brake dust

is there an after market brake pad for the d 40 as the genuine 1's are shit. ya clean ya and the front wheels are dirty the next day...
anyone gotta fix?

Yeah don't drive the car.

I'm not ready to write off the genuine pads as being shit just because there is brake dust on the rims they stop the car and to me that's good enough for me to keep them genuine, atleast until the need replacing and going by other Nissan's of had that wont be for a long while yet.

I've had a number of cars with front discs and some accumulate brake dust more than others. The Nav is probably the worse of all the Nissan's I've owned but I put that down to things like ventilation, the shape of the wheels and the fact that it's a heavier vehicle. All pads have to give off some dust and if the that dust can't be got rid of before it sticks to the wheels is that really the fault of the pads themselves?

Of course I could be wrong I'm not a brake expert, but I have a relative who is and he's not pushing me to replace the pads in mine with anything he thinks is better.

Cover the wheels in mud! You will not notice the brake dust at all and it adds a protective layer! - cheaper and more fun than anything you can get from Soopercheap as a preventative for build up or for cleaning!

You could always paint the rims black too.

or just remove the front discs altogether there is brakes on the back who needs all four wheels to stop at once when two of them are only going to get covered in brake dust.

Im not 100% sure but if i remember correctly that car wash stuff thats in a can where you dont need to use water, i think if you use that on the rims brake dust wont stick to em, or it could of been wd40 as well.

I've heard the WD40 theory before but never tried it just like I've heard that tyre shine works and it makes sense that anything that puts on a protective layer of sorts and is non adhesive will probably work but I reckon those sort of things have a tendency to just come off when you don't want them too.

I've never let service agents or tyre mobs put any shining or black stuff on the tyres because in nearly all cases as soon as the tyres get wet the spinning around they get when driving just spreads the crap onto panels and mudflaps and on light coloured cars especially tyre shine splotches doesn't look good.

blue boy said:

is there an after market brake pad for the d 40 as the genuine 1's are shit. ya clean ya and the front wheels are dirty the next day...





anyone gotta fix?

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Put a Drum Brake front-end in.

Krankin said:

Put a Drum Brake front-end in.

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KraftyPg said:

You could always paint the rims black too.

or just remove the front discs altogether there is brakes on the back who needs all four wheels to stop at once when two of them are only going to get covered in brake dust.

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Fair dinkum guys! Bloke asks a legitimate question, some of the responses lately leaves me scratching my head.

Not sure why, but it seems to be a pattern in my experience that euro OEM brake pads are dusty. Every euro built vehicle I've owned has been the same.

The Navara does generate a fair bit of brake dust on the front, but you should see my ML Merc - makes the D40 look pristine! That being said, the ML will out-brake most other vehicles on the road... Nothing comes without a compromise.

You're right though - the genuine Nissan pads do seem to stop well. Hot, cold, repeated stops - all no problem.

I wonder if there's something like a small tab that can be added to the inside of the mag's trailing edge to act a bit like an aircraft's landing flaps, which draw the air down harshly - so that at speed, the air is aggressively moved towards the inside. This would result in the brake dust being transferred to the inside part of the rim and the inner guard, leaving the outside nice and clean. Or a bit cleaner, anyway.

KraftyPg said:

I've heard the WD40 theory before but never tried it just like I've heard that tyre shine works and it makes sense that anything that puts on a protective layer of sorts and is non adhesive will probably work but I reckon those sort of things have a tendency to just come off when you don't want them too.

I've never let service agents or tyre mobs put any shining or black stuff on the tyres because in nearly all cases as soon as the tyres get wet the spinning around they get when driving just spreads the crap onto panels and mudflaps and on light coloured cars especially tyre shine splotches doesn't look good.

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Your right about the tyre shine stuff ending up on the panel work of the car, and old tony your theory seems like a good idea but im wondering if all that dust that were left on the inside of the rim would have an effect on brake performance, balance of rim and if would create more unnecesary heat. In saying that has anyone who has different rims to factory have the brake dust problem?

I'd be more worried about messing with the cooling of the discs. Are they ventilated at all on the D40?

Mine's up in a parking station at the moment so I can't stick my head under it and check. The manual has a picture that shows vents on the rotor but it doesn't specifically state that it's a venitlated brake rotor.

It does say that the rotor should be 28mm thick with a minimum thickness of 26mm. I can't imagine the disc being anything other than ventilated for that sort of thickness.

There might be another alternative, and that's to deliberately vent incoming air from the front of the vehicle to the brakes using a flexible duct (like on racing cars). Sounds a bit overboard, really, but it could be done.

so.........no one know's of an after market pad that doesn't give off as much dust???

Kraftypg, a set of split rims with some rags would also solve the problem.

sorry lads, just saw the thread titled D40 brake problems. covers everything i was after in this thread.

i should of had a better look.

cheers blueboy

I'm still not willing to just say Nissan pads are crap because they spit dust out because I still think it has more to do with ventilation rather than crappy pads which I'm sure Nissan just buy from another manufacturer. However I have noticed my front right has more dust on it that the left, maybe I've turned more right corners and the dust has blown out better I really don't know but as the car doesn't pull to one side under braking it's not something I'm overly worried about either, just something I've noticed.

Cowboyfan,

After my first legitamate answer,
maybe you can accept this legit answer better.


when someone invents a friction operated disc/pad system that never wears,

ONLY THEN WILL YOU HAVE NO DUST!

I have noticed my front right has more dust on it that the left

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Mine's the opposite. There's every chance that my left wheel saw a small amount of grit that scarred the rotor surface and the right one didn't. Since I have taken her off road, and through a creek, it's entirely possible.

I didn't go offroad into the bush on my trip but I went on quite a number of dirt roads, tracks and areas that didn't have bitumen but nothing a 2wd couldn't handle but really the amount of brake dust to me isn't that bad cause I did drive over 8000k's and over such distances you can't expect nothing. Even in the few thousand ks I did before I left for the trip I wasn't worried about the amount of dust. I'll have a look at the pads next week when it goes in for its 10K service but unless the wear is excessive I'll more than likely be forgetting about the pads and dust for another 10K alteast.

blue boy said:

is there an after market brake pad for the d 40 as the genuine 1's are shit. ya clean ya and the front wheels are dirty the next day...
anyone gotta fix?

Click to expand...

i bought a set of front pads that was brakedust free from "brakemart" unsure if u have that store there and they had a brand started with B not brembo/bilstein and only costed $56 for the pair....sorry i cant think of them atm...will update when i do