I can't understand why anyone would put up with brake dust unless you enjoy cleaning wheels. I have 3 vehicles which all have brake dust shields. One of my vehicles an 84 RX 7 has had them on for over 20 years and still has the original rotors. I have had them on my wife's car for 3 years absolutely no brake problems and I have had them on my 2K Dak for over 4 years with the original rotors and no brake problems at all. I have heard the arguments about excessive heat build up and I believe that they are completely unfounded. I read of a controlled test conducted by Road and Track magazine tech section about 10 years ago. They ran the same vehicle under the same conditions (speed, climate, surface, etc.) with and without the heat shields and their tests showed that the vehicle with the dust shields ran 4/10ths of 1 degree warmer than the vehicle without the shields. This difference is lest than negligible. I have heard of dealerships using the excessive heat buildup argument but they usuall do so to c
over up defective OEM rotors. I had a friend who had warped rotors on a 1 year old vehicle and was using the dust shields. The dealership told him the reason for the warped rotors was the dust shields so he took them off and had the dealership replace the rotors. Less than a year later he had warped rotors again without the dust shields. He replaced the rotors with quality aftermarket rotors and put the dust shields on, that was 12 years ago and the rotors have been fine since.
Ron
Springfield, VA
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