I got home last night from motoring and noticed how cruddy my wheels were. So I dragged out the hose, brush, etc and washed them.

What else I noticed was that the wheels (not brake rotors) steamed when I sprayed them with water. Is that normal? Do MINI brakes run that hot that they'll transfer that much heat to the wheels?

I've noticed a lot of ambient heat around the car when I park it but I thought it was coming from the exhaust or supercharger. Now I'm wondering if I'm just feeling the heat from the wheels and brakes.

The brakes don't seem to drag at all. It rolls easily and the mileage is decent - if I keep my foot out of it...

 

Everything gets warm. The rubber tires heat up from all the flexing and rubbing they do. The wheels get hot from the rubber as well as from proximity to the brakes - likely to get some heat from the discs transferred via the hub.

 

All wheels in all cars get hot while driving....so don't be licking them.... it'll hurt....

Seriously....the people that REALLY know brakes talk in terms of changing energy (wheel motion) into heat and then having to dissipate it. The brake system is a heat sink.

 

Word of caution in case you didn't know -

Don't wash your wheels when they are hot, doing so could cause the rotors to warp.

My apologies if this was known already

 

Right. I know about changing the kinetic energy to heat. What I'm not familiar with is this much heat being generated. I have 32" tires on my Jeep and the brakes don't get anywhere near as hot after stopping those as the ones on the MINI get.

I guess I won't worry about it then. And thanks for the reminder about the hot rotors and cold water. I don't usually wash the wheels right after a drive, but they were just really cruddy looking last night.

 

Hey Cory, get used to cruddy looking wheels! Washing them every 100 miles appears to be the norm unless you swap brake pads.

There are lots of threads about caring for your wheels. Good luck.

regards,
Red

 

Hugh??? These have to be designed to get wet. It rains all the time and the breakes get hot within a few stops. What you talking about.