Brake Pad Shields: Necessary or Not ???
05-28-2006, 12:30 AM
#1
Team Owner
Thread Starter
Brake Pad Shields: Necessary or Not ???
First of all ...... are the thin metal sheilds that are present on stock brake pads.....heat sheilds or antisquel sheilds.
Second.....are they necessary?? Do they actually prevent heat getting to the pads???
I have the HawkPlus pads and they dont come with them. Are you supposed to use them or not.
Thanks,
DH
Second.....are they necessary?? Do they actually prevent heat getting to the pads???
I have the HawkPlus pads and they dont come with them. Are you supposed to use them or not.
Thanks,
DH
05-28-2006, 01:29 AM
#2
Burning Brakes
Howie -- are you talking about the normal antisqueal shims that some pads come with, an aftermarket shim for heat, or just generically "should I shim my pads". The stock shims that I've seen don't really do s**t, for a variety of reasons.
Depending on what you're looking for / trying to accomplish, there's a couple different types of shims and reasons you'd want to shim your pads on a track -- Heat shielding is a common reason that most folk use with reasonable success, although there are also a few folk who use thicker shims so that the pistons stay largely in the caliper as the pads wear. Heat shielding material is normally an insulator, which will keep heat out of the pistons (but not the caliper as much as a whole)
Assuming that you keep your eye on pad wear, using a shim for heat shielding will help keep fluid from boiling off (but not alltogether stop it). For the tracks out here, you're largely talking about helping at Buttonwillow . . . but then again, you'll end up having more problems that just fluid boiling off at buttonwillow.
Depending on what you're looking for / trying to accomplish, there's a couple different types of shims and reasons you'd want to shim your pads on a track -- Heat shielding is a common reason that most folk use with reasonable success, although there are also a few folk who use thicker shims so that the pistons stay largely in the caliper as the pads wear. Heat shielding material is normally an insulator, which will keep heat out of the pistons (but not the caliper as much as a whole)
Assuming that you keep your eye on pad wear, using a shim for heat shielding will help keep fluid from boiling off (but not alltogether stop it). For the tracks out here, you're largely talking about helping at Buttonwillow . . . but then again, you'll end up having more problems that just fluid boiling off at buttonwillow.
Last edited by emf; 05-28-2006 at 01:32 AM.
05-28-2006, 01:45 AM
#3
Team Owner
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by emf
Howie -- are you talking about the normal antisqueal shims that some pads come with, an aftermarket shim for heat, or just generically "should I shim my pads". The stock shims that I've seen don't really do s**t, for a variety of reasons.
Depending on what you're looking for / trying to accomplish, there's a couple different types of shims and reasons you'd want to shim your pads on a track -- Heat shielding is a common reason that most folk use with reasonable success, although there are also a few folk who use thicker shims so that the pistons stay largely in the caliper as the pads wear. Heat shielding material is normally an insulator, which will keep heat out of the pistons (but not the caliper as much as a whole
Assuming that you keep your eye on pad wear, using a shim for heat shielding will help keep fluid from boiling off (but not alltogether stop it). For the tracks out here, you're largely talking about helping at Buttonwillow . . . but then again, you'll end up having more problems that just fluid boiling off at buttonwillow.
Depending on what you're looking for / trying to accomplish, there's a couple different types of shims and reasons you'd want to shim your pads on a track -- Heat shielding is a common reason that most folk use with reasonable success, although there are also a few folk who use thicker shims so that the pistons stay largely in the caliper as the pads wear. Heat shielding material is normally an insulator, which will keep heat out of the pistons (but not the caliper as much as a whole
Assuming that you keep your eye on pad wear, using a shim for heat shielding will help keep fluid from boiling off (but not alltogether stop it). For the tracks out here, you're largely talking about helping at Buttonwillow . . . but then again, you'll end up having more problems that just fluid boiling off at buttonwillow.
DH
05-28-2006, 03:00 AM
#4
Burning Brakes
eh, they'll cut out bit of vibration out, but that's about it (hence "anti-squeal") If you're trying to keep brakes from whistling or squealing . . . that's about the limit of what they'll help with. If you're trying to cut heat out . . . they won't help too much (yeah, they'll help a bit . . . but not as good as a real heat shield/shim)
Personally, not my cup of tea . . . but then again I've got bigger issues than noisy brake pads to deal with
Personally, not my cup of tea . . . but then again I've got bigger issues than noisy brake pads to deal with
05-28-2006, 11:52 AM
#5
Le Mans Master
Howie if you can get some backing plate shims made out of ceramic, that might help. Otherwise, what you need is brake COOLING!!! Read the autocross and roadracing board for advice.
05-28-2006, 11:51 PM
#6
Team Owner
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by 63Corvette
Howie if you can get some backing plate shims made out of ceramic, that might help. Otherwise, what you need is brake COOLING!!! Read the autocross and roadracing board for advice.
DH
