I love the stock wheels on my 135i but they are killing me because.......

[twinturbo135i]

............ of all that damn brake dust!

I'm a first time BMW owner so I don't know all the little perks (yet) that comes along with owning one of these fine cars. I just spent three hours doing my first hand wash (and of course under the hood) job which is something I like to do with every new car I get.

so I then hand dry it followed by a couple 65 mph runs so all the water can creep out of all the places where it likes to hide. I then pull in to my driveway and my wheels already look like I hadn't even touched them.

so now I'm already looking to get some nice aftermarket wheels in some sort of black color. I hate to do this because like I said, I love the stock wheels but that damn brake dust would drive me insane. so I wonder if this is a common issue on all expensive cars like these or just the cars that have beefy brakes like ours?

[tiFreak]

it's a BMW thing, the pads they use have very high dust, try going to bavauto and getting some low dust pads if you don't mind replacing the perfectly good pads on there now

[jeff318]

doesnt bavauto sell a dust blocker that you can put behind your wheel to catch the dust

[BMW07]

i just posted this on a different thread.

p21s gel wheel cleaner...you can buy it on amazon. spray on before driving to the wash and the brake dust just falls off. if its REALLY caked on there, you can use a soft sponge (though ive never had to use one...)

oh and it isn't acidic, so if you have a special coat on your wheels, that wont come off.

dont change pads either. this isnt a pontiac....mbz and bmw are notorious for insane amounts of brake dust, but they work much better too.

[tiFreak]

doesnt bavauto sell a dust blocker that you can put behind your wheel to catch the dust

those make the brakes overheat during what bavauto describes as "spirited driving" because they don't get enough airflow

[sausrigging]

time for different pads.. SEARCH.

[JackEatsEmoKids]

Dont get different pads...the dealer will not change them out when your brakes are due. Live with the dust, unless you want to pay.

[klax]

I bought my 325i new in 04. The very first thing I did was to pull the BMW pads and install some low dust brake pads, best thing I've done to the car. How hard are you on your brakes? My warranty will expire in about 800 miles and I probably have several thousand miles left on my pads, so I've never had the dealer touch my brakes.

[BMW07]

time for different pads.. SEARCH.

[dox256]

Authentic BMW's have grey/black front rims! Mine do not, as I've replaced with ceramic pads (check out rockauto.com), but I did this after factory pads wore down and changed the rotors as well. I'm not sure how the factory rotors will hold up with ceramic pads, but I think only the pads are soft (two soft surfaces would make an awful mess as they transfer material back and forth).
It's an easier job replacing the pads than cleaning the rims! And the ceramic dust cleans off easily.

[MJFX328]

PBR Deluxe pads are dustless and work OK for me.

Use Wheel wax. It will coat the wheels so dust comes off easier.

[skylinergtr]

yeah the x3 has the bmws pads, and they are the worst pads for dust. the braking is superb, but the dust is soo high. they are stained soo bad, i dont know what to do anymore. i gave up.

[Codeman]

yeah the x3 has the bmws pads, and they are the worst pads for dust. the braking is superb, but the dust is soo high. they are stained soo bad, i dont know what to do anymore. i gave up.

Your wheels are stained? As in permanently? That's weird.

[06330i06]

Pagid pads from Bav Auto seem to be a lot cleaner than BMW pads, but as one said, you lose the warranty benefits.

+1 on using Wheel wax, it does help.

Staining is common when using commercial wheel cleaners on hot wheels, or even from driving a car with hot wheels into a comm. car wash. My neighbor is a detail pro and I got this info from him. Sometimes these stains can be rubbed and polished out. I found using a foam pad on a drill worked well. But always cleaning cold rims with regular car wash soap, not wheel cleaners, is the key to not having the staining problem to begin with.

BTW - The wheels on my '01 were a pain to clean, too many nooks and crannys. The 18" wheels on my E90 are very easy to clean, just have to do it about 3x a week to keep up.

[raceboy614]

http://www.autogeek.net/wheelwax.html

Pick up a can of this and apply it to your wheels when they are clean. It will make the wheels much easier to clean and they will stay cleaner marginally longer. Another thing that tends to make wheels pick up brake dust more quickly is the spray on tire shine, I've often found that even when I wipe the overspray off, the wheels still collect the dust much more quickly...so if you're spraying that on, try spraying on a towel and then wiping on the tire so there's no overspray on the wheels. Good luck with your new car...

-Daniel