UstaB-GS549

I'm considering trying some ST-43 pads and was wondering how difficult dust clean-up is. I don't want to deal with anything like Hawk Blue.

Rob Willis

I've not had experience with those, but of everything I have tried, Carbotech wins hands down on ease of clean-up.

k24556

All performance brake linings are the same. They wear and the dust is mostly iron oxide which reacts with the oxygen in the water (rainwater is saturated with oxygen) and then sets up an electrochemical cell with your nice aluminum wheels and pits them. Also you are wearing down a metallic object, the brake rotor, which is mostly iron. If you have clear coated wheels the oxide and water look for a break in the paint and go for the aluminum which is anodic with respect to the oxide, and blammo a pit.

Once that dust gets wet it welds to any surface it can.

I would guess that more dust is proportional to more brakes and brake use. So, the more dust you get the better your brakes are, or the more you are using them

If any of the salesmen here tell you their dust doesn't corrode aluminum wheels, know they don't know.

The best thing to do is try to keep the wheels dry and wash the dust off thoroughly and dry.

This is a pretty normal outcome to having good brakes.

c4pappy

I've run them on track days and for two years at a track in the winter doing a thing called Winter Cross. They are the best feeling track pads I've used, not that expensive, easy to bed, hold up to heat well, last a long time, and are corrosive as heck if the wheels get wet. I run them on an old set of wheels. If it gets wet, I have to use a Brillo pad to clean it off. But I don't care because the wheels are old (like me).

UstaB-GS549

Sounds like Hawk Blue.

I really liked Carbotech XP12/XP10 as far as cleaning and performance goes but stopped running them because their prices went up a lot a few years ago.

Ferodo DS1-11 is similar as far as performance and clean-up. I switched to this after getting AP T-1 kit.

Lately I have been running DTC-70/60. No where near Hawk blue, but I try to get the car washed as soon as I get home and the wheels have to be scrubbed a bit with soapy water to clean-up. Clay bar at the end of season.

harrydirty

Been running ST43 for years, first on my Mustang, now on my c6z. I have CCW c14 aluminum wheels and the dust cleans up easily from them. I have gotten the wheels wet a couple of times, but the dust cleaned up easily as well; I believe the wheels sat for a couple of days before I could get to them, but no problems.

Wholeheartedly agree with c4pappy on virtues of st 43 pads.......