mb12345

Hi,

I had recently purchased a '97 ES300 from a private party. That guy had put brake dust covers on all the 4 wheels. He didn't like the rusted brake discs to be seen through his chrome wheels. My question is, will those dust covers do more than damage than good? I've heard that it will prevent heat from the brakes from getting released. Is that true? Those covers have some grooves on them, so I think that should let the heat get released. Please advice if I should keep them or just get rid of them. The previous owner paid about $200 to the dealer to get them installed.

Thanks in advance!

GATO

iTrader: (1)

I dunno about the safety....



but I saw a Bmw the other day......LOL...he had chrome dust covers with slotted holes looked cheezy

amf1932

Since brake dust covers stop, or restricts the air flow, your brakes will get hotter then a car without them. Overheating brakes is never a good idea, especially when the weather gets warm.
If it was my car, I'd remove them. Why chance brake efficiency if all it does is to help clean your wheels less often?

steviej

iTrader: (1)

I have had two different styles in my driving history. Both of them did retain more heat in the brake area. One particular style, Kleen Wheelz, were even custom fit and made of aluminum, however they did retain most heat. Sadly, both sets still let some brake dust by. It wasn't worth the effort or money spent.

My opinion would be to loose the dust shields, go to a low dust brake pad (Toyota OEM is perfect) and paint the rotor hubs and calipers. See me for more details on that or do a search as I have posted pictures and details in the past.

steviej

johnnyt

I agree with stevie, go with a ceramic brake pad, and paint your calipers and rotors. Def lose the covers.

Pheonix

1) Unless you're doing many laps on an actual road corse, you'll never SEE brake fade with the stock size parts, if they're better than stock.
2) The dust shield has nothing to do with how much brake fade you run into. brake fade is the pad and rotor heat soaking, then boiling the fluid out of the caliper.
3) The spinning wheel and rotor creates a massive vortex. Roughly 13-15% of the entire aerodynamic drag of a car is due from this. Airflow IS NOT a problem.
4) The vast majority of cooling that the rotors take part in is from the INSIDE-OUT where they genarate a large amount of airflow... NOT cross flow on the outside of the rotor...

Leave the dust shields so you don't pile the abrasive dust over important under-body parts.

If you want slightly shorter stopping distances, with absolutely no chance of ever fading if you're not on a real race track (Auto-X doesn't count)

Brembo blank rotors
Hawk HPS track pads
Upgrade the fluid to DOT 4, Dot 5.1 / 4 Plus

EGainer

yep, if you are having problems braking, replace the fluid

but remember, pads glaze over before the fluid boils out. so get better pads first

dust covers arent a problem