Hey all!
When I was at Mid-Ohio, I went through my DS2500 pads very quickly and noticed that the edges of the pad were curling out due to excessive heat. A fellow M2 owner and forum member suggested that I remove the brake disc shields to allow more airflow. Before doing so, I wanted to understand the trade off. I found that these are helpful for directing water and mud away from the brake disc while also protecting the ball joints from the brake disc heat. The water and mud I am not so concerned with, but the heat I am.
I looked for examples of vehicles that did not have any brake disc shields or ones that were not fully covering the disc. A couple examples below:
Ferrari 458: No brake shields. No exposed rubber ball joints
Porsche GT3: Minimal brake shields. No exposed rubber ball joints
Dodge Viper: No brake shield. Exposed rubber ball joints, and complaints of them failing or even catching fire. Aftermarket shield kits are available.
The most interesting of all is the Camaro 1LE vehicles that have only brake shields that cover the closest ball joint (tie rod end). The 6th gen Camaro suspension is similar to the F8x chassis with two lower ball joints on the steering knuckle. See the thread here.
https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=602552
The 2022 standard SS comes with a brake shield that covers both lower ball joints. The track prep manual requires the operator to swap to the lower coverage shields per the Owners manual. Links Below. So I think the best case solution for the M2 is to keep the ball joints covered (or just one). Some good shots of the GM suspension in this video
From this picture of the M2 suspension, compared to the Camaro6 forum post, it looks like the M2 mounting position is directly on the tie rod end. Where the Camaro one is inboard, so it is unlikely the bolt holes will align or be close. The M2 looks like it has a closer tie rod end ball joint as well which is going to be subject to more heat just like the Camaro
Has anyone ever tried to retrofit the GM parts or trim the stock shield so it only covers the tie rod end ball joint? It looks like the GM parts might come close to fitting, and they are low cost enough to try. This would work well with the Porsche control arm air deflectors because it covers the exposed ball joint while allowing air flow from the deflector attached to the control arm.
https://parts.chevrolet.com/product/...=432&year=2018
https://parts.chevrolet.com/product/...023&bac=218363
https://www.chevrolet.com/content/da...ackPREP-R3.pdf Top of page 2
https://cdn.dealereprocess.org/cdn/s...023-camaro.pdf Page 180