Hey all,

I recently upgraded my rotors/pads and am getting some awful squealing when coming to a stop. I mean, it is LOUD. I put some anti-squeal compound on the back of the pads and somehow it seems worse.

So now I'm thinking the OEM shims were not put back on. I called my local Infiniti dealer who said the shims are part of a pin and cross kit, and cost about $30. Does that sound right? I'd hate to place the order and get the wrong part. That said, does anyone know anywhere else that I can get the OEM shims for a good price? I know the dealerships are marking up at least 200%.

Thanks,
B

 

Yes that's right. The front and rear kits will consists of the pad shims and brand new brass colored shim brakets that go onto the caliper. They are around $30 each.

 

What brake setup do you have? I am having a large problem with my Stoptech rotors and Hawk pads. The sound can be described as a metal crackle. I am having another dealership look at them.

My thread about the issue:

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-suspension/174674-higher-mileage-gis-any-suspension-creaks-crackles.html

 

I have the ST AeroRototors and Axxiss Ultimates. The same setup StopTech sells in their BBK. The squeal is just obnoxious and embarrassing. I will get the shim kit and see if that helps.

Does anyone know which anti-squeal compound is best? The one I got from Advance Auto doesn't seem to help at all, so I'm wondering which brand you guys have had good luck with.

Thanks,
B

 

Shims are tuned acostically to match oem pads and rotor metallurgy, selecting another pad often means redesigning shims to gain the most noise reduction.

Manufacturers of shims will conduct the necessary test to develop a suitable product for $25-50,000................why aftermarket pads never have decent tuned for exact vehicle shims. Something they forget to mention in their ads.

 

So is the answer to get Oem pads?

 

While OEM pads may help, I'm not sure they're the solution since Q45tech's post said the OEM shims help with the OEM rotors and pads in unison. Our ST rotors throw that formula out of balance...

 

The Nissan Brake Assist System requires that oem pads be matched to soft oem rotors to gain the 1/4 second of excessive friction ramp up..........changing pads and rotors can have a dramatic effect the first 1/4 second of panic braking - lengthening the panic stop distances from 60-80 mph by up to 22-33 feet.

The problem is most peoples legs don't exert full force during the first 1/2 second of a panic application and non oem pads are not formulated to ramp the friction up so fast..........why oem dust so much the carbon graphite dust.

Instead of a fully electro mechanical extra force creation ramp up [expensive and less reliable] Nissan took the less expensive and relied partially on pads and rotors to take some of the work.

http://www.brakeassist.com/

 

I used the OEM Brembo pad shims on the Axxis Ultimates. I used spray on CRC anti squeak compound and had no noise.

 

Magazine braking test are sometimes cheated in that they don't start measuring the distance until a certain amount of deceleration is begun plus the drivers are trained on the car and have strong leg muscles [their job to test cars].

"The test drivers were provided by each test facility to determine if different drivers could consistently attain rapid brake pedal applications.A target pedal of 100 lbs. within 0.1 seconds of activation of the vehicle's stop lamp circuit was used as in the Phase I effort, with each driver instructed to target 150 lbs. of brake pedal force thereafter.Only the TRC driver was able to consistently achieve 100 lbs. of pedal force in 0.1 seconds. Results comparing various brake pedal application rates showed that in some cases, brake pedal application rates slower than 100 lbs. in 0.2 seconds resulted in longer stopping distances and/or increased standard deviation.It was also found that in order to achieve rapid brake application, as the TRC driver did, that the 150 lbs. pedal force target would be exceeded, with pedal forces peaking at approximately 250 lbs. momentarily..................................."

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/proble...se2/COVER.html

http://www.csgnetwork.com/stopdistinfo.html

 

Hey Gilley, where'd you get the CRC spray-on anti-squeal? And which rotors do you have?

Thanks,
B

 

I got the CRC spray from the local auto parts store. It sprays a red tacky substance. At the time, I had my custom big brake kit that retained the stock Brembos.

 

ST does not make pads to sit in unison with their rotors, so the base of the problem might be the rotor. ST does sell other manufactures’ pads on their site, but I am guessing these pads will create the same noise. It is a shame; these rotors are the more expensive options, I believe.

When my car is in the shop, I will have them make sure there are OEM shims on my Hawk pads. I will also have them put anti squeal in there.

The thing that gets me is that my noise is not a whistle, it is a crackle. It sounds like there is sand or pop rocks when I have warm brakes. Some times, it happens when I am not braking. The only thing I can think of is that there are no shims on my brakes now, so the pad is moving around more.

 

Yeah I'm not sure what to tell you about the crackle. I only have the squeal to deal with. Good luck...if you solve your problem be sure to let us know what fixed it.

As for the pads available on the StopTech site, check out the link below. The pads I got are the first ones shown at the top of the list. When I called and spoke with the tech, he said Axxiss Ultimates were the pads they recommended most for performance, noise and reliability reasons. The trade off is the amount of dust they generate....and I can vouch they're dustier than OEM. But I didn't expect this insanely obnsoxious squealing noise....I'm hoping it's the fact that I may not have the shims.

http://www.stoptech.com/products/hig...nce_pads.shtml

-B

 

Do you really think there's that much difference in going to an aftermarket rotor, but keeping the OEM Brembo pads?