I plan on installing Hawk HPS brakes on the front of an 05 base model Z. They appear to have a shim molded on to the new Hawk brakes? What do I do with the other shims from the factory brakes? Put them over them, or toss them? Any other special issues with installing the Hawk brakes?? Thanks!

 

it is my guess that the factory style shim came molded to the pad. That is how my stoptech pads came. Does the molded shim very closely resemble the OEM shim? if so I believe you are ok to just put some moly-lube or whatever anti-squeal you like on that molded shim and install the pads. You do not need to put the OEM shim over that molded shim. Hopefully someone who has installed the Hawk pads can chime in tho and verify my answer...

 

BTW moly-lube might not be the name of the anti-squeal you put on the back of the pads? I forgot what I had used but I thought it was called that.

 

They don't clip on like the factory shims, but are molded on. Since the Hawk pads are pretty thick, I thought putting the factory shims back on also might make things too tight??

 

I was doing some reading, and it seems half the people I read about used the OEM shims on top of it, and the other half didnt. There must be someone on here who has done the install with HPS pads themselves and can chime in...

my thoughts are that if there is a metal shim-material molded to the back of the brake pad, their intention was like that of stoptech pads - include a shim. Therefore my conclusion is to spray some anti-squeal on the back where it meets the piston, and do it up. If you did that, and they still squeal after a few, you can (if you are doing this yourself) pop the pads off and throw the shims on there with a bit more anti-squeal and see if that solves it.