imageWIS

My 06' A4 2.0T seems to have an insane amount of break dust. I only have a chance to wash the car once a week. How long does break dust have to stay on to start to permanently damage my wheels?

Also, what is the best way to clean the break dust off of the inner part of the wheels, i.e. not just the visible part of the rimes, but also the inner track?

Thanks,

Jon.

Gary@Tirerack.com

Brake dust is annoying, but it would take quite a bit of time for street-driving type of brake dust to do any damage.

I use soap and water only. Keep in mind that wheels are painted with clearcoat like the paint on your car. Rule of thumb : if you would not X cleaner on the hood of your car, don't use X cleaner on your wheels. Waxing them will help making cleaning easier.

IMO don't bother cleaning the inside portion of the wheel...not worth the effort. The clearcoat is much thinner here on most wheels making cleaning more difficult anyway. Many of the most picky, clean-freak enthusiasts I know don't clean the insides of their wheels.

ryoung

It's just a pain in the neck to keep the wheels clean. Follow Gary's advice, and I don't clean the inner part of the wheel either.

The potentially nasty part of brake dust is iron, both from the pad itself (which can be up to 50% iron) and rotor wear. When this iron dust comes into contact with bare aluminum wheels in the presence of moisture, <a href="http://corrosion.ksc.nasa.gov/html/galcorr.htm">Galvanic Corrosion</a> will quickly pit the aluminum. The aluminum becomes a sacrificial anode to protect the iron dust from rusting!

Galvanic corrosion caused by a steel screw in an aluminum plate
<img src="http://corrosion.ksc.nasa.gov/images/fili.jpg">

Reggie

and cut the dust by 90%

WECoyote-SuperGenius

Gary, nothing personal, but..........<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/detail/msgs/40403.phtml">click</a></li></ul>