Thoughts on wheel covers...

[woodstock74]

Curious, are there any concerns about brake temperatures closing off the wheel? I suspect most of the cooling ventilation comes through the spokes in the hubcap, but what amount of brake cooling does a road car really need? I drive a Versa after all; this isn't a car for spirited driving. Should I have any concerns about brake cooling blocking off the spokes? My 42 mile one way commute is board flat and has about a dozen braking points, only 1 or 2 of which I would consider heavy (braking on the interstate exit). The rest are 25 mph or less braking zones one tends to find in any neighborhood in the country. Sure, there are those typical emergency braking events, but nothing sustained. Plenty of people here have gone the flat/covered route, thoughts?

[Weather Spotter]

woodstock74:
do a quick search for smooth wheel covers on the site, or look through our wiki page, all your questions have been answered in depth before.

[woodstock74]

I've read the Smooth wheel cover Wiki in depth and about as indepth as it gets regarding brake cooling is, "it may block air flowing to your brakes." I'm looking for real world experience, not supposition of what I already know: Yes, my brake cooling will be affected, but how important is that really on a road car? I'm not doing any sustained braking, and couldn't the argument be made that with a reduction in cooling flow my optimal braking temperatures will be reached sooner?

[Weather Spotter]

In my car it has not had any negative effects. 30,000+ miles covered and when i get new tire last month they said the OEM breaks had 1/3 life left. now I do not use the breaks much but when I do I am ok.

The issue is long term heat build up. are you racing to stops? start then stopping several times in a 3-5 min period? are you towing? even in the mountains I was ok, they got warm but held and worked fine. in 95% of hypermiling driving you will be ok.

[ksa8907]

Brake cooling? I recall reading a statement that when they were testing the intrepid as a police vehicle the test was multiple runs at WOT to 100mph then hard on the brakes to a complete stop, immediately start again. After I think 3 runs the brakes were glowing and one test car actually had something in the wheel well catch fire. They revised the brake rotor for better cooling. Obviously you would never get your brakes this hot, unless you plan on driving like a hell-bent moron you'll be fine.

[PaleMelanesian]

As a hypermiler I work very hard to avoid needing to brake at all. As such, brake cooling is so far down my list of concerns it's not worth considering. How many emergency braking events do you have in a normal drive? Even if you have one, you're not likely to power up to 100 and brake down again immediately after the fact.

Just to test one time, I arrived at work after my 10 mile commute. I reached around and was able to comfortably brush, then touch, then GRAB the brake rotor with my bare hand.

[oil pan 4]

This is why I stuck with OEM wheel covers.
I used chevy luminia wheel covers and these wheel covers were used on luminia cop cars.

My brakes get used quite a bit with a trailer.

[woodstock74]

Thanks for the reality check everyone!