citanest

Do people have problems remove the brake dusts from Hawk Blue?
These dusts are spraying all over the front fender at the track and they are impossible to remove. Am I the only I?

What other choices do I have? R4 ??

krshultz

If it rains and you're using blues, life will suck. And don't drive to the track with them if you can avoid it.

Otherwise - just keeping a good coat of wax on the car has prevented this problem from affecting me...

MattD@Stoptech

Dont use R4S for the track, even though it says that its intended for light track duty....well...if unless you want to baby the brakes to prevent the R4S pads from glazing get a dedicated track pad...

Chris

OH ****..

*chris goes to wash of Blue brake dust after running in the rain*

Big Phat R

The R4s are equally as bad.

Simple Green should get it off no problemo - but a good coat of wax on the car and rims is recommended.

krshultz

Yeah, it's pretty corrosive stuff. I once heard it described as "brake rotor dust" rather than pad dust. It's the reason I painted my track wheels black, the finish had been ghettoed up beyond repair.

Carbotechs, from what I understand, dust the same amount, it's just not that nasty corrosive dust.

--Karl, who will try some Carbotechs as soon as he's out of Hawk Blues...

agent87

Would one of those clay bars help? I imagine it might be a safer route to take before moving to something like Simple Green.

krshultz

I got rained on on my way back from a track event. On a black car this immediately caused the paint to get all ghettoed up. I hit it with a clay bar, and then hit it with some 3M rubbing compound, and that cleared it right up.

I think the simple green would work great on the fender liners and such...

Chris

Simple Green will not work for the Hawk Brake dust (I just tried) Although my fingernail and some gritty polish does the trick...after ALOT of elbow grease.

Im going out to get a clay bar. Im sure it will be 10X faster...

As far as the dust being corrosive...???? I have also painted my stock wheels black, the brake dust gets on them and then turns to rust! I thought the wheels rusted! But a quick wash fixed that.

No permanent damage to the paint...thats all I care about!

jimbob

Dust on a lot of race pads like Blues/R4 are notoriously difficult to deal with in the rain. It's actually a combination of rotor particles and brake dust that clings to the surface of your car especially when it rains. It turns orange when it rusts(which takes only a few mins) and is very hard to remove. The best advice is to have a GOOD coating of wax b4 going out on the track.

It's not much of an issue when it's dry since it doesn't really oxidize as quickly and you have time to wash it off. If it's raining and you happen to have that dust, a simple washing doesn't work. You have to clay the affected areas or give it a compounding job. No permanent damage, but nothing easy to get rid of either.

cobalt

JMHO...FYI:

For a vehicle which is ONLY driven on the street (i.e. a daily driver), I recommend that people stick with the OEM Honda compound, which is either an FF or GG rated pad. The OEM compound will give you excellent cold stopping power with minimal (if any) required heat-up time to reach maximum braking torque. The dust is non-corrosive and fairly easy to remove on the OEM Honda compound.

For those who drive on the street AND participate in Solo II Auto-X events, then an excellent choice in pads is our Carbotech Super Street-F compound or the Porterfield R4S. The R4S tends to dust heavily, and if you overheat it, it will tend to crumble and wear quickly, but it does perform well.

For those who drive on the street AND participate in track events (i.e. road course/circuits), then an excellent choice of compound is our Panther Plus, which has very good cold stopping power, good initial bite, moderate dusting (of which the dust is non-corrosive), is very rotor friendly, and has a very high Cf of 0.56mu. This is, perhaps, our most popular compound with street/track drivers.

For track only use, the Panther Plus and/or the new Panther XP, or the Porterfield R4 are excellent choices.

We have tested the Panther Plus and Panther XP on a wide variety of race and street vehicles, all with excellent results, both in terms of performance and wear. Further, Carbotech Engineering also sells the complete line of Hawk and Performance Friction products, as well as custom bonded/riveted pads (stronger than an IM-pad) from the Hawk Blue, HT8 and HT9 compounds. We are currently have an "at-cost" sale on Hawk HT8, which makes a very good lapping day compound...for a typical pad which would normally cost $129-$139 in HT8, the price would be around $79.

If you have any questions about brake pads or brake systems, please send me an e-mail at andie@carbotecheng.com, an IM with AOL IM to HomeDepotNSX, or via phone at 877-899-5024, and I will be more than happy to help you out.

Please visit our website at http://www.carbotecheng.com - there is a fair amount of information in the FAQ with answers to commonly asked questions regarding brake pads and brake systems.

With Best Regards,

Andie Lin