I have an 2011 Ecoboost SCAB and the front brake dust is ruining my chrome package wheels.The rears are fine. Anyone try ceramic or low dust pads??

 

Just invest in a good tire cleaner and some elbow grease. Mine looked pretty bad too but they wiped clean pretty quick with the right stuff.

 

Try this, it keeps my white wheels looking (relatively) clean for weeks.

 

Once you clean the wheels, thoroughly, spray them with a good spray on wax/detailer. I use the 3M Quick Wax. It's a spray on, wipe off, with no hazing.
3M - Quick Wax
Doing so will help repell the dust, and protect that chrome cladding you have. Should be able to extend wheel cleanings by about another week.

I use it after washes between real waxing to keep the luster up on the paint as well. It's a good product, can be found on Amazon for cheap too.

 

all the products and adivce above is good.

to answer the other part of your question regarding ceramic brakes, yes, i have used them, and yes they will all but eliminate your brake dust problems, in my experiences anyway.

I've got 3 vehicles with ceramics and i have ZERO visible dust from any of them. They do make dust, but it is grey-white in color, so you don't see it, and it is very slight at most.

I will warn you that they have a different feel. They have a very progressive feeling to them, as in you feel like you have pedal to the floor before they really "bite" ... but they stop as good or better than a semi-metallic, it just feels like it takes more pedal to get them to really bind.

I also have Wagner Thermo-Quiet's on our Subaru, front and rear, and I have never noticed any dust on that vehicle either. the Wagner's have a better feel than the ceramics, more normal feeling.

Any of the above will likely be better than what you are likely dealing with. Ford has always kinda been that way, when you get one that makes brake dust, they REALLY turn black in a hurry .... I had one do that to me and switched out brand new brake pads becasue of it ... stopped fine, but i couldn't tolerate the dust.

good luck.

 

Thanks for the input.I think Im going to try new pads.

 

Check out the video on the Armor All site first. You might want to try that new protectant for awhile and use up some of your OEM pads first. I haven't used this product yet but it looks great!
Armor All® - Product Detail

 

Better pads make more dust. Look at a BMW.

 

I second that. I have to clean my wheels after every trip.

 

Put a coat of wax on the rims periodically after cleaning them, and the brake dust cleans much easier.

 

I've been using a special wheel wax made by a company called DP. It's supposed to be able to tolerate the heat produced by braking. It seems to work very well. The brake still make tons of dust, but are easy to clean.

 

cheaper brake pads also make more dust.

there is a happy medium between cheap crappy pads that make dust and HD pads that make dust.

any of your premium parts house brake pads will be an improvement with regard to making less dust, and if they are application specific friction, which most upper level aftermarket pads are, there will be no reduction in braking capabilities.

If you can find 'em, the top line Bendix pads are by far the best i've ever used (the ones with the titanium coating for break-in). Unbelievable initial bite, usually much better than OEM for both Ford and Chevy, last incredibly long and the dust they do make is a medium brown color, and not nearly as heavy as the nasty black some Ford OEM pads tend to make.

Ceramics are still worth considering IMO. The dust is non existant, or not noticable, and they do handle the heat of severe braking with less fade than your parts house semi-metallics. Like i said, though, the initial bite takes some getting used to.

I spent 3 years or so of my life selling parts, and i've tried just about every price point of brake pad and shoe offered ... just so you understand where i'm coming from.

Everyone says just get used to cleaning them .... i'm with you, i just cant stand it.... if it were me, i'd change the pads and never look back. keep the stockers in the garage and use 'em when the truck is old and crappy looking anyway. Not only is that what i *would* do, it is what i *did* do....

 

I'm in Mike's corner on this one. I finally got sick of the dust on my 06 and changed the pads to ceramic. They stop as well or better than the semi-metallics. The hotter they are the better the bite. It's really nice now to take a 500 mile trip and not have black front wheels. Bendix and Wagner are an excellent semi-metallic pad the give off little dust. I installed a set of Bendix pads on a 94 Taurus at 70,000 miles and the pads were still on it at 170,000 miles. They were getting thin, but still there none the less with no brake dust. Driving was 50-50 city/highway.

 

I run very aggressive pads so...I just deal with dust. But my rigs stop on a dime.

 

When you go to ceramic pads keep in mind that you sacrifice better stopping power for less brake dust. You will also wear rotors out faster due to the pads being quite a bit harder on them. The hotter the pads get the better they stop. The problem is most of the time your pads will not be real hot when you need to stop instantly. I will take the dust and cold stopping power.