I was at the track Friday (DE) and after one long session got a touch of brake fade. Its the first time this has happened. Standard OEM brakes with ATE Amber (same as Super Blue) and EBC Yellowstuff pads with about half remaining.

My instructor has a G35 coupe and said that removing the dust shields from his brakes made a big difference.

I'm probably going to switch to Carbotech pads and I'll remove the dust shields when I replace the pads. Is there a downside to removing them?

 

Rocks and pebbles either getting caught in your rotor vanes or in-between your pad and rotors thereby scoring your rotors.

 

Thanks. I also just did a search.....tried before I posted but this site hangs a lot on my crappy computer at work and I couldn't get it to search. So I went ahead and posted.

It still isn't clear if this actually helps anything as far as cooling so I may not even bother.

I wish there was a better way than cutting them off, but I'm not willing or capable of removing a hub to unbolt them. I've got a Dremel and tins snips. Dremel would do a neater job but probably take forever. I've got an angle grinder too but it probably won't fit in there.

 

When I removed my entire rear hub assembly to install polyurethane bushings I removed the outer dust shield using an air chisel on the spot-welds.