Brake disc dust covers

Started by Craigjm, December 27, 2022, 16:56

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Craigjm

When I fitted the new tyres on my recent purchase I noticed that it has a kind of flimsy plastic cover behind the brake disc on the offside front wheel but not on the others. Assume people just leave these off over the years as they perish as they appear to be £50 each at the dealer. Does your car have all 4? Or none at all? Or a lone one like mine? Are they worth replacing?

Carolyn

Plastic is not OEM.  Backplates are usually steel and often rusted out.  I trim them back to good metal and treat and paint them.. They are not really that crucial and they are a lot of work to replace.  Especially at the rear,
Perry Byrnes Memorial Award 2016, 2018.  Love this club. 
https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=63866.0

Ardent

What ^^^^^ said.

Should be 4. Should be metal.
That said, makes you wonder if the right sort of plastic might have been a better choice.

3D printer springs to mind.

Regardless. As C says. Only worth doing if already doing work that incorporates their removal.

Craigjm

I ask because at some point soon the car will need new pads and discs all round. I kind of assumed that when you remove the disc they are easy to replace? What else is involved in the "lot of work at the rear"?

Call the midlife!

They're place before the hubs are mounted so technically to remove and replace what's left of the shields you need to remove the hubs as well, which is quite a job.
Depending on how much of the originals is left it is possible to cut the new ones to be able to slot on without removing the hubs.
But it's not the recommended OEM fit...
60% of the time it works everytime...

Craigjm

Ahh ok. I might just cut the one off that is still hanging in there then rather than replace them. I have no intention of making this some kind of concours winning car

Trebordoody

My front left came off en-route somewhere and rattled around on the hub for a while before I realised what the noise was! Totally corroded away at the joining points so ripped it off, filed it back and binned the plate when I got home, especially after reading the forum advice that they're not needed and pain to replace. So I cut the other three off too, as they were also pretty badly corroded! Hopefully no harm done and looks nice and tidy around the brakes now.

LeEdFollow

Yep, totally not needed. Historically I've always removed them from cars once they became corroded and never bothered replacing them. Never been even an advisory on an MOT. I was quite pleased when I picked up this Roadster as one of the previous owners had already removed them all lol

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