Any thoughts on excessive production of this on a Ford Lynx (Mondeo). Car has less than 2000 miles on the clock and within a few miles of washing, front trims are covered in brake dust. Thought at first this was simply due to newness and might go away but appears to me very abnormal and beyond the usual deposits one experiences.
Local dealer gave a "they all do that sir" response, but I'm not convinced. Brakes work perfectly otherwise. If it goes on like this pads will surely wear down very quickly. Driving is mostly stop and start town, thought it might be this but at the weekend did a longish open road run. Started with clean wheels, same result.
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My Vectra has done this from new - the pads were changed on its 60.000 mile service for the first time.
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Fit EBC "Greenstuff" Kevlar pads. They ain't cheap but IMHO they are good and give practically zero brake dust. I have them fitted to my Golf along with the EBC disks (drilled and grooved) and never have to scrub my alloys.
I expect it's just cheap pads but if they're OE then shouldn't be!
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Some UK Mondeos 1997/1998 MY had faulty rear brake compensators that could overload the front brakes - a bit like the Nissan Sunny in the 'Slow Down' commercial. What do they make the pads out of in the Philippines? The French are talking about banning the sale of any pre 1997 vehicle which has not been inspected and passed 'asbesdos free'. Try not to breathe any of that stuff.
HJ
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Growler
Like Gwyn my Vectra was sold at 80k (admittedly mostly motorway) without having a pad change, and the pads were no more than half worn. The front wheels collected brake dust even on motorway trips with little brake use, and my current BMW also gets very dusty round the front wheels.
Looking around it seems pretty common to me, so I wouldn't worry too much. It is probably a factor of wheel design and air flow for brake cooling - a factor ignored by the companies who sell covers to stop this happening.
Regards
John
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I thought I had read elsewhere that it is the replacement of asbestos content in brake pads that is giving rise to more brake dust appearing.
Although this isn't a classic car site, I would just expand on HJ's reference to French moves on asbestos in car components which was Brussels inspired. I recently found it difficult to get Visa pads from the usual places so went to an old established Citroen specialist of 30 years plus standing. They admitted they were running down parts for Visas but rummaged around and found me an OE set (with the asbestos warning). However, they said they would not be ordering any more when the present stock runs out because "Citroen will only accept orders of at least 10 sets at a time". If this approach is used by other car makers and if the pressure for asbestos-free parts increases, I see little chance of either OE continuing for older cars or it even being worth the while of non-OE suppliers tooling up for the alternatives--one of those I tried for the Visa pads was a frequently-recommended national specialist for Cits and certain German motors.
My point, at long last, for the bangernomics enthusiasts is to stock up now at autojumbles, or wherever, because I think many standard replacement parts for even early 90s cars could soon be disappearing from your local motorist shop and trade in OE bits might even be made illegal.
Now, if anyone has asbestos-ridden brake shoes for a Triumph Super Seven or a clutch to fit the Triumph-built Coventry Climax engines, I promise not to tell the authorities about your anti-social behaviour and will dispose of them humanely.
David
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The Lynx is assembled here mainly from imported parts. I will check today if the pads are made locally or are imported too. Maybe it doesn't matter as suggested by others but it sure looks messy.
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David, you should start a separate thread about this. Suggest: "French put the brakes on classic car parts."
HJ
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Certainly, we never used to find much asbestos or any other dust inside brake drums.
What happens when these modern materials are used in drum brakes?
And, what will someone find THEY are doing to you, in X years time?
Personally, I incline to think it is the car, rather than asbestos or anything else, which worries some people, and they will find whatever associated things to ban they can.
Life, whatever we may ban, is finite.
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Asbestos substitutes are starting to worry some in the Occupational Health line. Remember glass fibre being the saviour of all in order to replace asbestos - glass fibre is now ranked as a high risk carcinogen and is close to being banned in many countries.
Basically, to mimic asbestos, the fibre must be flat and long. Glass fibre this perfectly. Trouble is, your lungs cannot tell the difference between the two and you suffer the same. Remember the old addage - "No pain, no gain" - no such thing as a free lunch.
Whatever the material - if it produces a dust then don't breathe it in. ANY dust, however "harmless", will damage your lungs.
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Guy
Clearly this is good advice - asbestos, both blue and white, are well-known carcinogens. However it has always puzzled me that, despite a familiarity with the medical literature, I've never heard of an excess of lung cancer in garage mechanics which one might expect. Has anyone heard anything like this?
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Guy
I was reading , watching or listening to something a couple of days ago (Sunday Telegraph, it's just come back to me), where it was stated that the danger from white asbestos has been overstated, that it is chemically different to blue asbestos, but was banned because ignorant politicians lumped everything with "asbestos" as part of the name in the same basket.
On the subject of dust, travel on the London Underground ought to be banned on health grounds. When I used to use it on a regular basis, not to put too fine a point on it, when I blew my nose my handkerchieves went black.
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There was something in the papers recently (so it must be true) that a 40 minute journey on the Underground had an effect similar to smoking 3 cigarettes.
Furthermore, what has happened all the asbestos brake dust which has collected in the Underground tunnels over the last century? They probably have regenerative braking, but will still need conventional brakes. I can't recall them cleaning anything. The dust must still be floating around down there.
Don't breathe the air.
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I had an idea that since the phasing out of asbestos, the wear during braking took place more on the discs than on the pads. So the 'dust' has a higher proportion of steel than before. Certainly disc thickness seems to reach the recommended minimum at a middle-aged mileage.
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