Im in the middle of a SE suspension swap. SO far everything is going smoothly, but the dust sheid on one of the struts is totally fucked up. I tried to bend it back into shape, but it looks like **** and this car will be going to shows.


Is it a big deal if I take it off. Doesnt seam like it would be that big of a deal, the brakes are already a huge improvement from what I had.

 

Yes. They are not dust shields, they are there to force cool air over the brake rotors, for, gee, cooling I guess. lol

 

yeah, I saw the little vent that was on there. I was thinking of building a simple small scoop to chanel air into the center of the rotor.

It cant be that bad though. I mean, the "S" suspension that Im taking off had almost no venting in the rotor at all, not to mention the rotor is about 1.5 inches smaller.

 

Have either both, or none. If you only have one, it may unbalance the braking during agressive driving.

 

no doubt

 

Are the strut housings the same for the front suspension on the se or non se? In otherwords, can you just swap the se rotor/calipers and shield onto say an s model strut? Oh yeah, all parts would be from an 85 so they would both have the larger wheel bearings.

thanks

 

You absolutely need the shields. They keep water/rain/mud off the back of your brake discs, and they are part of the air funneling for cooling.

Not a good idea to run w/o them. For both of these reasons.

Jon

 

Your not going to go flying off the side of the road if you delete the sheilds.
Yes,they have a purpose,as stated by the others.But unless you like hauling trailers or do a hell of a lot of road racing,your not likely to heat your brakes up to the failing point.

In the rain, the sheilds will help keep the rotors dry,but your just as likely to get wet rotors from having big,open spoke wheels.My rotors get plenty wet just driving next to a big truck in the rain.The brakes take a second to wipe dry,then they work fine.So yes,there is a potential for reduced braking due to splashing water,but its minimal and can come from directions other than where your splash sheilds used to be......