Rear Brake Disc Shield

[pandaman]

Had a go at replacing a rear bearing recently and whilst at it found the brake dust shield hanging on by a thread around the 3 bolts.

Broke off completely with very little force whereas the bolts did not. Decided not to replace at the time, didn't want to bugger up the 3 bolt heads, i was losing light and euro car parts is about half an hour away.

Surprisingly, only a few days later the other side came loose, it sounded like the exhaust had fallen off! Jacked it up, tin snipped the thin connecting part and yanked it off.

Googling a few posts on here, some say they're not completely necessary and to replace them i'd have to take off the bearings.

Anyone else running without them? whats the worst i could expect not replacing them?

[GVK]

Just had a pair on mine, they're £27 each + vat from TPS genuine parts, yes the hubs and brake carriers need removing to fit them.

Many people just leave them off, I left them off on my mk2 Golf. Only thing I can see would be more corrosion on inner disc as no guard to stop the puddles splashing on the inner egde of disc? 

[pudding]

VW put them there for a reason.  If you don't know what the consequences of removing them are, it's probably better to leave them in place?

[GVK]

That was my thinking tbh. 

[terrier]

cutting the flat section off will help but dont leave any exposed metal

[rich83]

VW put them there for a reason.  If you don't know what the consequences of removing them are, it's probably better to leave them in place?

I ran my car for about a year maybe longer with no rear shields. Not ideal but no ill effects. I figured I was going to wait to do the rear bearings and shields all at the same time. I still don't have shields on the front.

The screws can be a bugger to get off. If you have trouble, then driving them around with a punch and hammer should work.

[Octoparrot]

cutting the flat section off will help but dont leave any exposed metal

I did this with mine with no ill effects.

[LC5F]

I'm running aftermarket galvanised pressed steel ones that should be a lot less susceptible to rust.

When I converted to Scirocco alloy hubs I had to remove bearings from 2 sets of rear hubs, all 4 times the bearings came off by hand without puller or any fuss - the inner race did not separate, so no damage

Personally, its a lot more work, but I would just dive in and take off the bearing... but the nightmare I had was the caliper carrier bolts.