Brake pads and shims

[Pdwight]

I want to revisit this, so pardon if this has been covered to death and rehashed like a Taylor Swift vocal. My brakes on my S are two years old, I used Red Stuff pads and 90%+ remain as they have less than 5K miles on them. I do seemed to have very noisy brakes in the past summer and they were stone silent for over a year an half after I did my brake job. The noise or squeal comes only on very light braking like when you are backing in or maneuvering in a parking lot. High speed braking is stone quiet and dead straight with no vibration ( during the brake job I installed new Bosh rotors all the way around). But now with the new noise it is so annoying I have purchased all new components , New Akebono ceramic pads, new hardware including the strange adhesive backed shims and new springs and pins. Before I dive into this I have read that some do not even replace the shims ??

So my question is Install new pads and let them ride against the pistons directly or what ??

I Like the Red Stuff pads, I have had them on my E36 for over 5 years and 35K miles with no noise or problems.

I sincerely appreciate the help.

Dwight

[Smallblock454]

Hello Dwight,

as from my experience with cheap stuff. Throw it away. BTW: Bosch doesn't manufacture most of the brake rotors themselves.

I've used Sebro rotors (local manufacturer in my area and definitely good german quality - could take a look at the production facility) in combination with Remco brake pads. And i didn't use new self adhesive dampeners that time (old ones couldn't be reused - rusted away, had no time to get new ones, because brakes had to be done that day and i just put some brake paste between brake cylinders and pads and also on the duct for the brake pads).

Result. Car brakes, but on a weekend in the black forest with some other guys i went into a fading problem i've never had before with that car. No noise at all.

So i replaced the mid/low priced Remco bake pads with Brembo HP 2000 and installed the OEM Porsche adhesive dampeners and used DOT 5.1 brake fluid instead of DOT 4.

First thing i noticed is that this combination brakes much better, because you have much more initial bite.

Second thing i noticed is that the brake rotors don't show these sign marks. I think that is because the Brembo calipers are designed to pull the brake pads back from the rotors.

Third thing: no more fading.

Noise can be caused by different things. If the brake pads are too hard these dampeners will definitely help eliminate noise.

I would just check if every thing runs freely and clean the ducts and regrease them with brake paste. Also i would check if the expanding spring has enough tension and a little bit brake paste will also help.

If there is still noise maybe you should drive the car as it's meant to be driven, because maybe the brake pads are vitrified (hope that is the right english term). If they are vitrified you can sand them down a little bit.

As far as i know the original EBC red stuff have beveled corners on the outside of the friction pad itself. This also helps to reduce noise.

Regards, Markus

[Pdwight]

Thanks, I have put Bosch on several family cars and my E36 with great luck....I have no vibration at all that can be felt either in the pedal or felt when braking hard, the wear on the rotors are extremely even with no scoring. I guess I will just reassemble it and put everything back together with all new hardware including shims and sensors. Did I mention how much I hate peeling the back off the shims and trying to get them just right as you put the pad in place without it sticking too quickly. I have several friends who run the Akebono Japanese pads on their 128, and 335 BMW with great luck....not a trashy pad IMHO