NOZZER

Hi all
I have 17" super t's in gold with the prodrive 4 pot upgrade with ds2000 pads.
The wheels are 3 weeks old and it seems that the dust is eating into the gold finish. The wheels are cleaned twice a week and it is doing my head in. Is there a product out there that will stop the dust eating the finish away or will the pads need changing?
Help appreciated

Doc

Try the wax wizard

bob

Have a chat with your mate at Central Bodyshop and get him to re-lacquer the wheels. Have you been using wonder wheel cleaner this eats the lacquer away.
Get them sprayed anthrasite. Mine have still not been cleaned.

DaveW

Nozzer,

Here's a tip. Once you've got your wheels clean, use some car wax on them. This gives a protective coating which stops the brake dust sticking to your alloys and makes them a lot easier to keep clean.

DaveW

SteveB

iTrader: (1)

Ian,

As you know I also have the Alcon brake upgrade and the brake dust is much worse than standard. I've done like Dave and removed all the wheels and given the fronts two coats of Zymol (sad I know)and the rears one. The car is not an everyday motor but not always washed every weekend and so far the dust just falls off easily after quick brush and sponge.

Steve

Swiss Steve

I've got the OZ PRODRIVE wheels from the P1 (titanium colour) on my MY99 and FERODO DS2000 pads - which seem to be a bit less dirty than the OEM pads... I just use normal car shampoo and a plastic 'washing up' brush from the supermarket.. no probs so far... but i guess if I leave the washing interval too long the dust would start to stain the lacquer and become more difficult to remove as it starts to etch the lacquer surface.

Trouble with brake dust is that the resin used as the matrix for the pad material is phenol formaldehyde resin (as in "BAKELITE") and both phenol & formaldehyde are pretty nasty chemicals (although there shouldn't be ANY free phenol or formaldehyde remaining in the pad from the manufacturing process) the dust probably retains some residual reactivity which causes the attack of the wheel surface. It may also just form a concretion if left too long (like plaque (spelling. ?) on yer teeth. The cleaning agents used are equally agressive - containing ionic & non-ionic surfactants (guess what surf-actant means...?).. anything which is supposed to remove persistant dirt / stains without any 'elbow grease' has to be pretty aggressive (like dishwasher powder - cleans without any scrubbing).. so prolonged use will also no doubt attack the wheel lacquers. I think most wheel lacquers are polyester based as they don't yellow under the UV in sunlight (unlike Epoxies), but polyesters (depending on type) are attacked by acids & alkalis. I used a dishwasher solution on my old RS turbo wheels a few times and it attacked the lacquer.
A good coat of protective wax should certainly help..

Sorry for the chemistry lecture..

Steve
(Polymer Science PhD !!)