OCDetails
Member
- Mar 3, 2006
- 853
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I'm doing this in Off Topic because it isn't an Autogeek product, but I thought it might be a helpful review for someone. There are actually some pretty good products available off the shelf, but there are five crappy products for every one good one. I still enjoy testing them out and seeing what works for what though. I've discovered some pretty good things that are easy to get and very effective.
Brake dust is something I don't have to deal with much on my Honda and Toyota, but I know a lot of German car owners who deal with it every time they wash their cars. Audis and BMWs are horrible for it. Mercedes can be bad too. Don't even get me started on the 350Z... In the past I've done what most people here would recommend and applied a sealant to the wheels to help make them easier to clean, but the sealant isn't really a repellant. It just protects the wheels until I can get the crap off. I've tried the wheel waxes and found that they didn't do very good at it either. Not well enough to justify the price, anyway. I've tried a number of off the shelf products that say they will repel brake dust and I've been disappointed by each of them. That is, until now.
Enter an unlikely candidate for the project: Armor All Brake Dust Repellant. Armor All got a really really bad reputation some 30 years ago that I don't think they'll ever really be able to live down, but I suppose someone who has only been buying car care products for the past ten years wouldn't have many reasons to avoid them. They aren't the 'best' in many areas, but they do usually offer most of what they promise on their labels. They have their uses. So when I saw this product on the shelf last week I assumed it would find its way to my 'disgraced products' shelf and it would be a $7 bit of knowledge that wouldn't go anywhere. I've got a jet that I maintain several times a month that has horrible brake dust problems. It's those darn carbon ceramic brake pads from what the pilots tell me. So I figured this was a perfect test bed for the product.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video has to be worth more, so here are my unedited before and afters of the wheels.
So those were from this past Monday. On Thursday I went back to see how it had lasted. According to the flight schedule it has taken a few trips this week. At least three or four landings and take offs. That is enough to build up some good brake dust, so let's see how it turned out.
I'd say it did a pretty good job of keeping the brake dust at bay. I wiped them down again, which will hopefully even out the application, and we'll see how they look next week. I don't need to keep these sparkling white every week or anything, but if I can get a couple weeks out of them before they are black then that is good for me. There are plenty of other areas on this thing I need to keep looking good and spending an extra hour cleaning the landing gears and wheels is time that could be spent scraping bugs off the flaps or something. For now I'd say this is a win. We'll see how long it takes for it to wear off. The can says a month, but we'll see.
Brake dust is something I don't have to deal with much on my Honda and Toyota, but I know a lot of German car owners who deal with it every time they wash their cars. Audis and BMWs are horrible for it. Mercedes can be bad too. Don't even get me started on the 350Z... In the past I've done what most people here would recommend and applied a sealant to the wheels to help make them easier to clean, but the sealant isn't really a repellant. It just protects the wheels until I can get the crap off. I've tried the wheel waxes and found that they didn't do very good at it either. Not well enough to justify the price, anyway. I've tried a number of off the shelf products that say they will repel brake dust and I've been disappointed by each of them. That is, until now.
Enter an unlikely candidate for the project: Armor All Brake Dust Repellant. Armor All got a really really bad reputation some 30 years ago that I don't think they'll ever really be able to live down, but I suppose someone who has only been buying car care products for the past ten years wouldn't have many reasons to avoid them. They aren't the 'best' in many areas, but they do usually offer most of what they promise on their labels. They have their uses. So when I saw this product on the shelf last week I assumed it would find its way to my 'disgraced products' shelf and it would be a $7 bit of knowledge that wouldn't go anywhere. I've got a jet that I maintain several times a month that has horrible brake dust problems. It's those darn carbon ceramic brake pads from what the pilots tell me. So I figured this was a perfect test bed for the product.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video has to be worth more, so here are my unedited before and afters of the wheels.
So those were from this past Monday. On Thursday I went back to see how it had lasted. According to the flight schedule it has taken a few trips this week. At least three or four landings and take offs. That is enough to build up some good brake dust, so let's see how it turned out.
I'd say it did a pretty good job of keeping the brake dust at bay. I wiped them down again, which will hopefully even out the application, and we'll see how they look next week. I don't need to keep these sparkling white every week or anything, but if I can get a couple weeks out of them before they are black then that is good for me. There are plenty of other areas on this thing I need to keep looking good and spending an extra hour cleaning the landing gears and wheels is time that could be spent scraping bugs off the flaps or something. For now I'd say this is a win. We'll see how long it takes for it to wear off. The can says a month, but we'll see.
