How dirty do your rims get.

[Prodigy]

I use Autoglym alloy wheel sealer. The wrx was terrible for brake dust but when this was applied the brake dust didn't tend to stick to the wheel anywhere near as bad. It's also a lot easier to remove, generally the dust will just rinse off.

[Beaker]

Like asbestos perhaps? Whatever happened to that stuff?

Spot on - brake pads have never been the same since they took asbestos out, they dust more and brake less. I've not found a decent (road) brake pad in the last 10 years.

[AdamD]

All recent european cars have brake pads that generate a lot of dust - Its due to the compound used in the pads.

Agreed ref the European pads. My past three Hondas used pads that generated much less dust - cleaning the wheels was a fortnightly-to-monthly exercise, and the dust rinsed off easily. My GTI (and my parents' MkV FSIs, and my father's CC) produce so much dust that the wheels are inevitably filthy inside a week, and adding water to the mix just makes the stuff cling to everything - wheels, hands, rags, you name it. I've found that wiping the dust off the rim with a rag before rinsing makes the wheel clean job a vastly quicker and less messy exercise.

As an aside, I've had it from several sources that the compound VW prefers contributes to the great pedal feel. That and super-soft discs also - my father's Golf required a scheduled rear disc change at 30,000km! (This may be normal for VW, but it shocked me coming from Hondas that didn't require new discs in 100,000+km.)

[gareth_oau]

Ive got Brembo 6 pots and genuine Brembo pads on my GT-P and the dust from those is rediculous. wheels are filthy within 2 days of a wash.

My S3 has EBC Green Stuff pads and they dont seem to give off any dust at all

[teodeh]

Fortunately my car has been ordered with the space-age paint protection, guaranteeing that my car will never get dirty. I'm surprised you didn't order this space-age airplane grade super-duper technology -- P.S. according to my dealer's associate, your paint is all going to fall off in the next week and a half.

Then again, maybe I should call them to make sure the paint protection is going on the alloys too... will be a bummer if they get dirty (and I don't want the paint to explode off the wheels, either).

[Mr_Bob]

My forester isn't any better.
After washing the car, my bronze rims can look almost black after 1 spirited drive.
if i'm just pottering around, i get about 200-300ks before the wheels need to be cleaned.

I don't complain, when i upgraded the brakes i put some cheap Bendix ultimates pads in, knowing that they are dusty.
I wanted to go with better pads, but the pedal feel I have at the moment is awesome
so there's no need until they're ready to be replaced

[Super]

My forester isn't any better.
After washing the car, my bronze rims can look almost black after 1 spirited drive.

Presumably theres is a trade off between brake performance/feel and how much dust comes off them.
My GTI with sub 1000kms on the clock seems to get the Detroits fairly dirty after a few hundred kilometres, but the finish on them does seem to be pretty easy to clean. Who knows if they'll get more dusty once theyve seen more wear - hopefully not!

[blanch0b]

my front detroits get dirter about twice as fast as the back ones... which is interesting,

very easy to clean though - a dry rag on a wet rim gets the dirt of with one wipe (u just need to be careful not to wipe the clean bits with the dirty rag) easy... thinking of getting an alloy cleaner which aparently u just spray on, leave on for a bit, then rinse with water and it all comes off (save a rag or two)

[AdamD]

my front detroits get dirter about twice as fast as the back ones... which is interesting

Makes sense. Irrespective of the pad compound, road cars have a significantly greater bias on the front brakes than the rears. More bias means more braking pressure, more heat generated by more friction, and more dust. This is why front discs and calipers are frequently larger than the rears for a given car - to provide greater retardation, and to dissipate that extra heat more effectively.

[Beaker]

My S3 has EBC Green Stuff pads and they dont seem to give off any dust at all

Is that a road car? If so what are they like?

Most track oriented pads are absolute crap without any heat in them and tend to be noisy.

[gareth_oau]

green stuff are marketed as a road pad, I have no problems in their road use, no warming up required and no noise at all.

The red and blue ones are track pads

[hooba]

Makes sense. Irrespective of the pad compound, road cars have a significantly greater bias on the front brakes than the rears. More bias means more braking pressure, more heat generated by more friction, and more dust. This is why front discs and calipers are frequently larger than the rears for a given car - to provide greater retardation, and to dissipate that extra heat more effectively.

It does make sense, however VWs (along with BMWs as any X5 owner will tell you) are well known for wearing out the rear pads / discs well before the fronts. The reason is that the rears are set up to bite fractionally quicker than the fronts in order to provide better stability under braking (i.e. reduce front end dive).

[blanch0b]

pretty easy to clean regardless - i bought the armor-all wheel cleaner for my detroits and it works a treat - apply and rinse with water (i rinsed with a high pressure hose being careful not to go beyond the rims), thats it... i dried them off with a clean white towel and towel showed no real signs of dirt..... very impressed

[REXman]

Im thinking Jenna Jameson.

[Corey_R]

lol... nah - that's one of the things Jenna won't do for the camera