brake pad shims
 

My car has single piston Lucas brake calipers at the front - and I had to change the pads on it.

There were about a total of 8 shims on the pads - how many do I need anyway - as the new pads would not fit with all of them, I used 1 shim per pad - so squeal or sound etc

WOW never seen more than 1 shim. Assuming you mean the one between the pad and piston.

Yes sir - I had 4 shims per pad - they were razor thin and annoying to work with.

Could you have not put them in and then stepped on the brake pedal to force the pistons inwards to pick up the extra space?

With the piston fully pushed in and all shims in place I could not get the caliper over the new pads even with brute force. The old pads removed were mintex brand and also had a sticker on the back of them that is supposed to be an antisqueal thing.

I think I was confused.

Why would one need to put 4 shims per pad? Why wouldn't someone just let the caliper piston take up the space?

I dont think any of my cars have shims on their pads.

Maybe just something they came up with they thought was better, if they were really thin like he says.

The W124 floating caliper does use shims, e.g. if you buy autozone pads you will see it comes with sheet metal clipped on its back, that is the shim. I however used the box of textars I had in my parts bin

my car had super sharp literally razor thin shims 4 per pad - annoying as heck, cut up my mechanix gloves :mad: I simply used one shim per pad with antisieze as antisqueal.

My 81 300SD has always had shims. I spray the blue stuff on it and let it get tacky before sticking it to the brake pad. Lost one once (or something - not sure) and made one from a tin can lid. It worked just fine; may still be in there. Think they are in there to prevent rattle.