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Brake dust on one side

5K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  srea064 
#1 ·
Washed the car and took it out for a slow drive (no heavy braking) and noticed that when I got back that there was loads of redish brake dust on the front drivers side wheel and hardly anything on the passenger side,was the same before I washed the car.Would indicate that the one side is playing up.
Anyone else had the same?
Drivers side
5942

Passenger side
5943
 
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#2 ·
I haven't noticed and will check but it occurs to me that with all the rain we have had recently we are more likely to hit roadside puddles with the left wheels. Therefore washing the brake dust off more. It will be worth checking later this week when the weather is meant to be much drier.
 
#11 ·
In most cases, brake squeal is caused by uneven pad deposits (leading to the vibration and resonances) and can be temporarily alleviated by doing 5 or 6 aggressive hard stops, from 60-0 one after the other. Then drive to cool them down. They won’t squeal for a while after that, until you build up more deposits over time.

And the propensity for sport/performance cars to squeal? Larger discs, larger pad area, bigger surfaces, different pad material for higher speeds and harder braking all contribute.
 
#12 ·
Certainly that does make sense. But does it make sense on a car that is 3-4 weeks old and with 1000 easy run-in KM on it?
 
#13 ·
It can do, the problem is that the pad material has been designed for aggressive brake usage, and using it "lightly" does cause more problems with pad deposits, leading to squeal.

If you perform the 5-6 hard aggressive 60-0 stops as suggested above, you'll fine that your brake squeal will disappear (as you get rid of all the hardened pad deposits due to 'light' braking!).

Unfortunately, there is no best of both worlds. You can have pad material that is suitable for slow city braking, with no squeal, but that won't perform when asked, or you can have pad material that is suited for performance cars, which will stop you from 155mph to 0 repeatedly, but will squeal when used lightly.

Also- by treating the brakes 'lightly' and not bedding in the brakes properly - this will also cause issues, you do still have to bed in brakes, even on modern cars:

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT WARPED BRAKE ROTORS..

http://www.brakeworld.co.uk/pdf/tb1.pdf
 
#14 ·
Did we get anywhere on the more brake dust on the driver's side issue. Which was the purpose of the thread. If not I think my original prognosis that the passenger side gets more of a wash from road puddles may be correct 🤷‍♂️
 
#15 ·
From airflow point of view, driver side has air flow from the front inter-cooler flowing into the wheel well which the passenger side does not. In terms of heat dissipation as well, more heat seems to radiate out from driver side panels instead of passenger side which is by design I think, as passenger side has the battery, ECU and airbox which will benefit from the cooler temperatures on that side.
 
#16 ·
It would be interesting to get a response from one of our Continental friends who own an A45s to see if their right hand wheels gather more brake dust or if it's reversed to the left hand side. But for me I still haven't noticed any difference between each side.
 
#18 ·
Also… brake dust appearing more so on the passenger side could be down to the ‘lane keeping’ applying the passenger side brakes, ever so slightly, to keep you in lane?!?
 
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