Brake shields or no brake shields

[bat-stang]

On the street, are there any disadvantages to removing the brake shields? Disadvantages to removing the inner fenders? Sooner than later, my car will go to the road course but still maintain its street usefulness. Since it will always be my daily driver, are there any detriments to removing these items?

 

[racerbox77]

inner fender well. leave that in. unless you want a dirty engine compartment. dust shields thats for daily drivers and if you have a 93 Cobra Im sure its not a daily driver.

 

[JimJr]

racebox, he says it is his daily driver, as is mine right now.

When I did my 5-lug conversion I removed the splash/dust/brake shields with NO major disadvantages at all. You just might have to clean your wheels a little more. I have no exp. in removing the inner fender, but mine are staying in.

 

[Robert M]

On the street, are there any disadvantages to removing the brake shields? Disadvantages to removing the inner fenders? Sooner than later, my car will go to the road course but still maintain its street usefulness. Since it will always be my daily driver, are there any detriments to removing these items?

I had a car once that had its inner fender wells removed. I thought on many occassions, how did this car get dings in the tops of the front fenders?? and the dings were raised?? I finally figured out that stones and rocks thrown up by the front tires were dinging/denting the bottom side of the fender itself with no protective inner fender in place causing upward dents/dings.

R

 

[BADBOYSPACK]

Do what you feel is best for you.

 

[bat-stang]

Well, thats why I am asking the question; I need alittle insight. No I don't want any fender dings, inside or otherwise--so thats a 'no' on the inner fenders. But if no damage will be caused by removal of the brake shields, my brakes could use some airflow.

Thanks for all of your input!

 

[Robert M]

Well, thats why I am asking the question; I need alittle insight. No I don't want any fender dings, inside or otherwise--so thats a 'no' on the inner fenders. But if no damage will be caused by removal of the brake shields, my brakes could use some airflow.

Thanks for all of your input!

I believe the brake shieds provide "directed" air flow for proper brake cooling.

R

 

[bat-stang]

I believe the brake shieds provide "directed" air flow for proper brake cooling.

R

Thats interesting. Can anyone qualify this? I really hate to waste you guys' time with something as insignificant as this--I'll be installing a pair of ducts for cooling later, but this is kinda odd to me. It seems that there would be some type of scoop in the design. Seems like if the outer tie rod and caliper weren't there that the shield would be a complete circle; also noticed that the outer edge curls in toward the rotor as if to cup it. I guess I don't understand the engineering around this part.:shrug:

 

[racerbox77]

the idea behind this part is to keep the water and dirt off the rotor.

 

[Fast99Snake]

took mine off without any problems
there just there to keep brake dust off the suspension components and minimize the amount of dust on the inside of the wheels as far as i know


i wud take em off
i dont see how they cud keep the brakes cooler at all
im pretty sure the rotors wud cool better if they were off

 

[93SVTCobra]

The dust shield are there to really stop water from being sprayed on the rotors which makes your brakes pretty ineffective (ask me how I know!). Ideally it also stops small rocks from being thrown up and getting caught in the caliper. That being said I'd remove them. You won't notice any difference in how much brake dust you experience.

Unless you have a full race car leave the inner fender liners in. As Robert stated earlier if you take them off you'll eventually see a bunch of small bumps on the top of your fenders. My 93R is peppered with them.

 

[JimJr]

Thats interesting. Can anyone qualify this? I'll be installing a pair of ducts for cooling later,

I think the brakes would cool better without the shields, but I'm not an engineer. FYI, I've have seen people use the stock shields to mount cooling ducts.

bat-stang, here are some pics of my homemade front brake ducts. It works very well at the track, and I leave them on all the time although they are not necessary for the street. Overall, it cost me about $80. BTW, I know my car was DIRTY, but she aint no trailer queen and she loves to work.

I bought 10 ft of 3" high temp hose, and sold 5' to a friend and used about 2' on each side to direct air the CENTER OF THE ROTOR and strapped it down with zip-ties. Then bought dryer hose for the rest and used 3" OD PVC to attach the hoses together. I used a 6" to 4" (or 4.5") reducer and attached a 4" to 3” reducer that I mounted to the fog light holes.

FYI, I had to remove the fog light bracket and grind down part of the plastic bumper reinforcement (see below) for the reducers to fit.

 

[jimbbski]

As Mark mentioned the 93R's didn't get front inner fender liners. When I bought mine I found one small dent in the top of the drivers side fender. When I realized how it got there I went out and bought "new" liners from Ford and installed them. Best mods I ever did to my R. Much easier to clean out the small rocks and "snakes" that one picks up on track.

Also the R's didn't come with any "dust shields" from the factory.

I even cut away part of the dust shield on my old street 'stang' to help cooling, this on a 92 LX.

 

[Robert M]

took mine off without any problems
there just there to keep brake dust off the suspension components and minimize the amount of dust on the inside of the wheels as far as i know


i wud take em off
i dont see how they cud keep the brakes cooler at all
im pretty sure the rotors wud cool better if they were off

I have seen some dust shields "flaired out" on the leading/front edge to grab air. The shield was stamped/made that way and installed on that particular manuf.'s assy. line.

R

 

[bat-stang]

Thanks for the photos and information--Robert, Jim, Jimjr,Mark W., racerbox and all the rest thanks and keep flowing the info--this has been priceless!

Batman