I have 715 miles on my new f-150 and the front wheels are totally black. It seems that all Fords have this problem. Is there any correction to this problem? I have a friend who has over 80.000 miles on a ford truck and has used at least 4 different companies brake shoes and all did it. Why, GM products do not do this.

 

G M cars do it also. If you think american cars are bad check out some German autos .My lariat has about 2500 miles on it and the problem has got a lot better but it may be because of cold weather.don't know if it will ever stop completely.

Mike

 

Had same problem with my 04, it's worse until the pads brake in. Still have some , but with miles & waxing the H out of the wheels, it is now not a big problem.

 

I have 4500 miles on my FX4 and still get brake dust buildup on the front wheels. I just dust 'em about every other day. No biggie. i just hope this doesn't mean we'll have to replace them soon.
I never had to replace the breaks on my 98 mustang and it had 78k miles on it. 'Course it squealed like a mother and didn't stop too well. j/k about that last part.

 

This is not a problem, but more so a characteristic. Annoyong to see on your truck. Look at all other cars on the road and you'll notice most vehicles have darker front rims. Yep samr thing.
I do not know if it's available for the 04, but you can buy a deflector that goes behind the wheel.

 

I dont usually have problems with brake dust, and neither does my dad in his Dodge 1500. He used to be a Ford man but then Bill Elliott switched and he thought good enough for Bill good enough for me. We are generally light on the brakes, easily 50-60k with lots pad left. I had a 96 TBird and not so easy on the brakes and dust all the time. I think that if the pads wear too quickly the dust builds up. Just my 2cents

 

There is a product called "Kleen Wheels" that works pretty good. It a deflector that is installed behind the wheels.


http://www.kleenwheels.com

 

$100~ isn't bad. Do you have them? How do the look if you do?

 

I don't remember the brand, but on my last truck (Ranger FX4 Level II) I changed to ceramic rotors and they helped reduce the brake dust big time.

They were double the price of the regular non-ceramic rotors, but IMO worth it. I bought them at NAPA.

 

baja_stx,

ceramic rotors? or ceramic pads? I'm thinking pads...

brake dust is a necessary evil as far as I'm concerned. If there was no build-up, they wouldn't be working as planned. Pads are consumable, the stuff has to go somewhere. Like earlier mentioned, dust 'em off regularly and she'll stay lookin' good.

 

It does seem excessive on this particular truck.

 

My wife had the Kleen wheel shields installed on her Expedition and it definitely did the trick...and they don't look bad either. Expeditions are notoriusly bad for front brake dust. Most likely I will put them on my new truck (on order SCREW Lariat Black/Beige loaded to the hilt) BTW... cat back Borla exhaust came in before truck. Oh well!

 

I don't have kleenwheels on my truck but I've been thinking about it. A friend has them on his Tundra and they work great. I didn't even notice they were on until he pointed them out.

One word of caution though. My friend took his truck in for a brake problem (TSB) under warranty. The dealer said that the cleanwheels voided the warranty. What a bunch of crap. That's like saying hubcabs void the warranty. No worries, he just took them off and went to a different dealer.

 

you said it, G M produts do not have anywhere near the brake problems that ford has. My neighbor is a ford service manager and he has told that ford is aware of the brake dust problems. They are supposed to come out with a "tsb"for the 2003 expedition to change over to a new brake shoe and rotor for the front only to solve the problem.
Just remember, the more dust the more wear. That dust isn't comming from nowhere. Your brakes will not last long at all. Ford knows that they have a problem here they areworking on a fix -- it'll probably come right after the vibration fix. haha
I have a buddy that had to put new rotors and pads on a 03' expedition 4x4 with 23,000 miles. That sucks!!!!!! and no he does not pull a trailer with it. Oh by the way, I have a 03' f150 4x4 lariat that has no brake dust issues. It went 67,000 miles on the original brakes. Maybe ford should go back to the 03 brake assembly. Just my .02 cents worth.

 

I sure hope it get's better. I have 500 miles and the front wheels are almost black. I washed them very good one day and the next were filthy already. I will probably get the inside covers everyone is talking about.