First, in case anyone has not noticed the headline of the 2009 NY Times article:

Brake Dust: A Problem That’s Not Really a Problem

And then, in the article

So ... you want good brakes or freedom from brake dust? The answer for the Jaguar market ought to be obvious.

And the most notable adjective used in the article? ... PRISSY

The article is written primarily to question the inclusion of brake dust as a criteria in the JD Power methodology. It points out that Consumer Reports does not include the same criteria. Because ...

Now, around here, brake dust comes off with a damp used paper towel that is going into the garbage after some other use around the car. 5 minutes tops. It is not a problem.

To be perfectly clear, it is NOT:

 

May not be a problem for you and your wet rag but for countless others it is.

 

Brake dust????? Hell I'd be happy with Jaguar USA if they had a dealer in the 15th largest market in the USA.

Good luck.

Tom

 

Lol...

 

Agree with Bruce, new wheel design and even higher performance makes the problem look worse while the technology has improved over 30 years. My Portfolio has the Alcan brake system, it is fantastic, but alas very dusty. I t only take 2 hours of driving to film up the wheels. I currently have Murcielago in the shop with very expensive carbon fiber rotors they don't have much dust!

 

I've been kinda silent on this as I'm torn as to what to say. This is obviously not an issue limited to just Jaguar. I've had issues with this on Toyotas, Nissans, various GM products, and Dodge. It's a choice between longevity, noise, and temperature. The brake pads are the primary wear item in a braking system. They dust as they break down.

The brake dust on my Jag is not nearly as bad as it was on my Toyota, and it's about the same as it is on my Nissan. I swapped out my entire braking system to aftermarket on the Nissan and went full ceramic on the pads. Then I swapped the rims out to bronze so that the dust would not be as noticeable. On my Ram, I went to black/silver wheels to hide the brake dust generated by hauling around a trailer that brought my GVWR to 23k lbs. I'm likely to swap the rims on my XKR for the same reason -- I don't want to clean them every weekend.

If there is a vehicle where the dusting is significantly less, I will wholeheartedly look at the design, pad materials, and wheel design. But I'm kind of with Bruce on this one... I don't think there's a solution really that is worth the bother.

I'm not taking up a contrary position to just be contrary, it's just my experience in owning vehicles to date. I tend to be a little more aggressive with mine as well, which is why I think they all dust so much. Well, that and I live half way up the side of a mountain.

 

I've said this in a few other threads and honestly once I changed car shampoos my brake dust problem got alot better. 2 whole weeks at 500 miles until any noticeable build-up.

Also my BMW 330 convertible and X5 were worse than the XKR with Alcons.

 

Porsche 911 brakes offer low dust and superior performance, someone earlier in this thread mentioned the company that makes them. If you also read the links to some of the Mercedes threads where MBUSA issued a TSB and replaced the pads, the dust was drastically reduced with no negative affects on braking. My Wife's Lexus IS has factory issued low dust pads and they are great. Again, there is no reason to have ultra high dust pads supplied as OEM for street use, low dust yes, ultra high dust no.

 

How can you be sure we have ultra high dust pads? Maybe they aren't. You "assume" they are. Maybe they're actually a fairly decent pad. My point was it may be the wheels and other factors that make the pad dusting look worse than it is, and in no way can be compared to visible dust on other vehicles for the reasons I mentioned. The fact that other manufacturers have had a problem and issued a TSB means nothing.

I don't know how you can determine what grade of pad we have on our cars, but I'd want to get my facts straight before I insist that the manufacturer has a problem/defect that requires remedy. Perhaps asking them would be a good place to start. I can just see them replying that they already use a fairly low dust pad...and that just might be true!

Not trying to give you a hard time, or derail your effort, but it's obvious that there's no concensous as to whether there even is a problem.

Bruce

 

Hi Bruce,

I've been blessed to have owned most every make of luxury and sport European car and have been driving for 36 years; based upon what I've seen the Jags XKR pads are very dirty reminding me of the pads that came on our new 2005 Touareg; thankfully within 90 days VW issued a TSB and changed the pads which reduced this nasty stuff by about 50% .

I've also spoken to the service mgr at my dealership and he agreed these pads are very dusty. As I've stated and posted links, MB,Lexus,VW etc have all issued TSB's at one time or another for overly excessive dirty pads and Porsche's are very low dust compared to Jags...Jag could easily do the same...but the only way to get them to act is to make our voices heard which is what I've been trying to do here.

 

What are you guys using now to deal with the brake dust? What do you use to clean it, or to spray so that there is not too much buildup? (About to get an XKR in a few days, some links to products on amazon would be helpful!)

 

Well, if the Jaguar service manager thinks they're dirty then he might be the perfect advocate to contact Jaguar for pad information. There's probably an engineer somewhere that knows how different pads performed in testing on the car.

I can only offer first-hand race track experience of many Porsche and BMW models, as well as countless other high performance cars, and have on a number of occasions worn completely through a fresh set of pads in a single day while dusting them off in my Supra TT ...running OEM pads mostly, and I honestly couldn't tell you whose pads dusted more. I'm pretty sure it must have been mine since I vaporized them, except that one time they caught fire when the black flag was suddenly thrown and I had to pit without a cool-down lap, but the wheels never looked that bad until they were removed and the brake dust was caked on the inside of the rims! Please forgive the shameless way I made my point about rims making a difference



Bruce

 

Hi Bruce,

The Service mgr suggested cermanics but said they would cause clicking when applying the brakes...all Jag has to do is use the same brand/ and type of pads on the 911's and that will be that; someone here ealier in this thread mentioned the name of the company that makes them.

With respect to the TT Supra, I tested one when they first came out, very fast car for the time, I remember when the roof was removed however it was a bit of a flexible flyer. Still like the styling to this day.

 

Evasive,

What are you driving now? My last car prior to the
12 XKR was an 07 Porsche 997S, very little dust compd to the Jag. I have not tried the armour all spray yet as I don't know what the long term effects would be if that stuff gets on the rotors, last thing I need is a glaze build up that causes squealing. You can read in my post above my dealer suggested ceramics but he said they'll create a clicking upon application, don't want that either. What year is the R your are getting?

 

Ive got a 2005 Jaguar S-type 4.2 and the brake dust is killer... within three days the wheels are covered in the stuff. Would be great not to have to clean them all the time.

 

What brakes let off little dust for my '07 XK? Akebono worked great on my VDP, but only the rears are available on XK.