Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Car Maintenance Question

I have a 2010 Nissan Frontier, 4WD. 97,000 miles. Two weeks ago a black substance began to appear on the left front wheel. There is a little bit of it on the right front wheel, none on the rear wheels. It is a very thin film. You can see where I wiped some off with my finger.



Four weeks ago I had new, aggressive mud grip tires installed. Could this be some kind of film coming from the new tires?

Brakes

Brake dust form the pads.

Yup, pads be going south. Brake dust

Did you have the brake pads changed? Certain pads make more visible dust.

Brake pads.

I bought the truck at 42,000 miles, from a car dealer. I have never had the front brakes done.

I am hell on brakes, driving around the mountains with 1100 pounds of firewood, or like the other day, 1700 pounds of gravel.

Tire mounting soap coming out of the bead and mixing with brake dust.

This.

Zoom into pic 1 you can see multiple gouges in the rotor. Pads are shot an d maybe the rotors too. Alot of newer rotors arent thick enough to be tirned.

looks like brake dust to me but wash them good and see if it comes back if so it isnt mounting soap which i have never seen do that

It’s brake dust. It shows up more on the front wheels because forward motion naturally means they’re doing the majority of the stopping when you’re braking. You would think that with rear disc on most vehicles now, you’d see it on the rear wheels too, but most vehicles will replace front pads twice before rear pads wear out.
I use an old soft furnace brush and soapy water when I bath my truck. But it depends on what kind of wheels you have as to what works best. If there’s a way to prevent it, I haven’t heard.
Reon

When I got the truck back from having the tires installed, a month ago, that tire mounting soap was all over all wheels, and it looked much like this.
After several days I scrubbed it all off. In the past 2 weeks, this black film has appeared primarily on the front left wheel, also on the rt front wheel.

I just looked at the front left rotor, and felt it, it looks OK and feels smooth.

Check ur brake pads

Did the ambient temps come up? Maybe your tire pressures are up and pushing out a bit more of the soap.

I can't believe someone hasn't suggested brake dust.

You reckon that might be it?

I was thinking that maybe it was the kadillick-knudder-kutoff-valve might be the problem then it might be the roadder-dector...

Blinker fluid leak is my guess...

Is it just on the left front, and not the right side also? If that's the case, I'm betting the caliper is beginning to fail and is leaking a tiny amount of brake fluid.