I'm getting hooked on the track days, and in need of better braking / brake cooling. The TCE 11.75 race kit looks promising, but here's the catch. My MINI is my year round daily driver in nothern Vermont. So, the brakes would be subjected to driving in salt / sand covered roads all winter (at least 4 months) and the opportunities to clean the crap out of the brakes would be pretty much zero - I'm not thrilled about the idea of taking wheels off and cleaning things when the high temperatures for the day are around 20 F.

Would I be detroying the calipers if I tried to run them in salt / sand covered roads, without cleaning, for months on end?

Part of the reason for looking at the small brake kit is to make life easier for buying snow tires / winter wheels. I currently have 15" winter wheels. I wouldn't mind too much if I had to go to 16", I'm not going to 17".

 

I am sure Todd with chime in, but race kits usually infer lack of rubber boots - and require regular maintainence.

Alex

 

you probably would want to take them off for the winter and replace in the spring.... unfortunately....

 

Thanks for the info... that's what I thought. Guess I should be looking at the slightly bigger non-race kit. I don't think I want to deal with changing brake hardware twice a year.

 

Call me on Tuesday after this weekends race, ask nicely, and I'll see if I can get you the booted calipers in the kit instead. Pretty sure I can pull that one off. Beware: hard track use may melt them however....no promises.

*A second set of caliper 'could' be had but you'd be looking at another $500 or so. I don't think it's money well spent.

 

This thread is really help me lots. I am thinking the same problem.
I use my car in daily use even if it rains and snows.
My living area doesn't snow so much but scatter salt and calcium cyanamide on road during winter.
How oftern do I have to maintain the brake kits?
What kind of maintanace is necessary ?

 

Simply keeping things clean is the only real issue. Allowing such things to build up on aluminum is going to degrade them in time. Any aluminum.

The booted version of the caliper may put your mind at ease over the non booted model. The rest of the parts are pretty much like any other brake- rusty rotors etc.

Keep in mind that while some of this may be of concern and is certainly worth some thought it's not like things rot and or fall off the car in a year just because they aren't designed for the rigors of all weather application that the stock parts are intended to endure.