| zafer |
| I saw a pair of these at PepBoys for $6. Does anyone have any experience using them? I thinking of giving them a try on my Olds, its front brakes are premium dust producers. http://www.autogeek.net/kleenwheeldu.html |
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| csimo |
They work but are EXTREMELY dangerous for street use. They are for show cars on short slow runs.
They cut off nearly all the air flow to the brake rotors and the result is overheated rotors. When you need to stop fast... you can't.
So if you want to turn your car into a deathtrap in exchange for clean wheels go right ahead and put them on. Otherwise just clean the wheels a little more often and realize the airflow is how the brake dust got there to start with. |
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| JeffK |
Sorry, I must disagree.
I have used them on both my Mercedes and BMW - very soft front pads, lots of dust and normal life of pads less than 15,000 miles.
Had a lengthy discussion with Mercedes and overheating of rotors when using dust shields.
Their comment was as follows: There is such a safety margin built in, that except in extreme conditions, dust shields have absolutely no effect on brake performance.
Here is what they called extreme conditions: In the summer going through the rocky mounts on a twisting two lane highway! (They said in the winter, same roads, no problem).
The reason manufacturer's do not recommend shields is liability. There may be that one crazy guy, who will drive hell bent down a windy mountain road riding his brakes. If the brakes failed and their were shields Mercedes said you can be sure an attorney would sue claiming that Mercedes OK'd the installation of the shields. (BTW I am an attorney, non-practicing so I have no axe to grind)
So for 99.9% of your driving, feel perfectly safe with the shields! |
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| darkhelmet |
I have them on my Jeep Cherokee since day one and have not had any issues. I commute 120 miles a day and the vechile has 80K miles and I have only had to replace the rotors once @75K miles and pads twice, @ 40k and 75k miles.
The Jeep front brakes are terrible brake dust producers. The service department @ Jeep did not reccomend the brake dust cover but I have had no issues.
The MDX has had no issues with brake dust so there is no intention to put them on the X. |
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| zafer |
quote:
Originally posted by csimo
They work but are EXTREMELY dangerous for street use. They are for show cars on short slow runs.
They cut off nearly all the air flow to the brake rotors and the result is overheated rotors. When you need to stop fast... you can't.
So if you want to turn your car into a deathtrap in exchange for clean wheels go right ahead and put them on. Otherwise just clean the wheels a little more often and realize the airflow is how the brake dust got there to start with.
So, how do rotors cool on wheels that have a standard steel rim, with a plastic/aluminum hub cap over it? Wife's Corolla is like that, and it tends to stay much cleaner than my alloy rims on the Olds. Not much air flow there either...:8: |
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| csimo |
Well let's see... I did a very quick seach and I found many, many, cases indicating problems with brake dust shields. Manufactures telling customers not to use them. Here's an examlple:
"Saturn Corporation does not recommend the use of wheel dust shields, because they can reduce brake system cooling." You can read it yourself at:
http://www.saturn.com/mysaturn/serv...av=qtnav3&lID=2
This the the manufacturer's site... not a bunch of people on message boards playing he said, she said guessing games.
If you are really an attorney you would know that Mercedes or any other manufacturer is never going to issue a statement that it is OK to use any aftermarket device. It's just not going to happen. Why make such a statement?
Or how about the #3 listed cause for "Brake Pedal Fade" at autorepair.about.com ? Would that satisfy you at all? Here's their #3 reason for brake pedal fade:
"Brakes are overheating due to restricted airflow: Remove any obstructions such as brake dust shields or incorrect wheel types."
http://autorepair.about.com/library/ts/bl302a.htm
Sounds like a serious problem to me.
Since you are an attorney why not log onto to Pacer/Racer and look up several of the cases regarding these devices before posting what you know to be wrong information? Now you know what I do too. There have been serveral high profile liability cases you can review and the automobile manufactureres have been held harmless for the most part.
Use common sense here folks. Wheels have holes in them to allow some airflow to the brakes. The vendor in this case gives one specific example of only one vehicle that has a nearly solid stamped steel wheel with a solid hubcap in Europe that does not allow airflow. They didn't bother to tell you that that wheel has a huge offset and the rotors are not inset inside the wheel like they are on most cars. The rotors on that car are exposed to normal arflow. As my friend Paul Harvey would say, "now you know the rest of the story". 99.9% of the rest of the cars in the world rely on airflow through the wheel to cool the brakes. Even the cheapest Kia has holes in the hubcaps and steel wheels for cooling. |
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| csimo |
quote:
Originally posted by zafer
So, how do rotors cool on wheels that have a standard steel rim, with a plastic/aluminum hub cap over it? Wife's Corolla is like that, and it tends to stay much cleaner than my alloy rims on the Olds. Not much air flow there either...:8:
I don't know what your Corolla exactly looks like, but I'll bet that the hubcap has some nice looking slots in it that don't look like much, but if you took off the hubcap you will find that those slots line up with holes in the steel wheel. Steel wheels are not solid. They use the valve stem to line up the holes in the hubcap with the holes in the wheel. At speed it's pretty effective and moves quite a few CFM of air. Those little slots are engineered for the purpose of brake cooling... not just looks.
Even very small holes in the hubcap can move thousands of CFM of air across the brake rotor. Our MDX spoked alloy wheels can allow huges amounts of air across the rotors.
Put one of those wheel dust guards on there and all this cooling is eliminated. I've said my piece on this... do what you think is best. |
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| ostrowc |
quote:
Originally posted by csimo
...
Even very small holes in the hubcap can move thousands of CFM of air across the brake rotor. Our MDX spoked alloy wheels can allow huges amounts of air across the rotors.
...
Brake shields reduce/redirect/restrict air flow. Thousands of CFM is highly unlikely, but at 60mph you are probably between 250-350 cfm. Most disks have ram air venting by channels or under chasis design. Depending on how the X discipates heat from the rotors, driving style and conditions the shields might or might not be a good idea. |
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| hondacuraworld |
| We used to always have problems with the X330 (current XJ series) with brake dust when I worked at a Jaguar dealer. Jaguar used to actually make an accessory brake shield, which took care of the dust problem but it ended up cutting the life of the brakes at least in half. |
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| octavian |
I can only relate my personal experience........86 Mercedes 300E, 5 years, no problems. 90 Chrysler Town & Country, 10 years, no problems. Nor unusual wear and tear on brakes either. They worked as advertised.
I do not have them on my X or O. Minimal brake dust build up, unlike the other 2 vehicles....the T&C had WHITE wheels....looked great but without the dustbusters were terrible to clean. |
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| paul123 |
quote:
Originally posted by csimo
They work but are EXTREMELY dangerous for street use. They are for show cars on short slow runs.
They cut off nearly all the air flow to the brake rotors and the result is overheated rotors. When you need to stop fast... you can't.
So if you want to turn your car into a deathtrap in exchange for clean wheels go right ahead and put them on. Otherwise just clean the wheels a little more often and realize the airflow is how the brake dust got there to start with.
I must agree they tend to overheat and warp the rotor's and keep the brake dust in the calipers and tend to jam them or cause the pads to wear unevenly. Work excellent for keeping the wheels clean, but agree not good for everyday driving. |
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