Brake pad issues

[Airborne Ranger]

I have a 98 Ford Ranger with 50K on the clock. 6 months ago I took possesion of it with 40K on it, yes I get around Since I bought it, the brakes have been very quiet, not even made a hint of a sound, squeal, grind, nothing! Which leads me to believe that the brakes were replaced at some point or another with the factory stuff, maybe?

My previous 2 vehicles, I could drive around and within 2 weeks, the front wheels would look like BMW brakes, black!! even under normal circumstances. My ranger doesn't do this, the front wheels, I could drive around without touching the wheels for a cleaning for about 2 months and the front wheels would only have a hint of brake dust on them. They wouldn't even start to turn brown, keep in mind there still not making any noises. I havn't checked them out yet but wanted to verify that if some of these newer vehicles have those "clean pads" I think there called on them. Question is, does my truck have these pads on it and if so, how can I distinguish between regular pads and clean pads???? thanks,,,,,,,,91

[crooper]

it's the pad material. organic material puts a lot of brake dust on your rims. semi-metallic, metallic or ceramic don't as much.

[SickOfItAll]

crooper basically got it, except I'd be willing to bet money those are semi-metallic - full mettalic and ceramic (and carbon-kevlar, for that matter) are a BIT more expensive, and ceramic and carbon-kevlar require special rotors to function properly, from what I've read.