Astral

I recently changed the pads and rotors to Hawk HPS Ceramic and RacingBeat slotted rotors. Bedded in as per Hawk instructions.

I noticed that over time, the rear wheels accumulate three to five times as much brake dust as the fronts. Right now, the rears are covered in red ceramic dust (look like somebody exploded a ceramic flower pot over them) and the fronts are just lightly dusty.

Is this normal? Anyone with Hawk HPS Ceramic pads care to weigh in?

It seems abnormal to me. (Not that I care that much about brake dust, but if this is a symptom of a real problem, I want to fix it).

If so, what could be causing this?

1) Maybe the e-brake is sticking? ... I don't think that this is the case, as there's a normal amount of travel before the e-brake grabs, and the car rolls forward just fine w/o the e-brake applied.

2) Maybe I didn't turn the rear calipers in enough? ... Doubt this too: I was able to put the new full-thickness pads over the new full-thickness rotor without problems. Also, when I began driving, the e-brake didn't actually work until I pumped the brake pedal several times, so I'm assuming that this pushed the calipers back closer to the pad (and so they were turned in enough).

3) Do we have an adjustable brake bias of some sort? Maybe my brake bias is messed up somehow? ...

4) Grasping at straws: maybe the rear rotors weren't bedded in fully because of the front brake bias built into the car, so the transfer layer film is absent on the rears? (Or maybe casual braking wore the film away?) And so that's causing extra wear?

Go48

Bleed the brakes to eliminate the possibility of air in one or more lines. If you track the car, change to a high temp brake fluid like ATE Super Blue while you're at it. Does seem unusual for more brake dust to be on the rear vs. the front wheels.

Asmoran

I get more brake dust on the rears as well. I'm running HPS non-ceramic pads.

lshu

I'm having these same issues too with Hawk HPS pads. The rears dust like 3 times more than the front (and needless to say, after checking them, are wearing much quicker). Anyone have an answer to this yet? I figure it's either the brake bias or the rears are somehow dragging more against the rotors. Pretty sure there is no air in the system as the braking feels great.

Razz1

umm... interesting

Astral

Try bleeding the brakes anyway. That answer seems to make the most sense. Mine stopped being so disproportionate after a while, maybe the "air" moved around in the lines. I had the brakes bled and it seemed OK from then, but honestly, with all the wintry weather, it's been difficult to tell the discrepancy.

mysql

I have drilled and slotted rotors, and hawk ceramic pads. The front and rears are usually about the same with dust. With the OEM pads, the fronts almost always had more.

If I wash the car weekly, I don't notice much dust, so it's only been the few times that I've gone 2+ weeks between washes that I've noticed. So might not be a big enough sample to matter.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Same issue here.
I'm not worried about it.
Hawk HPS.

HiTMaNN

Racing beat has a brake set for the 8? WTF or did you mean RacingBreak?

lshu

Well, from all these responses, it seems that those having this "issue" are all using Hawk pads. When I had my oems, my dusting was a little more on the front... interesting

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

slotted rotors dust more than plain rotors