Disc Brake Dust Shields

[flint54]

Opinions please:

 

The thin dust shields directly behind the front calipers are:

 

A) absolutely essential

B) nice to have but not critical

C) On or off, doesn't matter

D) Useless

E) The biggest waste of sheet metal there is, besides Hyundai and Kia.

 

Why do I ask? Because I had a minor accident, and dropped my new

(salvaged) D30 off the 4x4's it was sitting on. The shields are crumpled

and no amount of hammering and pliering is going to get them right again.

I really don't want to pull these knuckles for this reason. Thanks.

[mvusse]

For street use only they're not essential, but help keep grease from the tie rod ends off the rotor. For offroad use I remove mine because little pebbles get wedged between them and the rotor making a godawfull screeching noise.

[87Warrior]

B) but it depends.

 

I say it depends on your driving style. Mine are pitted along the backside, from what I can tell would be gravel hitting them. Also, as mvusse indicated, they keep grease from getting on the caliper.

 

Why remove them?

[H3RESQ]

They are always the first thing I remove from a wheeling rig. I already removed them from the front of my MJ, and plan to remove the rear ones to from the disc brake conversion.

 

I don't like having my rotors always ruined by rocks. I say rocks because sometimes its much more than a pebble that can get lodged in there.

 

I've yet to have an issue with grease or oil getting on my brakes but I see how it could happen with a inner axle seal failure or a sloppy grease job on your zerks.

 

Jason