D'oh

So I finally installed new rear brake pads (stayed stock for one more round) and have a couple questions (Non-Brembo version):

1. The instructions say that when replacing pads it is best to replace the shims as a set. Does this mean that you should actually buy new shims, or does it just mean to keep the shims (two per pad) matched together and to the caliper? I never did bother to get new shims; I just made sure to put the shims back in the same location they came from.

2. Another step is to put PBC based grease or Silicone based grease on the back of the pad and on the shims. I was not able to find any grease of that type, and all the Auto Parts stores have sticky gluey stuff to put back there instead of grease. The original pads definitely had some sort of grease on them, so I simply scraped off as much as I could and reused it. Next time I'll probalby just use the crap from the Auto Parts store, but I was wondering if any of you had recommendations. Does anyone know what the point of the grease is?


Other than those two minor points, the swap was very simple. I jacked up the car with a floor jack placed under the rear diff, and found that my jack stands were too tall. I therefore used some stacked 2x4's to hold up the car in case the jack moved. After removing the tires there was only a single bold that needs to be removed, and then the floating caliper can pivot out of the way and the pads can be snapped out of the torque transfer member. I snapped the shims off, put them on the new pads, then snapped the pads back in. After replacing the single bolt, the final step was to put the rear wheel back on. It was very easy and probably took an hour or so for both wheels (mainly because I was screwing around trying to reuse the grease).


D'oh!

PS - I have a set of used rear pads if anyone wants them.

D!

D'oh

No one knows about the grease?

How about when installing track pads...do you need to put grease or the polygrip on those even though they'll be swapped out when the track day is over?

Beuller?....Beuller?....Anyone?....Hello?....Is this thing on?

-D'oh!

D'oh

Ok you non-responding bastards:

The PBC Grease is used to help keep the brakes and shims quiet.

Silicone based grease is used primiarily in thermally conductive paste and Adult Personal Lubricants (thanks Google!).

So, I'm guessing that all you need is a high temperature, thermally conductive grease to help keep the shims from rattling around against the pads, and to help "glue" everything together.

If one were to swap pads often, it would probably be best to stick with the greases instead of going to the standard brake pad "glue" which gets quite tacky. I think it would be tough to swap pads once the "glue" sets up.

I hope we all learned something today (like if you run out of grease and have an emergency brake pad change, you can always bust out the Adult Personal Lubricant to finish the job....the BRAKE job people).


Thanks for nothing you slackers!!

-D'oh!

westpak

iTrader: (19)

Well I don't think it was slackers but that you actually had a question that required some knowledge and not a beanhead opinion otherwise I am sure you would have gotten plenty of responses, thanks for the information.

Desmo

Hehe, I agree actual knowledge is something this board is short on.

I would bet that eliminating rattles is the primary reason the factory greased the back of the pads. The rear brakes shouldn't get that hot so the thermal conductivity part would be a secondary consideration. I think you would be fine not including any type of grease or tackiness; most other cars get by fine with "dry" installs of pads.

I'm more interested in why you had to change the rear pads already. Lots of cars go their whole life without wearing out a set of rear pads.

Desmo

D'oh

Hehe, just giving everyone a hard time. I probably should have posted in the "racing" forum to see if any of the hardcore racing pad swapper types had any info.

I had about 3mm left on the rear pads, and the replacement limit is 2mm. I have 12,500 miles, 3 AutoX's and 2 track days at Laguna Seca. I think it was Laguna that caused the most of the wear. I'll be checking the fronts this weekend but when I last had my oil canged the shop said I had about 35%-40% left on the fronts (the front pads are thicker than the rears, so that may be why they lasted longer).

I'll be checking the fronts this weekend to see if I need to replace those too.

I looked around a bit more, and it looks like the "tacky" stuff I got from the AutoParts store may actually be PBC grease, even though it doesn't specifically say so. In any case, I've found that Nissan also stocks PBC grease, so if I get real **** I can buy some from them (if they actually sell it).

-D'oh!