I traded in my 2006 MC for a 2007 MCS (call me crazy ), on both cars I have experienced a weird thing: the wheels are easily covered with a layer of black oily substence and often become dirty, just after a few short trips. I had to wipe them clean often. I observed many other cars, including some MINIs and it seem that their wheels were all perfectly clean. Is this normal?

 

Brake dust?

The OEM brake pads produces lots of it. Waxing your wheels won't stop it, but it'll make it easier to remove it.

 

Mine are like yours, a black oily film after just a few miles. I've only got 700 miles on it, I'm hoping its part of the break in.

 

My wife and I just bought two MCSs, off of the lot, in the last week - one is 4 weeks out of production the other 3 weeks out. Both of ours do exactly the same thing. It's brake dust but the oily part is something else mixed in. Looks like it's normal for the recent R56 MCS Minis. I wouldn't worry about it. I may just change my own pads on the brakes to get it to stop. Going to call the dealer to see what they have to say - but I did notice that a demo there that has a 100 or so miles is doing the same thing. ?????

 

My Wife's 07 wheels get dirty very quickly compared to my 05. I'm guessing there is more carbon in the 07 brakes.

 

Yup, brake dust is a *****. The reason most MINIs you see don't have it is because they have owners who are totally OCD (like me!). I clean my wheels with wheel cleaner at least 2 times a week, and have removed them 3 times in a month and a half to completely clean them!

I hates me some dirty wheels!

 

Thanks guys. Brake dust? Does that mean the brakes on our MINIs need to be serviced and replaced more frequently than they would on other cars, you know the ones that I don't see the brake dust? Is having a lot of brake dust indicative of a subpar quality brake?

I hate having to wipe the wheels clean every week!

 

Odds are the stock brakes on your MINI stop better than 90%+ of the other cars on the road... the OEM pads are designed to have very good street performance while not being noisy. Unfortunatley, BMW's approach to this is to use pads that produce a relatively large amount of BLACK dust. Regarding brake longevity - seems to be about like most other cars, and varies CONSIDERABLY based on your driving habits... hard braking wears them out faster...

ALL brake pads produce dust - some more than others. Also, some dust is darker than other dust, which makes a huge difference (e.g. Hawk ceramic pads produce a lighter weight and lighter colored dust that takes longer to visibily accumulate).

Every week? heh heh... many folks here do a full wash and wheel scrub every week, and "quick detail" their wheels a couple of times per week to keep them clean. There ARE spray on / rinse off cleaners (use the search function in the Detailing 101 forum) but they can be caustic and maybe not so good for your wheels / tires / brakes long term...

 

Basically, most or all the german manufacturers prefer to source brake pads that generate lots of brake dust. Look at any VW, Mercedes, or built in Germany BMW, and you'll notice very dirty front wheels. The Japanese on the other hand seem to prefer a cleaner brake pad, but I have to say I find the stopping power and pedal travel of our WRX to be a little lackluster (still with OEM pads). There are brake pads that generate less brake dust but it's generally a trade off. If you want great stopping power, your wheels are going to look dirty. One tip on wheel cleaning, not all wheel cleaning sprays are the same. Some are so basic (opposite of acidic) that they are harmful to the wheel's clear coat. I get no money for saying this, but I've been buying wheel cleaner from a company called P21S for many years now. Supposedly they sell their product to several car manufacturers to sell as their own wheel cleaner. They're just not allowed to say who. Meguiars makes a pretty good wheel cleaner too that is supposed to be approved by BBS.

 

Mine get fairly dirty after only 50-100 miles of city style driving? Using Hydro on them, has made them much easier to keep clean.

 

The brake dust builds up very quickly, I try to wash the car and wheels every weekend (my wife thinks I'm nuts). The oily part may be some of the residue from the waxy stuff BMW puts on for transit, but that's just a guess. I seemed to have a lot of that waxy stuff and it's still coming out at some points 5 months later.

 

Have you really never experienced brake dust before? Is this your first car?


I've had brake dust that I've had to clean off every wheel of every car I've ever owned. I know it shows up sooner on the MINI, but I find it hard to believe you've never seen brake dust before.

 

With time it gets less dirty. I wax mine and they clean off easy when I wash the car .

 

Uhhh I think we have all experienced brake dust before This is my 8th car & much like the OP I found the amount of brake dust that the MINI puts out to be extremely unusual & it freaked me out too at first... just sayin...

 

I read somewhere that BMW puts softer pads on so the dont squeal .

 

Mine get filthy, especially in the front. If you see clean ones, they've just been washed. And no it won't go away with time (except maybe with different pads).

 

At 2 years I switched to Hawk HPS pads. I feel like the braking power is 90% as good as OEM but they dust waaaaaaay less. My Hawks only dust as much in one week as my OEMs did in one day & they weren't that much more expensive (of course I think the R56 is a whole different ballgame when it comes to pads)

 

I just started using Hydro on them also with good results. Read about it on another tread here.