Hi,

I get this black dirt/powder on my rims and tires. This powdery substance is impossible to hose off and needs to be scrubbed down. As fast as I scrub it, within a day, my rims look filthy again. My Audi mechanic says that this is a "special protective coating" that is released by the brakes to extend the life of the brakes. My other mechanics told me that he is full of it and that someone uninstalled my Audi factory installed ceramic brake pads and re-installed extremely cheap brake pads (only cheap brake pads do this). I am flabbergasted by the possibility? Is this true? Does anyone else have continuously filthy tires? I just had my 15,000 mile service and the brakes squeek constantly.

I have a black 2006 Audi A4 2.0T.

Thanks - oh, by the way, what's the recourse if this is true?

Hi. welcome to the forum.. its called brake dust.. i get it all the time.. you just kinda have to deal with it.. happens to almost all cars

I think the second mechanic was telling you, you had cheap brake pads so he could sell you his "nice" expen$ive ones. What a ploy....

my other mechanic said that good brake pads don't release all that dust - only cheap pads (eg. ceramic brake pads do not create all that dust). Also, I've owned cars for years and have never had such filthy rims.

No, he's a friend of mine and not trying to sell me anything. He's just concerned because my rims are filthy constantly and I'm always upset about it.

Get some good pads

yeah.. i guess i have cheap pads too on my car

This is a new car! As far as I know, Audi factory installs high end ceramic brake pads. My car is under warranty. Why would the dealer uninstall the good brake pads and reinstall cheap pads before letting me drive off the lot? It makes no sense that an Audi dealership would do this.

Even expensive ceramic pads dust a little, you just gotta deal with it. I hear the mintex pads don't dust that much.

There are several types of brake pads available. The organic kind I believe are the worst for dust followed by the semi-metallic. Ceramics are by far the best for low dust. When I bought my car it had crappy pads on and they dusted like crazy just like you were saying. The rims were filthy within a day. I replaced my pads (even though the crappy ones were new) with a good set of ceramics and now its hard to see any brake dust at all even after weeks of driving.

I recommend Akebono Euro ceramic brake pads, you can get them at tirerack.com
There are also several other good ceramic brands available. Put some ceramics on and you will notice a huge difference in the amount of dust produced. Ceramics also bite just as hard as the cheaper pads and as far as the Akebonos that I bought, there has been zero squeeling even after I first put them on before the break in period.

Ceramics are the solution to your problem.