Brake Dust Poll

[Hammer]

Originally posted by Moonlight96GT
I ALWAYS use soap and water.....If you wouldn't spray stuff like that on your paint, then don't put it on your wheels either!

Matt

Thank you for making perfectly clear what you car care procedures are, Matt. You see, you and I do different things to detail our vehicles. I went with the recommendation of a professional. You firmly believe that you should clean your car as you would your body in the shower. Just a difference in opinion and that's OK by me.

Good luck with the car.

 

[Moonlight96GT]

Originally posted by Hammer


Thank you for making perfectly clear what you car care procedures are, Matt. You see, you and I do different things to detail our vehicles. I went with the recommendation of a professional. You firmly believe that you should clean your car as you would your body in the shower. Just a difference in opinion and that's OK by me.

Good luck with the car.

It's not just an opinion Hammer....it's a tip that could save you time and $$$ in the long run by not removing the protective clear coat on the wheels with cleaners.

This used to be my full time career back in the day....and we didn't use anything but soap and water on wheels to get them clean unless it was 10 year old caked on brake dust.

Believe me, wash them with soap(car soap) and water and then wax them. The dust will come right off the next time you wash it.

And good luck with your car also :beer:

 

[Cobra'03]

Originally posted by KingKobra
I'm very sure that the reason there is more brake dust on the rear than the front, is because the front brakes are Vented Brembo, and the rear brakes are not Brembo!

So, I'm thinking this is a difference of product quality and if we didn't have the Brembo's in the front, we'd have four dusty rims!

Your answer is beyond me, but the answer is that the rear pads on the 2003 Cobra have a new compound specially formulated for the car - it was in the 2003 Press Release press kit I have. Quality of the rotors is not a factor here.

Yes, they get dirty, and no, Z6 will not help. Brade pad material is naturally affinitive for metal - that is how it helps stop the car for goodness sake. I just spray a little detailing fluid like Meguiar's Final Inspection (#34) on a paper shop towel, and quickly swab em down.

And if they haul the car down better, I would not care if they used boar mucous and it slathered down the rims. The difference of a few feet can mean life or death on the highway, and dialing in brake pad compounds in not easy for us shadetree mechanics to do. Maybe down the road I will get ambitious and try some aftermarket pads (as a journalist, L can get them to "comp" me pretty easy) and check braking distances with my Vericom, and if we can find a pad that works as well and is cleaner, great. I for one would not trade stopping ability and brake "feel" for a little cosmetic inconvenience.:shrug:

 

[jmir018]

how to clean your rims? the answer is simple..simple green.
simple green...just spray it on, let them sit for a couple of minutes and hose them down. The rims will be shiny :coolman:
I have started using it and i love it. give it a try and you'll love it.

PD: thank you sn8k for the tip!!

 

[03'Darin]

what they said... the rear pad compund has been changed for 03' . The new compound is more agressive than was used in the past which causes more brake dust. The rear pad shape is the same as the 99/01 Cobras. So if anyone wants to get rid of the dust problem just go to either last years pad(with less stopping power) or go to a good aftermaket pad that produces less dust. I have not found an agressive pad(more stopping power) that doesn't produce alot of brake dust.

 

[03_Snake]

I use my old duster for the rims...

in between washings, and it works great! I ONLY use it lightly for the rims and the dust comes right off IF it isn't wet. This isn't usually a problem as I garage my snake every night. I just give them a once-over-lightly in the morning and it keeps them looking fine from wash to wash.

FWIW.

 

[sbc.cobra]

i have an ignorant question....when you apply the brakes, do all 4 of them work at once? i was told (an i believed it b/c i didn't know any better) that unless you cram your foot on the brakes hard, only the rear brakes are doing the stopping. is there any truth to this? if there is, i would think that would be the answer to why your rear wheels get more dust on them than the front.

 

[03'Darin]

sbc.cobra-that info. is incorrect. When you apply the brakes, no matter how hard, the primary braking is done by the front wheels. The weight transfers forward when you apply the brakes increasing traction to the front wheels and decreasing the traction to the rear wheels. Your ABS would constantly be over riding your rear brakes as they would be locking up from the reduced traction. If you didn't have ABS your car would tend to lock the rear wheels under harder braking.
Remember when you were a kid and would go as fast as you could on you bicycle, lean forward and lock the rear brake to see how long of a skid mark you could lay? Every normal kid did that.....right...????
Anyway...your brake system has a proportioning valve that distributes a percentage of the brake pressure to the front and a lesser percentage to the rear.

 

[sbc.cobra]

Originally posted by 03'Darin
sbc.cobra-that info. is incorrect. When you apply the brakes, no matter how hard, the primary braking is done by the front wheels. The weight transfers forward when you apply the brakes increasing traction to the front wheels and decreasing the traction to the rear wheels. Your ABS would constantly be over riding your rear brakes as they would be locking up from the reduced traction. If you didn't have ABS your car would tend to lock the rear wheels under harder braking.
Remember when you were a kid and would go as fast as you could on you bicycle, lean forward and lock the rear brake to see how long of a skid mark you could lay? Every normal kid did that.....right...????
Anyway...your brake system has a proportioning valve that distributes a percentage of the brake pressure to the front and a lesser percentage to the rear.

thanks for the clarrification.:thumbsup: that's the simple reason why i don't throw my 2 cents in when it comes to technical stuff...it's not even worth 1 cent.

 

[03'Darin]

That's alright....keep adding those pennys as you learn and before you know it you will be able to drop your 2 cents when ever you want.

 

[i8u]

The reason for more brake dust on the rear is a new brake pad material the has a more effeciant COF.:beer:

 

[david smilovic]

Look in the back of the SVT suplement thats in with your owners manual,and switch to the HI-PO SVT brakes.Theres a part# and they usually have to be ordered,at Xtreme Motorsports here in Tempe AZ. we found them to dust 98% less and stop at least 5% shorter from 80 mph which is huge.
I would guess there real Brembo pads they look to be the same compound as the Brembo Gran Turismo kits we install.If you can afford the GT kit you will be amazed on the braking power of a front brake only conversion.If you like to keep stock wheels(I went for Kinesis K-28's to clear the big 14" rotor) you can go with the new tiger claw set up from Baer I highly endorse them both.
I for 1 am not impressed with the braking power of the stock system but then again I have tried many different setups brake and suspension wise.
If you want info PM me and I'll share more.Dave S.
PS remember I drive my non speed governed 03' at speeds exceeding 160 with governor programed out and a 01' ecu works great and suspension doesnt get light at 150 like the stock car so I need greater than avge. braking.Dave.

 

[i8u]

Originally posted by david smilovic
Look in the back of the SVT suplement thats in with your owners manual,and switch to the HI-PO SVT brakes.Theres a part# and they usually have to be ordered,at Xtreme Motorsports here in Tempe AZ.

Hmm news to me. Interesting. If they are in the supplement can't they be ordered through ford?

Good info though!:beer:

 

[2F2F]

> Anyone notice that they have more brake dust on the rear wheels than on the fronts?

Yes.

 

[Blades]

you guys want brake dust? check out a 2003 Expedition.. yikes!!

 

[2003 Cobra]

I truly hated the black dust from the rear brake pads; therefore, I replaced the pads and rotors with Autospecialty cross-drilled rotors and installed Raybestos PGD627 organic brake pads with them. The factory pads were very black leading me to believe that they have some carbon in the friction material. The car does not stop as well as it did with the factory pads but the cross-drilled rotors look cool and the pads do not blacken out the rear of the car. My car is used 95% of the time on the street so I guess it's o.k.

 

[NMRAcer]

buy harder pads for the rear, give up stopping power, but keeps car much cleaner.

 

[Poison_S]

Changing my vote

Initially, I voted NO for more brake dust on the rears.

However now that I am paying closer attention, I am noticing the rear wheels do get an unusually high build up of brake dust.
Therefore, I am changing my vote to YES. I figure the others that answered NO probably have not been paying close attention either.

Is there a manufacturer out there that sells ceramic pads for our car?

The Honda S2000 I had prior to the Cobra came with ceramics from the factory. Absolutely NO brake dust since it was not a carbon-based metallic pad like ours. The car's brakes had excellent bite and stopped on a dime with no fade.

Something to look into. :read:

 

[03CobraBro]

Ceramics were one of the first upgrades I thought about when I saw the car sitting in the show room. Deffinatly a must have if you drive in alot of stop and go traffic.

 

[rskdsk]

My front collect more dust ... and they are a pain to clean