More brake dust than expected

[MailGuy]

Very timely post! I just cleaned the brake dust off the front wheels today. This makes the 2nd time in two weeks and just over 500 miles.

I agree. I have had my MME for five months and haven’t washed it in about 6 weeks. I too was surprised by brake dust accumulation just this week. Significantly more than my other EV’s or hybrids (non-existent). I use 1PD all the time but have noticed Adaptive Cruise turns the dash indicator for 1PD off. I am attributing this to my highway miles with ACC on. Definitely disappointing and unexpected. I haven’t replaced brake pads on a car in 13 years, even after driving 100’s of 1,000’s of miles. I guess I have to try stop using ACC and see if it changes. That will be a bummer if it turns out to be the cause.

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[Magnitude]

So wait. In 1 pedal driving the car still uses the friction brakes?

 

[dtbaker61]

I've had my Mach E4x about 6 weeks now and really enjoy driving it, especially in 1 pedal mode. However, I'm surprised by the amount of brake dust that accumulates on the front wheels on a car with almost 50/50 weight distribution. I'm interested in your all's experiences, especially those who don't use 1 pedal to see whether 1 pedal driving is causing more brake wear than the other driving modes.

1-p driving *should* result in far less mechanical braking and resultant dust.

Did you ever fully 'bed' the brakes ? My guess would be you've got to get them up to high temp at least once to create a good pad/rotor interface.

I notice very little brake dust, but it's hard to tell with black wheels and a fair amount of dirt road travel between washings with 'regular' road dust where I live.

 

[dtbaker61]

So wait. In 1 pedal driving the car still uses the friction brakes?

should be only at the very end as 'auto-hold' brings the vehicle to a complete stop.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I forgot to mention earlier that I don’t get any brake dust build-up on my Fusion Energi unless it’s been at a track day or I have been doing some Mexican roads. It only operates on 2PD.

 

[jeffdawgfan]

Hmmm....since I rarely have to brake.....one pedal driving exclusively, I get little to no brake dust at all. My brakes are used more for stop and hold rather than actually braking. I do live in a smaller rural town where there are more deer than people though.

 

[sukhoi_584th]

I'm at about 3400 mi and just washed the car for the first time last week. There was a mind boggling amount of brake dust both in the wheels and all over the sides and rear of the car. Like an order of magnitude more than any other vehicle I've owned. Are the pads made of charcoal? The sponge I used turned black and I can't get it close to clean...guess it's now my MME wheel sponge. Pretty surprising considering how minimally the brake pads are used because of the regenerative braking. I'm not noticing any signs of a sticking pad and my efficiency numbers are ok so I don't think it's a defect in the brakes. Hopefully now that they're broken in the dust quantity will reduce. It's pretty unacceptable so far.

 

[azerik]

I've noticed my job1 drags the front brakes when 1pd. Partly due to auto hold it would appear. I can hear and feel it not letting go if moving slowly through a parking lot (picking up my kid at school). My front wheels are as bad as the ones in these pics but I've put all of 200 miles on them.

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