RE: "Dustless" brake pads

[alex.fadeev@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Gregory F. March [mailto:march@domain.elided] wrote:
> 
> I'm interested in reducing the amount of brake dust on my '99 M
> Roadster. I have a friend who runs Pagid pads on his 3 series (but
> I can't remember which color he runs) and I've been reading about
> the EBC pads (red and green).

Greg,
Are you implying that your friend's Pagids dust less than your stock
(Jurid/Textar/Pagid <- the same) pads? If so ask him where he bought his or
give Steve D a call (www.ultimategarage.com). I've tried both Pagids and
Jurids and though both were good steet/autoX pads, dust less they were not. 
Generally, you can have about 1.5 out of the following three brake pad
qualities {1. dust-less, 2. quiet, 3. track-worthy}. EBC pads are non of the
three. Stock pads are mostly 2 and 3. Some non-track aftermarket pads are 1
and 3 (PBR Deluxe and Hawk HPS comes to mind), but I would not want to have
either one of those two on my car for anything other than daily commuting.
Not even an autoX.

> What is the current net.wisdom?  Do they work as "dustless" pads?  Do
> they harm rotors?  Do they need too much warmup time?  What pads do
> *you* run to reduce dust?

Firstly, all brake pads dust. What you are really looking for are the pads
that dust in light silver color making the brake pad dust less visible.
I run Hawk HPStreet pads on my M3, PBR Metal Masters on my wife's 328i and
PBR Deluxes on my E30. The above three are the holy trinity of the dustless
pads. The dust generated by these three pads almost perfectly matches the
silver color of stock BMW wheels making it nearly invisible. The wheels just
become less shiny as they dust, but you will never guess they are as dirty
as they really are by looking at them. 
However, I find all three of these "dust-less" pads woefully inadequate for
any kind of spirited driving as they heat up out of their operating
temperature range after a single 100-20 stop. PBR Deluxes are by far the
worst performers in the above groups, but they are also the quietest.
But if you don't mind swapping them in and out for autoX and track events
like most of us do, than go ahead and get them. If nothing else they are
cheap.

alex f

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