[brodie]

Anybody experienced pitting of your rims from brake dust? I have the gold BBS 17"ers.

I let mine go 2 weeks one time only, and that was enough. All 4 are now pitted in the corners, with the fronts being the worst (naturally). Dealer told me it's "road hazzard" and that the owners manual says to wash 'em often (like I should've known to wash 'em daily).

Take a week off and loose $2800?! BBS SUCKS!!...

My base-line 02 WRX cheap-ohs shamed these piles... Same for the aftermarkets I've seen on other cars... No excuses for BBS & Subie on this one - You'd think these companies ought to konw how to handle some Brembo-dust... Shamefull... :evil:

[jim]

I think the blaim goes to the brake pads, not the wheels.

Different brake pad compounds are more corrosive to wheels than others.

[CloNeGTS]

A coat of wax would have helped.....

[olappa]

I got the pitting too. Oh well....

[ashumo]

try living in alaska. go get yourself some surface paint cleaner from napa and use it on your rims, then wash em real well, then wax. cleaning there after is a breeze.

[Rev]

Brake dust + water = highly acidic and corrosive compound.

[FasStAsS_sTi]

Originally Posted by STi_Thunder

Brake dust + water = highly acidic and corrosive compound.

REALLY?

[sin52]

Don't have pitting yet but only washed/waxed twice since pick up in September. Last wash was in Oct I think, can't remember.
--Sin52

[Rev]

Linky:

http://www.autoeducation.com/carcare/wheels.htm

Brake pads are made from several components, including monofilament carbon fibers, metal filings, Kevlar fibers and polymer based adhesives. The brake pad adhesive is the root of most of our problems. When the adhesive residue (a component of brake dust) becomes wet, it turns acidic and may etch your wheels. The metal filings, during braking, will become red hot and tend to "burn" tiny holes in the finish of your wheels. If you have small droplets that look like road tar on your wheels, this may not be road tar, but may in fact be re-polymerized brake pad adhesive

[FasStAsS_sTi]

nice find! very informative

thanks

[salisburyv]

a couple of pits too...really small...hardly see em....waxing the rims has really helped

[brodie]

Thx for the wax tip. Wish I"d known sooner! I had an older Bimmer w/ BBS wheels - those were pitted too. It was a lapper so no big. Seems like the BBS's are more prone to it though, as my other cars w/ painted aluminum rims weren't as sensitive as these two, or it may be the pad mat'l. I noticed a big decrease in brake dust on my Dodge truck going to ceramics, but don't know how they'd perform on an STi.

[ICHIBAN]

Excellent post! Thanks for bringing this issue up. I've had my car for the most part in storage with limited driving over the last 6 months. Now that my primary is down, I'm driving it the brutal snowseason. As soon as I read this post, I made sure to check my rims and wipe them down...Any professional tips on cleaning and preserving these "delicate BBS rims?" Also, whats the best way to clean the deep inset of the rim itself, behind the spokes. I have a hard time getting my hand back there and jackin' the car up isn't practical. I can think of some ways to improvise around this, but thought, perhaps, someone on this post might have already come up with the best solution! Or, is this just a lost cause and a war of attrition?

[Rev]

Cleaning the inside of the rims and the back of the spokes is a PITA. Lots of nooks and crevices where a hand can't fit.

As soon as most of the snow season is done, say end of March, April, I plan on taking all the wheels and washing them all around, I think this is what most people do.