R4-S ordered today

 

I use Porterfield R4-S pads on "everything", they perform without fail. I've been putting them on cars for several years, always with great success.

Aside from the pads themselves, grooves & lips on the rotors will contribute to the squeal as will the pad not fully releasing from the rotor surface.

Some manufacturers like Porsche have developed pieces that glue to the back of the pads and clip into the pistons in the caliper to make sure the pads release without delay.

Some of the pad hang up can be attributed to brake dust build up inside the calipers. Making sure everything is well clean and lubricated, the rotors are fresh and R4-S pads installed is a winning combination.

 

Sorry Sunir, I meant to reply sooner..just crazy busy.

So..the rears you ask?? It turned into quite the operation. Where do I start... When we last left our hero he had just installed the front pads and totally eliminated the squeal coming from the front. Just had to change the rears now.

When I got the rear pads I noticed that they came with a metal shim/anti squeal pad sort of glued onto the back of the pad. The fronts did not have this. I just reused the OEM shim on the front after greasing both sides of it..again eliminating any issue from the front. So I was a bit confused about the rear when I saw this shim that was attached to the pad. I decided to leave it attached and reuse the oem shim as well. Greasing between the shims..hope that makes sense. I reassembled like this and after about 10 miles the car started squealing again from the rear..worse then ever. I called my tech at my dealer about the shim situation and asked what he suggested. The tech did not think the squeal had anything to do with that, instead he asked me about the "lip" on the rotor..both inside and outside. He said alot of times pads with ride up on those lips and sing pretty bad. That sounded to me like what was going on. I did not have a huge lip...but there is a bit of a lip there. And the noise was what he was describing. Not so much squeal but more of a really high pitched "ringing". I then took the brakes back apart and touched off the edges of the pads on my belt sander to give them a little bevel to keep the edges off that lip..crossing my fingers that this would solve it. Again...after about 10 miles they were singing away again. Back to work I went and this time I started messing with the shims. First I took out the OEM shim and used only the shim that was attached to the pad when I got them. Worse then ever! Horrible! Finally I pryed off the shim that was glued to the back of the pad and only used the OEM shim..again greasing both sides. Reassembled and FINALLY! FIXED! Totally quiet..both front and rear. The pads are great. Very good brake feel and little dust. I would recommend you have your guy do that little chamfer to the pads. I'm not sure how much of a lip your rotors have, but it takes 2 minutes to do and could save you a headache down the road.

I hope yours goes a bit easier then mine, I'm just thrilled the problem is behind me. Good luck!

 

UPDATE: okay guys got the R4-S put in...car is MUCH better. There is still a slight squeel at the very end of braking just as the car comes to a complete stop, it's just a little squeak, nothing major. Also at very low speeds, like parking lot speeds just slowly moving, there is a slight harmonic noise. My front rotors are near new, the rears are new, no lip or edge on them. I talked to Porterfield and they said it was okay, and that the pads needed to seat on the rotor, there's no break in procedure they told me just to drive the car...and that after some more miles when the pads seat to the rotors fully they should be completely silent. I did not have factory shims, were on the factory pads discarded after the EBC reds went on, which were removed for the Porterfields. As such we used the shims that came with the porterfields, and they said this was fine and to do exactly that... I only have a few miles on the car since the pad swap, I'd say like 28 or so miles...but will put more miles on over the weekend...will keep everyone posted on my observations! thanks to all that have contributed on this thread I really think there is a lot of value and solid info in this discussion.

 

Thanks for the update. Can you remind me, do they fit the stock brake wear sensors?

 

^^^ I guess so... I didn't do the work myself, tech did the work...I don't see why they wouldn't though...

 

Check my post at the beginning of this thread.

 

Thanks, knew the info was around somehwere but was a) rushed and b) lazy . Where did you guys buy your pads? Direct? So far I have not found a Canadian source for them so may buy corss-border.

 

+1 on the Porterfield R4-S pads. Installed mine last weekend and there is absolutely no squeal at all. I reused the stock shims and use generous amounts of anti-seize. They definitely throw dust, possibly less than stock, not sure yet. The stock pads that I replaced were squealing a bit at low speeds and the rotors were grooved a bit but still in good shape. Per the manufacturer's instructions I did not perform any break in procedure and it feels like they fit like a glove.

 

Great to hear. Maybe you guys can send some Rep Power my way.

 

Already done waaaay before this

 

I'll give you one too just for the heck of it. (And for the 310 renderings on PH)

 

Karl I just added to your rep also. well done buddy. You have been a valuable contributer to this forum. As a mod I appreciate that.