umpalumpa

I've never had a performance car like this before so i really dont know that much about these huge brakes. is a lot of brake dust on the front rims normal? i wash my 350 (myself) probably every 1 to 2 weeks and the front wheels are really well coated w/ dust. I washed it yesterday morning, drove it around a little in the afternoon and the dust was already building strong. i've seen a lot of bmw's w/ dirty *** wheels so i assume thats just the way it is. just curious, how long does a set of brakes last with normal - not aggressive driving (i know it depends on a lot of things) but i could make the brakes on my es300 last for like 40k miles. should i expect less?

VVT-i

Yeah, that's normal for the IS350 and also the 06 GS430. Both cars use the same front brake set up and brake pads materials.

Kermee

iTrader: (1)

Normal on my IS 250 AWD too. It's getting better now though but it's gone through about 1600 miles in 3 weeks.

Payam

It's pretty bad on my car too. I can wash my car, then a couple days later, they will be covered in brake dust.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

well the is350 and gs430 have high performance brakes, so that's expected

xravexboix

Don't expect the life of the pads to last as long as the ES pads lasted... (unless you strictly drive highway lol). I think the estimated life is between 15-20K though...

SportyStar

Same here. Dust, dust, and more dust! I've heard of Rain-X ... any entrepreneurial chemists out there who might be able to invent some Dust-X for IS250/350 rims?

By the way, does anyone know if the OE friction material on our brakes are ceramic? I understand many new vehicles are equipped with OE ceramic pads, but then again, you never know. In theory, the ceramics produce less brake dust ... but gosh, even if our IS pads ARE ceramic, there's more dust on my rims than there is on the top of my refrigerator!

Donger

The dust sucks - all my BMW's were terrible. You'd clean them and they'd get dirty by the end of the block. After years of fighting it, I found that keeping a good layer of wax on the rims helps it come off with less work and chrome rims are much better than painted rims for cleaning.

Not sure about the pads Lexus is using, but the BMW pads will go about 25-30k miles on normal high-spirited driving (got 40k on my X5 and even with that many miles, they were still dumping dust - I don't know where it was coming from). I tried the 'dustless' pads on one BMW, but I didn't like how they felt. There are lots of choices for dustless pads, I will probably try another brand when that time rolls around. Until then, keep 'em waxed and a quick squirt with a good wheel cleaner every week (you'll get good at just spraying the rims and keeping the rest of the car dry) is about all you can do

Bichon

Perhaps that estimate in the brochure was likely written by the same lawyers that disable half the functions on the nav display as soon as you start moving.

My old Audi S4 had the same type of pads, and they lasted over 60,000 miles in mixed driving. (Though I've read of people who could kill a set in less than a day by bringing their car to the track)

I'll be very disappointed if I don't get at least 40k out of mine.

Tony1

Haha, my 330cic was horrible as well, i would literally drive around the block and
there'd be brake dust on the rims.. My IS350 is not as bad..

jlin101

It's normal for high-performance brakes to give off lots of dust--the Brembo on my 2003 G35C was the same way. I doubt it if Lexus uses ceramic pads in these brakes--ceramic pads are quite expensive and tend to squeak. Waxing is good, but takes a lot of work, esp with multi-spoke wheels. When I spray my tires with rubber protector, some of the foam always gets on the wheel, I just wipe it all over the wheel, and the silicone in the fluid makes it easier to remove the brake dust later (dust still sticks, just comes off easier as opposed to no protection). I haven't found waxing to be any better. And if brake dust gets into the pores after awhile, WD40 gets it out very well (I am hesitant to use corrosive/acid wheel cleaners on the alloy). WD40 is also good for removing tar and bugs.

On a side note, how do you guys like the IS350's brake system? Some car mags have criticized it for not being as easy to modulate as, say, 330i's. I personally have found the brakes to be excellent--powerful and quiet, unlike the grabby/twitchy and squeaky Brembo on G35C. Incidentally, Infiniti no longer puts Brembo on G35C, although 350Z still has them. Wonder if it had to do with all the complaints of rotor warping.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

if you ask me? it's power "at first", but after some driving they fade bad. the is350 i drove at the taste of luxury event, damn the car didn't stop at all, not impressive at all consider it's much bigger and supposedly better than the normal ones.

the brakes on the g35c i still think it's how people break them in. all bbk (brembo, stoptech, ap racing, etc...) you need to break them in correctly otherwise it's going to squeak like hell. i have ap racing and stoptech and i had to do that carefully.

shaolin

iTrader: (2)

i think it's normal and it's not bugging me at all..

06350is

The squeling has nothing to do with how they were broken in. Brembos always make noice no matter what, ive owned a sti and a evo which both have brembos on them and they always made noise. It was the worse when it was cold and when hitting them in going in reverse. They are a high performance brake set up, you gotta expect some sort of noise from them.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

ummm they would make noise if you use highly metallic pads. my ap racing and stoptech are very quiet, i wouldn't say all bkk will have noise. i wonder people here with brembo brakes whether they have problems or not (if broken in correctly).

i am going to see a gs with brembo as well that squeak bad. but he did not brake in the brakes at all after install -- big mistake