Brake Dust?

[scottl]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2001 RX300 and both of my front rims are always almost black from the brake dust. The back rims look fine and other RX300's that I've seen don't seem to get as dirty as mine. I would wash the wheels and rims and within a week, they are black again. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

Scott

[Erv]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2001 RX300 and both of my front rims are always almost black from the brake dust.  The back rims look fine and other RX300's that I've seen don't seem to get as dirty as mine.  I would wash the wheels and rims and within a week, they are black again.  Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

Scott

←

I changed over to ceramic pads on front and back. This eliminated most of the brake dust issue. Brand name I got was "Satified", bought through JC Whitney at about $60 per set.

[scottl]

Before you replaced the brake pads were your front rims always filthy?

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2001 RX300 and both of my front rims are always almost black from the brake dust.  The back rims look fine and other RX300's that I've seen don't seem to get as dirty as mine.  I would wash the wheels and rims and within a week, they are black again.  Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

Scott

←

I changed over to ceramic pads on front and back. This eliminated most of the brake dust issue. Brand name I got was "Satified", bought through JC Whitney at about $60 per set.

←

[LexKid630]

I have a 2003 rx300 AWD 34,700 miles and notice the unusul amount of brake dust too. It's pefectly normal, but is ugly isn't it!!

i'm sure they're the brakes that come stock on an rx300. Just got the car used so don't know if they're new or origional.

[TunedRX300]

Do have aftermarket semi-metallic pads? They are notorious for generating tons of brake dusts.

Go for ceramic for low dust, I have Akebono, rockauto.com for $49 shipped using a 5% coupon that I found by Google.

[VGR]

Sounds like someone installed aftermarket brake pads at some point.

Genuine Toyota brake pads are low dust, long wearing and minimize brake rotor wear. You can order them from newlexusparts.com and irontoad.com for

FRONT PADS, RX300 99-03 $49.77

REAR PADS, RX300 99-03 $48.31

You don't pay sales tax so that offsets most of the shipping cost.

[mikey00]

I second what VGR is saying. The stock pads on this car are one of its better features. They work well, last a long time and have relatively low dusting.

[TunedRX300]

Brake dusts are corrosive, soon after this member posted about bubbling of paint on OEM rims, I found my rims' paint bubbling also.

Brake Dust Corrosive

Lexus dealer said dusts from OEM pads is to blame, in the next sentence, refused to repair under paint warranty since it is not included. To be fair, I spent two winters at NYC so perhaps road salt also contributed. But the member in the above thread is in SF, CA - no road salt there for sure.

[scottl]

Thanks for everyone's help.

[scottl]

Another dumb question from a guy who knows nothing about cars.

1. Are the stock pads, ceramic?

2. If I replace the pads (to fix the dust), do I also need to replace the rotors? and is it easy to replace the pads myself?

Thanks.