The OEM shims don't fit the front Hawk pads correctly. They will not seat correctly on any front pad. I decided to leave them off since I thought it would be worse to put on a part that doesnt fit right.

Anyone else have this issue. Is it very bad to leave the shims off?

Any suggestions from those that have done this before?

 

Mine are left off. Only issue is my car squeels when they heat up.

 

I dont know. I didn't want to mess up with the brakes so i had the dealer install them so i'm not sure what they did. They didn't tell me they left anything off though. No squeeling at all here.

 

The front pads appear to have a shim on them already and I have read some posts to confirm this. I sent email to Hawk to get the official answer on what to do about the OEM shims.

No squeal during bedding or normal use though.

 

Here is your answer. You have to grind or sand off excess. They dont fit correctly from the factory. I havent had time to research this yet or call around. Im sure there must be a thread on this somewhere.

Just remove the part of the brake that is sticking out.

 

Here is the answer from Hawk:

John:
There are two different caliper set-ups on this car. You didn't mention if it was a street compound or a race compound. We do not put shims on race pads.
If you have stock calipers it takes our HB268 pad shape. If you have Brembo calipers on your car it would take our HB181 pad up front. We do not put shims on HB181's or on race compounds. However if you have the HB286F.665 pads it should have shims. That would be the only Hawk part number that comes with shims.
The only thing that shims are used for is for a noise dampener. If the pads are already installed and are quiet I wouldn't worry about it.
Thank you for using Hawk Performance pads.
Best Regards,
Bruce Berentz

Given the answer, I guess I'm good to go!

 

I guess I spoke too soon! This evening coming home the sqealing in rush hour traffic stop-and-go was bad. I need to get some anti-squeal spray or something.

It was really loud

 

I have Hawk HP+ Fronts and Hawk HPS rear pads that I only use for track days. Since the shims are only used for noise reduction I'm guessing I don't need any of the OEM shims when I track the car considering I can stand the brake squeel for a day or two?

 

Still no one has said anything about the fact the pads dont fit brembo calipers correctly some material must be removed what does hawk say about that ?

 

Go to the Hawk website. I emailed there tech support guy and he answered my questions within a couple of hours. He is sending me some additional shims that will fit the front pads to help get rid of the squeal.