Brake Dust Shields?

[John_H]

bradgarbus - by "these things" are you talking about the generic shields pictured above or shields fit to the Smart like the ones you can get from kleenwheels.com?

[smartHHO]

I myself won't use sheilds due to reduced airflow and sometimes brakes can over heat. Then you get real issues other then dirty rims.

[John_H]

Do you really believe an 1800 lb car with a 71 hp engine will get overheated? Consider the amount of airflow still available from the inside of the wheel even without the "turbo vent" feature of the kleenwheels, for instance.

If I were in constant stop and really go traffic - 0 / 70 / 0 /70 mph - it might become an issue after a while but I'd think that would be the case with or without dust shields. The amount of energy absorbed by the brakes is a fraction of larger cars.

If there were shields on *both* sides of the brakes, i could understand the concern.

[mendo]

there have been a number of responses saying that people "think" that it would be a bad idea.

John says he is running them and he says he has no problem.

I think if you want them then put them on.


Or you can listen to many of the people on this board that say

"this will void all warrentees!!!!"

"this is a major safety hazard and will kill the occupants!!"

I say to those people, don't change anything on your car, let the other people do what they want to theirs.

[smartHHO]

Originally Posted by John_H

Do you really believe an 1800 lb car with a 71 hp engine will get overheated? Consider the amount of airflow still available from the inside of the wheel even without the "turbo vent" feature of the kleenwheels, for instance.

If I were in constant stop and really go traffic - 0 / 70 / 0 /70 mph - it might become an issue after a while but I'd think that would be the case with or without dust shields. The amount of energy absorbed by the brakes is a fraction of larger cars.

If there were shields on *both* sides of the brakes, i could understand the concern.

John, I don't put anything past physics bro. ANYTHING CAN AND WILL HAPPEN. Just something I live by. Don't take anything for grant it. As soon as you do, WHAM, you are the sucker for not taking it for grant it. Nothing against your slam on me, but I have seen melt downs. And being that this is an around the city car, IE using the brakes a lot, it is possible. Even though they do have BIG discs for such a little car. I just don't see putting the darn things on my car especially when I wash it when it gets dirty. Just my 2cents bro.

Nice work on the Speed control LED by the way.

[SmartTech]

i have put a few of the kleen wheels on, in fact i even sold them the rim they used for making them. i dont really like them. the wheel weights in the front cut clearance and inserts hit the calipers. i had to take a hammer to shape the insert to clear caliper. basically i had to have wheels off and on three times to make it work.
johnh wheels were the exception since they were balanced by me the wheel weights were not on the inner edge (where the factory weights are) he didnt have any issues.
but they do keep the wheels clean!

[HGB]

First of all, only the front wheels need dust shielding, after saying that I refuse to put these on my smart, because heat is one of the biggest enemies of rotors. Cooling is reduced considerably with shields. I just had my warped rotors replaced and I don't remember how I contributed to the warping. I know though that hard braking and hitting a good puddle will affect the rotors. I had enough experience with other vehicles in that department. The only solution is to clean the wheels more often.

[CruzinSusan]

Cheers, John! Raising a glass of Merlot, smartly.

Ok, so what's the bottom line? Is there a fairly inexpensive breakdust protector for those of us out here who can't do the custom thing? The brakedust is a big deal for me. Living on the lake, I can't give her baths here, and the only carwash in town with a brush and bucket is Out of Order. Plus, it's hard to get a good job done. Here's to anything that makes life a little easier.

Think I'll give Dad the juicy physics questions brought up here- he's likely to come up with some good things, and, he may come up with an inexpensive solution. Plus, it's always good for Dad to get physics-al.

Techie question: When the carwash has a 'belly' wash, will that get the dust off of the inward side of the shields? Seems it would build up fast on the inside.

[smartHHO]

To me, I think if you had something that could mount on the rims, and not cover the breaks at all. Like something that was completely FLAT and against the rim only. That would be the best solution. No dust and air gets in there just fine. Most covers I see are curved and cover the darn brakes. No clue why ppl make them like that. Pretty lame I guess.

[Godfather]

I'm surely happy that the brake engineers are here to knock a product (Kleen Wheels) that "only" has 15 years of experience in that field. Funny, I've had disc brake equipped cars that came from the factory with solid steel unvented wheels. And "several" 9C1 Caprices and P71 Crown Vic's I drove for the local PD that had the same unvented solid steel wheels. They stopped real good from 120 mph. (I can say that now that I'm retired). This whole deal is a non-issue.