Brake Dust Shields -- Keep or Remove?
#1
Elite Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (4)
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Granbury, TX
Posts: 6,301
Total Cats: 696
Brake Dust Shields -- Keep or Remove?
I'm track prepping my street car for HPDE. Swapping to the 1.8 brakes all around. Intended use will be mostly street driving with 5-6HPDE's per year.
Anyway, the brake dust shields are in the way. I'm not a fan of bashing and cutting. Bashing is a good way to make press-fit components loose. Cutting is a good way to create razor blades on the car.
So, thought I would just remove the things completely. Common practice in the Spec Miata world. Is there any real downside to this on a street car in a dry-ish climate that will be getting frequent brake inspections?
I did search. Surprisingly, not much turned up.
Anyway, the brake dust shields are in the way. I'm not a fan of bashing and cutting. Bashing is a good way to make press-fit components loose. Cutting is a good way to create razor blades on the car.
So, thought I would just remove the things completely. Common practice in the Spec Miata world. Is there any real downside to this on a street car in a dry-ish climate that will be getting frequent brake inspections?
I did search. Surprisingly, not much turned up.
#7
Elite Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (4)
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Granbury, TX
Posts: 6,301
Total Cats: 696
Man, I'm seeing all kinds of stuff out there in the ether.
Pros:
1. Splash shield. Prevent rotor warping if you splash water on them while hot.
2. Heat shield. Protects your ball joints and tie rod ends from heat.
3. Dust shield. Either keeps dust/debris off the brakes or keeps brake dust from your suspension/engine compartment. About a 50/50 split in the ether.
4. Brake cooling (assuming it's able to capture air). Obviously, ducted plates connected to high-pressure air with a hose (like Andrew's prawns) offer significant cooling. I've noticed that with slightly wider than OEM wheels, the cooling "scoop" on our OEM shields seems pretty well blocked.
Cons:
1. They get in the way if you do a lot of front-end/brake work (i.e., track car).
2. Unsprung weight (a tiny bit).
3. Inhibit cooling if they can't scoop air. Seems a lot of tracked M3's with mega-wide wheels pull them.
4. Get in the way of BBK's.
Usual. Conflicting opinions. Little data. They must do something, because cars could be built more cheaply without them.
Think I'll just take Brainey's advice. Chisel off the rears and slightly bend the bottom of the fronts. Looks like the quickest and easiest thing to do that doesn't create a future OSHA hazard.
Pros:
1. Splash shield. Prevent rotor warping if you splash water on them while hot.
2. Heat shield. Protects your ball joints and tie rod ends from heat.
3. Dust shield. Either keeps dust/debris off the brakes or keeps brake dust from your suspension/engine compartment. About a 50/50 split in the ether.
4. Brake cooling (assuming it's able to capture air). Obviously, ducted plates connected to high-pressure air with a hose (like Andrew's prawns) offer significant cooling. I've noticed that with slightly wider than OEM wheels, the cooling "scoop" on our OEM shields seems pretty well blocked.
Cons:
1. They get in the way if you do a lot of front-end/brake work (i.e., track car).
2. Unsprung weight (a tiny bit).
3. Inhibit cooling if they can't scoop air. Seems a lot of tracked M3's with mega-wide wheels pull them.
4. Get in the way of BBK's.
Usual. Conflicting opinions. Little data. They must do something, because cars could be built more cheaply without them.
Think I'll just take Brainey's advice. Chisel off the rears and slightly bend the bottom of the fronts. Looks like the quickest and easiest thing to do that doesn't create a future OSHA hazard.
Last edited by hornetball; 08-15-2013 at 03:12 PM.
#12
Elite Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (4)
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Granbury, TX
Posts: 6,301
Total Cats: 696
The fronts unbolt after removing the hub. The rears are press-fit.
Bending in the bottom a bit on the fronts will work fine. After scoping how close the tie rod end is to the brake disc, definitely seems worthwhile keeping as a heat shield.
Rears seem to require either a lot more bending, a lot of cutting (leaving behind the aforemention OSHA hazard) or removal.
Bending in the bottom a bit on the fronts will work fine. After scoping how close the tie rod end is to the brake disc, definitely seems worthwhile keeping as a heat shield.
Rears seem to require either a lot more bending, a lot of cutting (leaving behind the aforemention OSHA hazard) or removal.
#13
Elite Member
iTrader: (13)
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Taos, New mexico
Posts: 6,603
Total Cats: 564
The fronts unbolt after removing the hub. The rears are press-fit.
Bending in the bottom a bit on the fronts will work fine. After scoping how close the tie rod end is to the brake disc, definitely seems worthwhile keeping as a heat shield.
Rears seem to require either a lot more bending, a lot of cutting (leaving behind the aforemention OSHA hazard) or removal.
Bending in the bottom a bit on the fronts will work fine. After scoping how close the tie rod end is to the brake disc, definitely seems worthwhile keeping as a heat shield.
Rears seem to require either a lot more bending, a lot of cutting (leaving behind the aforemention OSHA hazard) or removal.
#14
Removing them properly in the rear requires pulling the hub off the axle splines -- something that they are reluctant to do. I wound up cutting them off as close as possible to the hub. So yes, it makes razor blades but fortunately razor blades that are buried pretty deeply in mechanical bits and unlikely to catch fingers.
Removing them in the front is easy, and replacing them with TSE prawns is a good idea.
--Ian
Removing them in the front is easy, and replacing them with TSE prawns is a good idea.
--Ian
#19
Elite Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (4)
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Granbury, TX
Posts: 6,301
Total Cats: 696
Rears are gone. Did exactly what you suggested. They even had a little notch at that location to get the chisel started -- as if the Mazda design engineer didn't really want those things on his rear suspension.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
StratoBlue1109
Miata parts for sale/trade
21
09-30-2018 01:09 PM
stoves
Suspension, Brakes, Drivetrain
5
04-21-2016 03:00 PM