Are rear brake pad dampers required?
 

I am doing a brake job on my 2007 Porsche Boxster S. When I took out the pads on the REAR brake caliper, there were two round pad dampers on each side of the brake caliper (the front brake pads have a one piece pad damper). I have tried the dealership, Suncoast and Pelican, and they all don't list these round rear brake dampers for my car. When I search Suncoast for the 986 Boxster, they do list these dampers, but then you have to figure out if it is 28mm or 30mm (I have no idea what these numbers measure since the pads are about 44mm).

Here is the question, for those of you that have replaced your brake pads, do you re-use the old dampers, buy new ones, or not even use them anymore? What is the purpose of these dampers? I have never seen them on any American car I have worked on.

I have watched some of the YouTube videos on changing Porsche brake pads, and I don't see anyone using these dampers. Are they needed? Thanks.

They lessen the squealing and reduce the amount of noise/grinding/vibration transfered from the rotor/pad to the fixed calipers... makes for smoother and quiter brakes. If you seperate them from the pads without damaging them and they still look ok you can re-use them, but for the price you can just buy some new one. I'm pretty sure these are the 28mm ones
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I didn't even re-install the anti-sqeal pads on the front of my '06. No noises with EBC Red pads.