Wheel Covers

[snydertalon]

I have heard from various sources(forums / people in person) that if the wheels are entirely covered no air comes in from the one side causing part of the rotor to heat up during braking. Has anyone experienced this or found information to refute this?

Thanks

[Old Tele man]

...yes, if you're driving a road race or gymkhana or something similar, but for normal "street" use there's enough "air" coming around on the back-side to keep temperatures from reaching the "...melting metal..." level.

...just think about all those "gawdy" snap-on full-wheel hubcabs of the 1960's & 70's...and back then most brakes were DRUM not DISC.

[Cd]

Yes, .......if you are autocross racing.
If you drive like most of the guys on this site, you barely ever use your brakes at all.
It's not that we avoid using our brakes, but rather that we do not need to.
When you drive like an ecomodder, you pay attention to the lights ahead of you, and anticipate a change to red.
Rather than slam on the brakes 20 feet in front of the red light, we coast up to the light and barely have to use the brakes at all. Most of the time we get there just in time for the light to change to green .

[Cd]

[QUOTE=Old Tele man;129888
...just think about all those "gawdy" snap-on full-wheel hubcabs of the 1960's & 70's...and back then most brakes were DRUM not DISC.[/QUOTE]

Good point ! I forgot about those ugly things.
"Dog-dish" hub caps.

[Old Tele man]

..."MOON" made some that we called "Baby Moons" which were basically, smooth, dog-dish caps for just the center area.

...full Moon's covered the WHOLE wheel area, from bead to bead.

[snydertalon]

I honestly do not drive like a lot of ecomodders. Probably closer to em's than normals. I don't engine off coast, nor am I willing to give up my alternator and get a battery charger to put 2 batteries in the back of my gen5 civic (which is a really nice mod). I am limited in several ways because I still have a 40k mile powertrain warranty on my accord, after that I might change.

Things I do, I drive 28-30 in a 35 depending on the "current" of the traffic in front of me, I react to things farther than 1/4 mile in my driving future, and I know the sequences of the lights.

My big problem is I live in Boise, and the temps are extremely diverse. 95-100 in the summer and sub 15s in the winter. Does anyone with them live in an area that gets a 90 degree swing in temp throughout the year?

[Old Tele man]

...all in Arizona: 117°F in Tucson, 122°F in Phoenix, 125°F in Yuma.

...hot enough examples?

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by snydertalon

I honestly do not drive like a lot of ecomodders. Probably closer to em's than normals. I don't engine off coast, nor am I willing to give up my alternator and get a battery charger to put 2 batteries in the back of my gen5 civic (which is a really nice mod). I am limited in several ways because I still have a 40k mile powertrain warranty on my accord, after that I might change.

Things I do, I drive 28-30 in a 35 depending on the "current" of the traffic in front of me, I react to things farther than 1/4 mile in my driving future, and I know the sequences of the lights.

My big problem is I live in Boise, and the temps are extremely diverse. 95-100 in the summer and sub 15s in the winter. Does anyone with them live in an area that gets a 90 degree swing in temp throughout the year?

I recently returned from a 1,349-mile test run in the T-100.I drove the whole distance with full MOON-style covers at sustained speeds up to 80-mph and descended mountain grades from 8,650-feet elevation.Since then,I've done over 200-miles of urban commuting,all witout a wimper from the rotors,pads ,drums,or shoes.Short of high-speed panic stops,your brakes shouldn't be an issue.The MOONs stay.

[snydertalon]

Well then, I'm sold.

Thanks for all the help and fast replies

[some_other_dave]

BTW, autocrosses are only for about one minute per run, and almost all of them keep you below 60 MPH. It's very hard to overheat your brakes at a typical autoX.

Track days can do it pretty easily, since you're braking from much higher speeds (remember, the energy you're dissipating goes up with the square of the speed!) and the typical run group is 20-30 minutes. Your brakes get very little chance to cool off.

People who live up in the mountains can see pretty warm brakes. Especially those who like to drive aggressively in the mountains.

If I were living up in the Rockies somewhere, I might actually think twice about using wheel covers that allow no air-flow. If I were going on the track, I would not use those type of covers. But otherwise, I don't think it's a problem.

-soD