Front Wheel Brake Dust

[orgtech]

I get what I think is an abnormal amount of brake dust on my front wheels. I don't ride the brakes and do a lot of highway driving. Have to clean them every week, to look clean. Never had this much dust with my other trucks. Have 2K miles now. Thought it might go away by now. Does anyone else have this issue? Are there shields available? Thanks

 

[Prairie Dog]

I get only a very small amount, kinda gives it a slight tinted look. Sounds like something strange is going on.

 

[dan.poitras]

Do you have an automatic? Maybe an exhaust brake is in your future

 

[boonsur]

I've driven a lot of Dodge vehicles, and they tend to use softer pads. Makes them good and "grabby", but they disolve quicker (more dust). True throughout their whole line. You could switch to a harder pad material, but your braking may not be as good, and may do bad things to your rotors. I've heard (Chevy guy) that Raybestos QS series is a really good compromise (stop great without much dust). Don't know if they make, or what the part number is, for our trucks.



I've also found that a good polish on the wheels helps make cleaning a lot easier. You should steer clear of waxes/compounds that contain silicone, which dust clings to. I like Zaino brothers.

 

[Boonieman]

I've noticed the front wheel dust before on other vehicles I've had that have disc brakes in front, and standard shoes on the rear. My wife's Honda and also my 2003 Ram has disc brakes all the way around and on both vehicles it seems like there is a lot less of this dust. Or maybe it's just that all the wheels are equally dusted and it doesn't show up as bad. That makes me wonder though, on a vehicle with disc on front and shoes on the back I've always heard that the front disc brakes do the primary stopping, therefore get most of the wear. On a vehicle with disc brakes all around, is the pressure equal to all the brakes, or are they proportionally set? I'll have to do some research on that... has me curious.

 

[Prairie Dog]

The fronts do about 60 to 70% of the work. Check out the size of the resevoirs as an example of how the system is biased.

 

[DPKetchum]

On auto's with four wheel disc the amount of dust wont be equal front to rear. Pad size as well as pad matierial is differant from front to back.