Brake: Dust Shields...

[Mitch Leland]

For street use only and natural polished wheels what do you think about running the brake dust shields? Do they look hokey?

I guess some of this would depend on the compounding of the brake pads...

Thanks,

[KTL]

The untrained eye isn't even going to notice the shields. But if you've got nice, clean components behind the wheels, it's a shame to hide them. For street use you've got the right idea. Just find a pad that's low dust. The pad type you want is then a ceramic pad like Akebono Pro-ACT, Hawk Ceramic, Mintex Ceramic. Do some hunting on the web and you'll find some.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Mitch:

Unless you drive your car in an utterly benign way: never exceed 4000 RPM and never go over 50 MPH, those brake dust shields are a singularly bad idea,...

Those things block almost all the cooling air to the calipers and rotors which results in accelerated pad & rotor wear. Further, your brake fluid will boil much quicker if you decide to have some fun with the car and you'll get little or no warning on that one.

My suggestion would be to use the Mintex Red Box pads which work very well on the street and are almost completely dustless.

[Mitch Leland]

Kevin and Steve,

I had that feeling, but needed to hear from someone else. Thanks for the input, It's appreciated...