get it off. I know this from experience wheel acid will not touch it. If this works you should get a metal.

[JCE]

It won't work on wheels where the dust has been on a long time, and doesn't work as well where the dirty wheels have been through water and formed a dried on paste. And if your wheels are really neglected, it won't shorten the clean up process, which is going to be a real pain. But for quickly wiping a couple days dust off of otherwise clean wheels, it works great.

My car has the clear coated 'machine polished' aluminum wheels, while the wheels on my wife's car are silver painted and clearcoated. I was worried that the brake dust might scratch the clear coat or paint, but I haven't seen any problems after a year of doing this on both cars.

I drive some steep hills and twisty roads, and build up a fair amount of dust in a day, so dust every 2-3 days. If it has been over a week and the car doesn't need washing, I will use quick detail on the wheels to 'wash' them after they are dusted just to get off anything the regular dustings may have missed.

Hope this works for you as well.

[Newport Viper]

JCE

ever see this problem?

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11046&highlight=mercedes+wheel+problem

[JCE]

I saw that once (not as bad) on the silver painted wheels on my wife's C230. It had been washed at the dealership after warranty work - I never figured out what it was, but it took a lot of work with the DA and Medallion paint cleaner to get it looking nice again.

I have seen the same pattern, but dark color, from wet brake dust runs on the wheels after parking in the garage overnight when it had been raining. Same flowing shape and pattern, but brake dust black/gray. Then it is a small pain to clean up the next morning with a detail spray, sometimes needs a little rubbing with a paint cleaner or polish. I can't imagine how hard it would be to clean if I drove it around for a week and let the pattern bake on.

I always assumed the first case was something the dealership had used on the wheels - they had the car a week and lert it sit outside, so who knows what was on the wheels. I speculated that the second case was the brake dust itself causing the problem, but one of the atmospheric chemists at work offered an alternative expalanation:

She reminded me that people dump all kinds of things in the streets, and the atmosphere disperses a lot of junk (airplane fuel and exhaust, smog, etc.) which is washed out of the atmosphere when it rains. She said that this mix is pulled out of the pavement by the rain and mixes with the water on the surface, and is VERY acidic. So the splashes collected around the wheels flowing down after the car is parked may very well be to pollutants picked up by the rain water, maybe?

[sneek]

i thought MPPC was a big no no for anything with a clear coat

[the other pc]

MPPC is (well, was) a paint cleaner. It’s great on clearcoat.


PC.

[JCE]

Medallion unsafe for clear coat? I haven't heard that. The container says "safe for all paint surfaces". Am I missing something here?

[Tim Lingor]

Originally posted by the other pc
MPPC is (well, was) a paint cleaner. It’s great on clearcoat.


PC.

MPPC was an excellent product!! And yes...it is perfectly safe on clear coat!

Tim

[SpoiledMan]

MPPC is an awesome paint cleaner!! I just found and am ordering 3 bottles to add to my 2!