Brake Dust Shield

[Parrot of Doom]

Driving along today and the usually serene peace and quiet that accompanies my drives was interrupted by a pretty loud squealing, grating noise. Turns out that the offside front brake dust shield has somehow come completely loose, and is rubbing against the disc, and possibly the inside of the alloy.

I nursed it home and parked up. Before I tackle the job tomorrow, can I run the car without it until I get a replacement (if damaged beyond repair)? Also, is replacing it a particularly big job? I've done discs/pads before now so am not concerned about removing the disc.

[John N]

Driving along today and the usually serene peace and quiet that accompanies my drives was interrupted by a pretty loud squealing, grating noise. Turns out that the offside front brake dust shield has somehow come completely loose, and is rubbing against the disc, and possibly the inside of the alloy.

I nursed it home and parked up. Before I tackle the job tomorrow, can I run the car without it until I get a replacement (if damaged beyond repair)? Also, is replacing it a particularly big job? I've done discs/pads before now so am not concerned about removing the disc.

I can't see you will have any problem running without a 'brake dust shield' for a while. After all the other side of the brake disk is open to the elements where you can see it through the wheel. You will probably have to take the brake disc off to get it free, as they are often clamped in place by the calliper mounting bolts.

John N

[Manc]

Driving along today and the usually serene peace and quiet that accompanies my drives was interrupted by a pretty loud squealing, grating noise. Turns out that the offside front brake dust shield has somehow come completely loose, and is rubbing against the disc, and possibly the inside of the alloy.

can I run the car without it until I get a replacement (if damaged beyond repair)? Also, is replacing it a particularly big job? I've done discs/pads before now so am not concerned about removing the disc.

This happened to me last year, the o/s/f.. terrible sound but was in a driveway so jsut looked underneath, saw it and just twisted it off, quite easy as it was hanging on by a quarter of what it should do... 2 bolts looked part of the bodywork anyway so maybe a pair of tin-snips will suffice... a new shield is quite expensive so i left mine off.. i try to remember to turn wheel before washing it to hose behind the calipers but i always forget... i doubt she'll last another decade anyway so you shouldn't have any troubles

My heatsheild above my driver side tailpipe has just done the same thing but is balancing on the pipe now... its completely free but i cant pull it out without force so its staying there to do its job... the new ones are very expensive for the size of the metal.... the only scrapper i found had no wheels & was sat on its exhausts with another car on top so i presumed they'd be no good either!! isn't that typical....

it doesnt rattle that often and its not loud when it does so again.. its staying where it is for now

[TigerFish]

I had this happen on my mk1 GS. If the LS is the same, then there were a couple of tricky bits when I replaced it. First was the little bolts that hold it on were rusted in real bad, one would not come out and broke off. The other is that the plate is a fully closed circle around the hub, so I ended up cutting a slot out so that I could wangle it into place over the hub etc. No idea how much the plates cost, as I had complete spare front hub units for the car, so didn't need to buy them.

[thatfatbloke]

Spooky - exactly the same thing happened to me not long after I got my LS in February. 'Orrible noise it was!!. As I took the wheel off the dust shield fell off completely. Have never got round to replacing it as advice given on here was of the 'non urgent' tone. Will do it one day when my new hip allows me to get down there.

[Parrot of Doom]

Thanks all, it was chucking down for most of today so I haven't done the job yet. I'll report back with a picture or two, to demonstrate exactly what's happened, so others might avoid the same problem.

[Parrot of Doom]

heh. It just fell off when I removed the wheel.

I don't think I can save it!

[steve2006]

Oh I don't know,you need to be more optimistic, you can borrow my MIG welder if you want and just buy me a new roll of wire and a bottle of gas

[steve2006]

I don't understand it mine still have the original paint on and it's a 1994. I don't know if it's because it spent its first 11 years in a more favourable climate in Japan, the fact that it gets jetwashed there every year after the roadsalt winter or a combination of both.

[bazgtr]

Funny thing about this is I bought my mother a ls400 1999 model to run around in and since ownership I have removed two of these dust shields because they have rusted badly but the area around them is OK.

Funny thing my ls400 from 1993 which has covered twice as many miles(200k plus) has no such problems with the brake shields.

Baz.

[Parrot of Doom]

Sometimes they just get damaged, rocks thrown at them, bent while people are working on them, etc. It doesn't take much for rust to get hold.

I have the replacement but the disc has to come off and I haven't had chance to sort it yet.