no brakes

[tmthydnns]

does any one know if using dust covers will cause the brakes on a ml320 to fail.

[Don350SDL]

Depends on what you mean by "fail".

Completely lose all braking effect instantly and forever? no.
Have preformance that is noticeably and measurably worse under certain conditions (usually when you need the brakes most)? yes.

Brake dust shields also shield the brakes from a stream of air that cools the brake rotors. All that energy the brakes absorb is turned into heat - a lot of heat, because it's a lot of energy. I have seen brake rotors glow red on a production car from the heat. Take away the cooling air stream, and you're making things worse.

For the price of the dust shields, buy a good wheel brush and clean them once every 2 weeks instead.

My 0.02

Don

[rjpera]

Glowing brake rotors, good heavens where are we, at the race track??

I have three cars, all with 4 wheel disk brakes, all equipped with clean wheel covers. I have never felt (or smelled) any problem with braking proformance or cooling. The mini van has had 4000 lbs behind it with out any brake cooling problems. The cover does not cover the rotor.

It doesn't matter what your cleaning mag wheels with, that brake dust sucks to remove.

Put the covers on, your wheels will thank me.

My .02