I'm changing out my brake pads and was wondering if I need all the pad shims when I put it back together. I have the pistons pushed all the way in and don't have clearance to put both of the stock shim pads in on each pad. There is a flat shim that is directly on the pad then there is another that goes on the outside of that shim with tangs on both ends that hook over the pad and an arrow that points forward. I was thinking of leaving the flat shim pad out? Any thoughts? Wear the pads down a little then put it in? What does everyone think? By the way I'm putting in the Project MU pads.

 

Hmmm, I have all the shims with my setup. Try again, you might have some luck. If you are gonna leave one out, make it the bigger of the two. The smaller one is the toe in shim to reduce noise and engage the brakes properly.

-Kevin

 

do project Mu pads come with shims for the STi, or are you referring something else?

 

The project Mu pads don't come with any shims. The shims I'm refeing to are the ones that came off the stock pads.

 

Kevin, you know the setup I'm about to use, SCR Pro up front, SCR in the back, and Titan KAI all around. Should I retain all of the stock shims?

 

I did.

-Kevin

 

coo thanks

 

I was just replacing the rear pads (05 STi) with Porterfeild R4's (which I had used before, with both shims, and dont recall any issues with space), but despite my most coercive efforts they wouldnt fit with both shims in place. We decided to only include the little angled silvery one with the arrow. They seem to be working fine but was curious if there were any repercussions to having only the one shim?

Thanks

F

 

i had the same prob on my STi this morning..... i ended up leaving out the little pie shaped shim and installing the bigger one.... im using DS2500's on the front... i tried for almost an hour this morning to get them both to fit.... just wasnt gonna happen... drove it around today and it seems fine.. what do you think?

 

bump...

I'm running R4-S on my Brembos but I'm getting some pretty bad squeal under light braking now after a track day. I have both shims in all around. I'm getting a bit of pad knockback too... which is weird under street driving conditions... my pads "clack" sometimes after I haven't used them for a while.

Any suggestions? Maybe I have to bed them in again...

 

bump..... So no one has info on the shims for the Brembos?

 

The shims are intended to reduce noise. The small wedge pad is to "toe-in" the pad upon contact to help reduce squeal. The larger pad helps take up space to reduce clunking associated with race brakes whoes pads are held in place by pins and can be removed without taking off the caliper. I removed all of the shims on mine when I ran them to make pad changes easier. I now run Alcon 6 pots up front these days. For all the STI owners out there who track there cars regularly, do you not like the excessive pedal travel under hard braking? This is because Subaru uses the same master cylinder as the Stock WRX uses. We are currently replacing the OE unit on my STI with the master Cylinder off the Evo. It is a larger casting with a bigger piston. Most Evo owners have no pedal travel issues due to this. Even when upgrading to the Alcon 6 pot units. I will give an update for everyone soon. Besides a confidence factor here, the primary reason for replacement, is the dificulty with heel/toe driving.

-Kevin

 

thanks Kevin for giving a great explaination on the shims...