XP8 Brake Powder Caked on Wheels
 

I found that driving around in the rain with lots of brake powder on your wheels is a very bad thing. 2 washes ago I ran into this problem. Apparently there's some reaction with water that makes this stuff really stick to the paint. Last time I tried scrubbing the heck out of it with soap and water with limited success. I got most of it off but there were a lot of stuborn areas that just wouldn't come off. I hit it with my older can of McGuires synthetic wax. (The non abraisive stuff) and got a little more to come off. After about 20 minutes on it I gave up thinking, hey you can't even see it from 5 feet away. This weekend I washed the car again and decided to give it another go. Tried some more of the wax and it was coming off slowly but there where some chunks that just wouldn't budge. I decided to try my finger nail on it. Got some wet wax in the area to act as lubricant and disolver and was able to scrape the last bits off. Halleluiah, finally got that crap off and the wheels are looking like new again!

Lesson of the day, don't drive in the rain with brake powder caked wheels.

You just have to use something stronger to clean the wheels. Some sort of wheel cleaner would work a lot better. I don't know much about taking care of powdercoated wheels since I've never had any, but mine are painted and I've had no issues cleaning off XP8 dust. I hadn't washed my car in over 2 months and it came off easily when I used a wheel cleaner. I DD my Z and drive it hard sometimes too so there was a pretty good amount of dust caked on there.

Definitely need to look into a good wheel cleaner. I wasted a ton of time getting that stuff off. Never had problems with it before. Not until I let rain water dry off on them multiple times when they where dirty.

When I wash my car, I spray the wheel cleaner on first, let it sit for 1-2 mins, and then rinse it off. Then I move on to do the rest of the car.

I have ran into the same problem on my Enkei RPM2 wheels on my 300zx (running our Akebono Sport brake conversion). I ran XP10 and XP9 pads on the car and drove on the street. The dust basically fused to the wheels after not washing it and started to develop rust on aluminum wheels :icon14:.

I have yet to find a chemical to break the dust from wheels or my calipers once it basically turns into cement.

I guess you'll just have to clean them more often then. Have you tried goo gone? That stuff dissolves plasti dip so maybe it will do the same for cemented brake dust.

I have the Xp8's on the Back of mine and Rotor H6 pads on the front of my car. The amount of brake dust off the Xp8 pads is crazy. My Rotora H6 pads are not bad at all and has similar Heat range.

PAD TYPE: H6
COMPOUND: HIGH-CERAMIC
DRIVE TYPE: TRACK/RACE
DISCTEMPERATURERANGE: 392°-1220° F


PAD TYPE: XP8
DISCTEMPERATURERANGE: 200°F-1350°F

Carbotech does NOT recommended XP8 as a daily driven street pad due to elevated levels of dust and noise. There great on the track.
I plan to put Rotora H6 Pads on the back here soon.

LOL I find the XP8s to be an excellent street pad. No warmup needed and no worries on any twisty when combined with a good brake fluid. Just a lot of dust and a little noise at slow & light braking. And... don't let the rainwater turn the dust into concrete.

:iagree: no issues here DD'ing them.