Reading Black R's thread, it made me think that I should check up on my Cobalt GTS pads, seeming as I've been on them for just under a month. Here's what I found:

I haven't washed my car in a number of weeks, so I decided to do so. Typically, the car comes out looking great. This time however, I discovered that even after washing the car incredibly thoroughly, there was quite a bit of a residue left over. I ran my hand over the paint, it feels rough. Upon closer examiniation, it's only down the sides of the car, on the rear view mirrors, on the spoiler, and on the rear.

... It's damn brake dust.

I wouldn't be so upset, if I knew how to fix it... I'm going to have our detail guy take a look at it tomorrow, but I'm skeptical.

I used SD-20 (The chemical I used to use to remove the burnt oil from the back of my car, it works wonders), and it didn't even phase it. I'm baffled. It feels like f*cking sandpaper to the touch.

(My camera sucks, these pictures don't properly illustrate the horrible condition of the paint):







I washed down my wheels, only to find that the brake dust is not coming off, and has been 'welded' on to the surface of the wheel. The rears look great, like they've always been (i.e. I'm using stock rear brake pads), the fronts are destroyed:







Rotors were brand new, installed a month ago... This is what I found:



Pads have been through two track events and 2-3 weeks of daily driving (My daily driving consists of a mile to work, a mile home), is this scoring typical? What about the chunking?





Essentially, I'll never use Cobalt GTS again (Neither will I EVER sell a set in my shop again). This is about the only things they're good for to me at this point:

Compressing calipers:


And tossing in the air to see how many times it takes to break them:




So, is this normal?


Modified by GO-FIGHT-KILL at 2:47 PM 11/2/2008

 

Get a Clay Bar for the paint.

Go to http://www.autopia.org to try and figure out how to detail properly.

 

I have the same residue on the side of my car, but i never examined it to see what it was. I also had the same brake dust rust issues on my old wheels. So far on my Konigs I have yet to see any rusting.

I think I'll be looking at other pads for my next track pad purchase.

 

I agree on the clay bar. I had the same residue left on my paint after driving with the Cobalt GTS pads. I swapped my stock pads back on and after about 5 hours of effort with the claybar, the small yellow splotches all over the sides of my caR are gone.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eluam &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have the same residue on the side of my car, but i never examined it to see what it was. I also had the same brake dust rust issues on my old wheels. So far on my Konigs I have yet to see any rusting.

I think I'll be looking at other pads for my next track pad purchase.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Agreed. They're awesome on the track, God, they bite hard as hell. But I refuse to sacrafice my paint surface and wheel surface. Those aren't even the wheels I drove on the track with, I should probably go over to storage and check on those.

Hawk HP+ is where I'm heading, we have a better relationship with them anyway (i.e. Lower cost for me).

 

I would try a clay bar for the paint and if that does not work then throw the buffer at it. For the wheels, that sucks I guess you could try and have them steam cleaned, but I don't even know if that will break that crap off.

 

This happens to my car after every track event. Just clay bar it first then use some polishing compound on it takes it right off. luckily my wheels where on slipstreams so I just used aircraft stripper on them and re-paint them a different color every time they get messed up.

 

I'm guessing maybe the stuff will wash off the wheels and car body if you wash your car right after using them, instead of leaving it on for months.

 

I could honestly give two ***** about the wheels, they're just daily driving wheels. It's more the paint I'm concerned about, and how Cobalt could release a street pad that does this.

I'm upset, but I'm calm. I can fix the paint, I don't care about the wheels, the rotors are CarQuest rotors (i.e. They cost $30.00 a piece). I just want to know how Cobalt could release a street pad that ruins paint. That's bullshit.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm guessing maybe the stuff will wash off the wheels and car body if you wash your car right after using them, instead of leaving it on for months.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The car was washed immediately after the HPDE event at CMP. The car came out fine.

I hadn't washed the car in a few weeks of daily driving (Sorry, I work 80 hour weeks, I don't exactly have time during the day to take care of it). It was a couple weeks, not a few months.

 

I had the same issue with the pads (chunking) and brake dust issues since E7. Since then I switched over to track wheels and dedicated track pads.

I called cobalt about the piece of pad material chunking off near the edges and they told me not to worry about it.

Also after roughly 6 months I went to inspect the brakes and regrease the slider pins on the caliper and found my drivers side inside brake pad to be ridiculously worn. So much so that the top half of the pad ate down to the rivets on the backing plate.

It helps to keep your wheels and car with a fresh coat of wax.

Like I mentioned in Black R's thread, I'll be moving onto another pad.

Ali

 

Clay bar and wax. I have been running the same pads for year's now and have not encountered this problem, I also wash it once a week during the warm months too. When was the last time you waxed it?

As far as the pads go, they look a little glazed but no big deal, mine usually look very similar.

 

I was running GT sport on my civic daily and had the same issue, I now just run cheapie pads on it

 

I have a set of dedicated track pads/rotors/wheels/tires, I just decided to see how the track dedicated pads (i.e. Cobalt GTS) did on the streets for a few weeks. As it turns out, not very well. They're constantly squeeling, they don't get up to operating temperatures for my daily drive, and they are corrosive. Yeap, stock will work just fine for me on the street.

The Circuit-10s are my street wheels. My race wheels are OEM with Azenis.

 

CLAY BAR PLUS A WAX JOB WILL HAVE YOU BRAND NEW AGAIN, I had the axxiss ultimates on my CW ITR for a while and they totally ruined the wheels with the brake dust as well.

def need a set of track wheels

 

thats how I ruined my BBS's on my civic from the dust

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mikestypeRR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">def need a set of track wheels </TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GO-FIGHT-KILL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The Circuit-10s are my street wheels. My race wheels are OEM with Azenis.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm guessing maybe the stuff will wash off the wheels and car body if you wash your car right after using them, instead of leaving it on for months.</TD></TR></TABLE>

nope. With the new GTS compound, even 2 days is too long. It's worse if it's wet when you're using them. Most people I've talked to seem to have the same issues with the new compound GTS. Not sure what they changed about their compound, but it's dust is horrible. The pads themselves are great.

A claybar will take it off the paint, but it will take A LOT of work. Ask me how I know.

 

GTs pads did the same to my white wheels, only difference is they are cheap *** Konigs and come spring they are getting repainted. Didn't notice the dust on the paint, but its a 92 Civic and the paint is crap too

 

Well a good friend in the Type-R community is going to take care of me.

He's coming in from out of town. Gotta' love the Type-R community.

 

Sounds like you have the problem solved. Close the tread.

 

....and yet another unsure issue of Cobalt's new compound.

Anyone still have VRs new in the box? Work great and don't eat paint. Not sure i know what i'll be using for pads when i can no longer find old compound Cobalts.

 

Am I the only one that thinks this is ok? Its a track/street pad. If the they faded and you went off turn 4 at 90mph, but your rims were clean, would you be pissed?

I plan on switching up pads, but I've been thinking about this for awhile. Nolan has been complimenting his pads for awhile now and I'd like to try them.

My paint is clean and I've never had a problem with this.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Erik95LS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

nope. With the new GTS compound, even 2 days is too long. It's worse if it's wet when you're using them. Most people I've talked to seem to have the same issues with the new compound GTS. Not sure what they changed about their compound, but it's dust is horrible. The pads themselves are great.

A claybar will take it off the paint, but it will take A LOT of work. Ask me how I know.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have noticed that on the wheels the brake dust is harder to get off after they have been in contact with water, but I if you clean them after each event you'll be fine. My track wheels are my expensive wheels, stockers are for street driving.....

 

Jim, I'd gladly give up clean paint after a HPDE day/weekend for additional braking.
But with the history of VRs... It's hard, they did and do everything SO DAMM WELL.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by walker111 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Am I the only one that thinks this is ok? Its a track/street pad. If the they faded and you went off turn 4 at 90mph, but your rims were clean, would you be pissed? </TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't really care about brake dusty wheels... I honestly could care less. However, it's a street pad, it shouldn't f*ck up paint if daily driven on for a few weeks. They do awesome on the track, I just don't see why this should happen.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by walker111 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have noticed that on the wheels the brake dust is harder to get off after they have been in contact with water, but I if you clean them after each event you'll be fine. My track wheels are my expensive wheels, stockers are for street driving.....</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't have any expensive wheels... I have some Volk TE-37s, but they're 18x9.5 and 18.5, not exactly the best size for Type-Rs (I acquired them in a... Deal). I picked up the whole set of Circuit-10s for $150, I'm not too concerned about them.