brake pad shims

[Zulfiqar]

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

[Gilly]

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

[Zulfiqar]

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

[JamesDean]

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?

[Zulfiqar]

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.

[JamesDean]

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.

[Gilly]

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

[Zulfiqar]

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 I simply used one shim per pad with antisieze as antisqueal.

[tyl604]

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.