New caps look much better, the old ones are too busy for me.

 

Personally, I don't have much of a preference....I'd say they both look good.

 

I think for $20 a cap its a nice upgrade.

One other really nice improvement is the brake pads. On my S560 they dusted so bad, a 20 minute drive and the wheels were thick with black dust. The new one though I drove 100 miles and the wheels are clean.

 

...but are you getting the same brake-effectiveness? Though not always the case, worn-off dust is often a sign of effective friction between the pads and rotors.

 

Provably better for what he is doing actually, metallics tend to need to warm up a little and can withstand much more extreme heat at the cost of normal driving behavior.

And yeah, German stuff really doesn't like weak batteries in anything. I just discovered my key fobs can in fact have enough battery to have the passive entry to work and button presses work but not enough for the car to allow a normal start. It kept asking me to tap the key on the dash and I thought it was having an error but I wasn't getting codes....never thought it was the key battery until I just threw a new one in.

 

Braking performance is great. I went to ceramic pads on the S560 (and both LS460s) and also had no reduction in braking performance

 

maybe the new rims have a coating on them
or something. I’ve seen a Mercedes likes yours with brake dust

 

Drive long enough on any pads and you will get dust. Next set of rims/car I buy I will be taking the time to remove and fully clean the rims so they can be ceramic coated to reduce the dust issue as low as possible since it's usually the first thing that triggers me to wash a car.

 

Yeah always going to have brake dust, it’s how quickly it accumulates. Literally on the 560 until I had the pads replaced with ceramic I would have to wash it twice a week, brake dust all down the sides etc. After that one day of driving it would have black wheels.

 

Sounds like my current issue with my brakes on the W12 lol! I stupidly went with the semi-race pads and they are eroding my sanity with dust and squeal at parking lot speeds, killer when pushed but if just cruising it's overkill. I love them on the backroads where the other A8 overheats the brakes but day to day it's getting old

 

On my GTR the Brembos are so bad that I could drive around without or barely touching the brakes and there is brake dust on my wheels. On my Durango the brembos on those were so bad after one rain the sides of my car had brake dust smeared down the side. After only 250 miles I put new brake pads on that didn’t dust nearly as much.

Like your W12 on my stock brakes on my X7 brakes do have a fair amount of dust but the worst part is when it is cold they squeal so loud the other cars can hear it with the windows up. I was following someone I knew and it was so loud they called me and asked if the noise was coming from my car, so embarrassing and my only excuse was they are high performance brakes and it’s normal.

 

Yep lol! I had my dad ask me the same thing when he was waiting at my house, he asked why my car was screaming and I responded by slamming the brakes twice to get heat in them and quiet. It is really making me want to get CCBs because they always squeal and if anyone asks I at least have the excuse I have carbon brakes lol!

 

LOL that’s a cost effective way of justifying the squeal!

 

@JDR76 Loving this 38 gallon tank. Thx to couple 18 wheelers carrying a good pace while I drafted them, my mpg shot up .8 which allowed me to make it the final stretch.

 

Interesting seeing the "Ethanol Free Gas". Never seen that before. Not sure if that's available in PA.

7.4 mpg. Towing giant bales of hay?