I am using Hawk DTC-60 pads on a dedicated track car. They produce a rock hard residue that seems particularly bad when the used in wet conditions. My wheel cleaner of choice is Sonax, which works well for normal brake dust deposits but doesn't touch the concrete like residue. It doesn't turn Sonax red so whatever the deposit is, it is not iron based.
I have called Hawk for removal advice and they did not have anything useful to offer.
Prevention is the best approach, and I have tried waxing, and Armor All Brake Dust Repellant. The latter works best of the two, but must be applied for each track day to work reliably under track conditions with these track pads.
I have just tried ceramic coating. Based on the hype, I tried it without any supplemental brake repellant treatment. One track day that started wet and ended dry resulted in the deposits that are in the pictures later in this post. They proved very resistant to removal by a combination of Sonax and scraping. I would call the ceramic coating by itself virtually useless against this type of brake dust deposit, especially in the long term.
The internet seems full of tales of woe on this issue, and a few recommendations. Oven cleaner and various acids show up with some regularity, as do abrasive methods but the concensus is not particularly favourable and the effects occasionally destructive. Ignoring the problem is occasionally recommended. So is refinishing the wheels.
One guy, a sales rep for the stuff, recommended Starbrite Non-skid Deck Cleaner, a boat cleaning product, and offered a few free bottles to interested parties. With considerable skepticism I decided to give it a try as I could get the stuff locally.
Damn, if it doesn't actually work. I wetted the deposits with the stuff and it started showing some effect after a dwell time of about 15 minutes with light deposits coming off in about that time. I aggitated the surface with a bristle brush about every 5-10 minutes. Heavier deposits took about an hour and then some scraping with a wooden popsicle stick. The soaking definitely seemed to make the heavier deposits more amenable to coming off with a light scraping by making them brittle and seemingly less adhered to the surface. I am not going to call this a magic bullet, but it is progress.
Supposedly it leaves a "non-slippery polymer barrier" behind. No idea if that is effective against brake dust and I am not going to wait to find out. I plan to treat the wheels with Brake Dust Repellant before my next track day.
http://www.starbrite.com/item/non-sk...aner-with-ptef
http://www.armorall.com/products/whe...dust-repellent
Here are some before, during and after images on my just ceramic coated but not dust repellant sprayed wheels after one wet then dry track day and after conventional Sonax cleaning and some unsuccessful dry scraping of the deposits:
Soaking with Starbrite:
Same area, 1 hour later after and some scraping with a wooden popsicle stick:
